What's the Best used Family car?
Discussion
Hi,
New user, first forum, and suddenly looking to buy my first family car with about £3K to spend. I'm currently driving a 1000cc Panda which is great for parking but I now have my two year olds feet in my back and with a full load and four of us in the car, overtaking anything has to be a well timed decision! The Panda was a 'hand me down' so this purchase will be my first! I've looked at the Nissan Cube, Diahatsu Materia, (IMPORT) which look fun but on a wider search an Audi A4 fits into this budget. I guess I'm trying to avoid a Picaso or Zafira but are these the best family cars?
Any advice would be greatly received.
Roy
New user, first forum, and suddenly looking to buy my first family car with about £3K to spend. I'm currently driving a 1000cc Panda which is great for parking but I now have my two year olds feet in my back and with a full load and four of us in the car, overtaking anything has to be a well timed decision! The Panda was a 'hand me down' so this purchase will be my first! I've looked at the Nissan Cube, Diahatsu Materia, (IMPORT) which look fun but on a wider search an Audi A4 fits into this budget. I guess I'm trying to avoid a Picaso or Zafira but are these the best family cars?
Any advice would be greatly received.
Roy
How many miles do you do per year roughly, and what kind of driving? Panda to A4 is quite different and the Panda is the better city car if you see what I mean?
Something like an A4 is great but the engine choice is important, hence the question above. If you are considering something like the A4 you should consider it's family members like the Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia. For family cars around in PH world the default answer is normally Volvo and it's hard to argue against that.
Something like an A4 is great but the engine choice is important, hence the question above. If you are considering something like the A4 you should consider it's family members like the Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia. For family cars around in PH world the default answer is normally Volvo and it's hard to argue against that.
Thanks. I probably don't do more than £4000 mile a year. I don't use it for work/comuting. And yes, the Panda is a great city car in so many ways. It's just not big enough. Stick a pram in the boot, and its full! I'll look at the Skoda and Seat and the Volvo. Also, just ben looking at the Nissan Note 2006 / 07 might just be in my reach.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
I had a Picasso (2006/06) 1.6 petrol. Terribly unreliable. In 3 years I had to replace the rear wiper blade, a couple of tail light bulbs and 2 front tyres. Shocking.
A monkey at Knowsley Safari Park kindly removed my rear squirter but I can't really blame the car. It took me, my OH and my son all over the place for about 3 years. It was never going to set the world on fire, but it did what it did very well & there was storage all over the place - including in the rear floor. My son loved the big windows in the back & there was room for a buggy and a dog in the boot. Seats were comfy & the driving position was pretty good.
There's an unhealthy obsession with "plastic feel" on this site, I can confirm the plastics felt like plastic.
The rear seats can be easily removed if you want a van to take crap to the tip & I can also confirm it's not a bad place to spend the night in an emergency.
It's one of those cars you'll never love, but you can't hate.
Biggest annoyance was the outside temperature gauge. When it got to 3' or below, it used to flash so for 3 months of the year you'd have this annoying flashing in the corner of your eye!
Obviously it's a piece of s
t & you should go & buy a 1998 BMW 750il as reliable cheap to run family transport - or a Mazda MX5.
A monkey at Knowsley Safari Park kindly removed my rear squirter but I can't really blame the car. It took me, my OH and my son all over the place for about 3 years. It was never going to set the world on fire, but it did what it did very well & there was storage all over the place - including in the rear floor. My son loved the big windows in the back & there was room for a buggy and a dog in the boot. Seats were comfy & the driving position was pretty good.
There's an unhealthy obsession with "plastic feel" on this site, I can confirm the plastics felt like plastic.
The rear seats can be easily removed if you want a van to take crap to the tip & I can also confirm it's not a bad place to spend the night in an emergency.
It's one of those cars you'll never love, but you can't hate.
Biggest annoyance was the outside temperature gauge. When it got to 3' or below, it used to flash so for 3 months of the year you'd have this annoying flashing in the corner of your eye!
Obviously it's a piece of s
t & you should go & buy a 1998 BMW 750il as reliable cheap to run family transport - or a Mazda MX5.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff