Family drivers of PH

[arj7]

Out of interest what car do you drive assuming you have one or two children?

I think when people have kids they are convinced they need a huge car but not sure if its true, the mrs is after an SUV but Im not sure we need it, I have a son who is 8 months old.

Im still debating what car to get as the wifes Golf is on its last legs, interested to hear what others drive

Thanks

[NiceCupOfTea]

When my daughter was born my wife had a Ford Puma for the first year or so! Kiddie seat in the front, job done. Was a bit of a struggle with the travel system thingie in the boot. She replaced it with a Nissan Qasqai which is miserable to drive but well equipped and a nice enough place to be. Big without being too big, and high enough so lifting kids in and out isn't hard on the back (although our daughter has climbed in herself for ages). Get leather - easy to wipe "stuff" off.

In that time, as a daily I have gone through a Saab 9000 (perfect family car), e36 BMW convertible (no problem at all with 3 doors, she climbed in herself without a problem, just can't have the passenger seat too far back), and now an e46 Touring which is perfectly good.

5 doors is easy, 3 is OK but can present a problem with wide opening coupe doors in car parks. Higher cars (SUVs) can save your back for very small kids but when they are older it makes no odds IMHO as they want to climb in and out themselves and actually can be harder with the taller cars. Of course there's the "higher driving position/safer (debateable!) angle but that is personal preference. Decent boot with wide/low loading for prams and massive "travel systems".

Absolutely no need for SUV type thing IMHO, but then I have no "need" for the 3.0 6-pot in my daily driver...

[mr_spock]

From birth to 18 and 15, I've had:

Vauxhall Omega (a 3.0 Elite, of course, no messing about)
Porsche 928 (decent rear seats for up to about a 12 year old)
Maserati GranSport (great rear seats)
Jeep Grand Cherokee (shed, but they got to school on snow days )
Jag X350
Range Rover L322

During this time my wife's had a Galaxy, a couple of Citroen C4 Grand Picassos and a couple of Merc B-classes.

The larger MPVs were more for carrying a wheelchair/scooter than kid stuff, although the 7 seaters were useful on the odd occasion.

[Amateurish]

Any modern 4/5 door will do. A Golf is just fine.

[arj7]

Amateurish said:

Any modern 4/5 door will do. A Golf is just fine.

The golf on the whole has been good, but there have been times where a bit more space would have been useful. We are planning to have another in the next year or two so would like something that could cater for that.

[Amateurish]

arj7 said:

Amateurish said:

Any modern 4/5 door will do. A Golf is just fine.

The golf on the whole has been good, but there have been times where a bit more space would have been useful. We are planning to have another in the next year or two so would like something that could cater for that.

We've used a Kia Soul for family duties for the past 7 years. Space wise, it's perfectly adequate for carting round two kids and their kit. I added a towbar for carrying bikes. A Golf is bigger that a Soul I think, so should be fine.

[spookly]

Cars I've had on family/commuter duties since having 2 kids, and more recently two *huge* dogs:

• Saab 9-3 Vector TiD
• VW Bora TDI S - commuter snotter/occasional kiddie use, bloody hateful thing. Put me off VW for years
• Fiat Coupe Turbo - Bit tuned. Ex stuffed it into a delivery miles Audi A6.
• E39 BMW 525d saloon - Superb car apart from 'hedgehog' issues. Swapped it for a motorbike.
• Range Rover - Just don't. Superbly comfortable, but as unreliable as it was comfortable.
• BMW 330ci Convertible - Dull. Engine didn't come alive until you really ragged it, and it still wasn't that fast.
• Jeep Grand Cherokee - Dependable. Cost peanuts to run. Used as workhorse/camping/family/dog truck.
• Merc E220 saloon - Comfortable cruiser. Bit dull. Did what it needed to.
• S4 B6 convertible - Sub 15mpg. Sounded great though.
• VW Golf R Estate - Good so far. Plenty of room, but growth of puppy will force a change to a van-alike vehicle in the next year. 22mpg average so far, but get almost 30mpg if I can manage to be sensible for a whole journey outside of town.

Personally, other than the baby stage when you have to carry prams etc, I don't think you need anything other than the required amount of seats and a moderate amount of luggage space. Day to day I have coped fine with 4 seat convertibles and two kids, but these probably wouldn't be ideal for babies..

I've spent years having a second car just for camping and occasional use, in hindsight it would have been cheaper to hire something larger when needed.

I always swore I'd never get a people carrier type wagon or a soft roader after kids. Closest I've come to breaking that is the RR and GC, but at least they are proper 4x4s even if I rarely take them anywhere more rugged than a camping field.

[Amateurish]

I should add that once they get to toddler stage and beyond, kids will trash the interior of any car they are in. So bear that in mind if you want to upgrade your motor!

[pembo]

When we found out our son was coming we had a Z4 so the necessity to have more than 2 seats meant that we swapped that for a 1series. There was more than enough space in that for us.
Then my wife decided she wanted a convertible again so she got a VW Beetle (I know!) and I got a van because I like to carry bikes about.
We have just found out we are having another child so the 3 seat van had to go and now we have a Mazda 6 estate so that I can still put the bikes in the back. I love having an estate and never want to go to an MPV so was very glad when the guy told me it was only one at the first scan!
The wife is still keeping the beetle and should be fine pottering about with the kids in it. If not I'm going to end up driving a light blue beetle convertible to building sites for a little while..... and I won't care what people think

[tankplanker]

For our first we thought that we'd be fine for a Saxo for the wife and a S3 for me, but it turned out to be twins and we couldn't fit in the double buggy into the Saxo or the S3. So we replaced the Saxo for a Picasso.

Since then we had a Grand Scenic, 5 series touring, Lexus RX, S-Max and now a XC90. Having something with 7 seats is useful for when they want to bring friends out for the day, even now when they are sixteen and it is boy/girlfriends.

We could have downsized once they were too large for the buggy but you get used to the space when going on holiday, particularly if you go camping (as we did, a lot when they were younger) or have active hobbies.

[jamiebae]

Range Rover Evoque here, but with two child seats in place the middle seat is useless for adults (too narrow) or children (no room for another seat or booster cushion) so it's going to be replaced in the not-too-distant future, probably with a Skoda Kodiaq.

Yes, you can cope with a Golf, but it depends on your lifestyle. We often have friends visiting and need the extra seta which baby number two has rendered useless, and the boot is marginal when you have a day's worth of ski kit in it, or a pushchair and balance bike.

If you just have a small buggy with little wheels that makes a big difference, but if you want one which works outside of town then they're pretty big and will almost fill the boot of a Golf.

[Torquey]

Civic - 2012.
Had it for 2 years since birth of baby and never once needed more space - even going on holiday for a week. Its unbelievable how much you can fit in it, for a medium sized hatchback.

Will probably replace it with a Type R, particularly as they are 5 door.

[GreatGranny]

If your wife wants a SUV then why not?

Something like a Q3/X3/Cr-V/Rav 4 have the same platform as mid sized cars but being taller have more room and you sit higher which I think is an advantage.

We have 3 kids so need more room.

Family cars as follows:

Mondeo TD (1 child)
Primera SRi (1 child)
V70 (2 children)
Alhambra TDi (3 children)
XC90
Avensis Estate (Thought we could manage with smaller car - didn't work out)
XC90 :-)

We also tow a caravan so a large SUV is ideal for this.

Think next car now the eldest is 17 will be a smaller SUV or S Max

[ZX10R NIN]

I've never changed but the OH has changed (slightly)

First child:

330ci for Her
C63 For Her


2nd Child:

Porsche Macan (sold before number 2 came along)
C63
Alpina D3

[Moonpie21]

We have had small to I guess mid sized cars, no need to go big as we only have one child although I wouldn't say no to big for the right one.

My thoughts are... travelling with 1 or more children is tough. They don't need a lot of stuff but life is made a hell of a lot easier when you take everything they may want, they need to be entertained. so a decent sized boot and space, hatches/estates/SUVs I think are easier as you have a bit of vertical too.

Someone said leather earlier, yep to me that's critical, food will be consumed at some point and there will be a mess, add to that aftermarket rubber mats with a lip and interior cleaning is easier. They still touch windows with mucky hands, which I hate, but then again my wife does that too.

For them I like a high SUV type vehicle with big windows nice and high good view out means they can look out and you can play games. Our nearly three year old wants to see everything. I rate a panoramic roof too as they like to look up at planes, trees birds, balloons, stars just about anything.

We have a Jeep Renegade which ticks just about everything above and highly rate it as a family vehicle, its comfortable and comes with some nice toys if you spec it mid level.

We give the boy a choice and 8 times out of 10 he'll choose the Jeep over daddy's car, not because it makes our life any better but it does his.

[toon10]

You don't "need" and SUV when you have kids but a lot of women prefer them over normal cars. My other half loves the high driving position of 4x4's and we ended up with an XC90. It's not the nicest thing to drive, nor is it refined but I'd hate to be without it for family duties. Huge boot to swallow up shopping, push chairs and all the extra kit you take when you have kids. It's safe, sure footed and well designed for families. Built in booster seat, extra seat options in case we need to take the kids friends anywhere, etc. If we could only have one car, I'd want something more refined and nicer to drive. I'd sacrifice 7 seats (which we only use on rare occasions) and get something like an X5 or similar. We've got the impractical 3 door M135i (mainly for me to get to work) and the Volvo is used by whoever is on parenting duties.

[arj7]

toon10 said:

You don't "need" and SUV when you have kids but a lot of women prefer them over normal cars. My other half loves the high driving position of 4x4's and we ended up with an XC90. It's not the nicest thing to drive, nor is it refined but I'd hate to be without it for family duties. Huge boot to swallow up shopping, push chairs and all the extra kit you take when you have kids. It's safe, sure footed and well designed for families. Built in booster seat, extra seat options in case we need to take the kids friends anywhere, etc. If we could only have one car, I'd want something more refined and nicer to drive. I'd sacrifice 7 seats (which we only use on rare occasions) and get something like an X5 or similar. We've got the impractical 3 door M135i (mainly for me to get to work) and the Volvo is used by whoever is on parenting duties.

I would love to have an XC90 but its out of our budget, plus I think it maybe too large for what we need

[arj7]

Seems to be mixed, I think if she wants an SUV then ultimately we will go for one, I think she likes the higher driving position, which I do agree with to an extent.

Considered normal saloon cars, some have quite good boots

[DoubleD]

Amateurish said:

I should add that once they get to toddler stage and beyond, kids will trash the interior of any car they are in. So bear that in mind if you want to upgrade your motor!

That very much depends on the child

[jamiebae]

arj7 said:

Seems to be mixed, I think if she wants an SUV then ultimately we will go for one, I think she likes the higher driving position, which I do agree with to an extent.

Considered normal saloon cars, some have quite good boots

A lot of it comes down to the pushchair you use and how much space that takes up. If you've got a big 2 piece one with large wheels then it'll fill a lot of the boot on its own. A normal saloon could be fine too, the only issue I have with them is that you lose the possibility to fill them to the roof with stuff - we often leave the parcel shelf at home to fit more stuff in the car and with a saloon you can't do that.