Family car recommendations – not too old (by our standards)

[garethj]

Mrs_garethj has got a new job which means her commute goes up from 1 mile each way to 15.  Her S Type Jaguar is a lovely drive but on winding roads with lots of junctions I dread to think of the fuel economy.

 

She’s happy to use my Baleno GSR which should easily beat 30mpg as it’s so light, but we need one car which can carry 3 kids in the back, is reliable, has aircon for trips to France and beats 30mpg on the motorway for me.  An estate would be handy, £1500 to £2000 please, the Jaguar is probably worth £1500 tops.

 

My thoughts so far:

2002ish Honda CRV, without the black bumpers they look alright, should be reliable, petrol ones are cheap because everyone wants the diesel which does more mpg but goes wrong.  Loads of space across the back seat, the AA road test site says 136 inches which is ace.

 

Volvo V70 Tdi, about 1997.  If it avoids the early S80 electronics crap and it’s as comfortable as my old 740, I’ll be happy.  The 2.5 diesel should do 35mpg but finding a manual gearbox one is tricky.

 

Audi A6.  Oh. My. God.  What have I become?  I had a very good experience with a 1999 Skoda Octavia 1.9 Tdi but there’s not enough legroom or rear seat width.  An A6 is big enough and they came with the 1.9 Tdi with 130bhp which should be alright.  Mpg should be above 45 but are they reliable or is there a bunch of niggling electrical faults there to greet me every day?  Estate looks nicer than the saloon.

 

Passat with the same engine.  As above, is there any difference?  Again, the estate looks better.

 

Anything else I should look at?  The Suzuki has been fantastic for reliability and the Jaguar has for the last year, what I most want to avoid is that scenario of taking a car to be fixed, spending £500, it’s no better and going through it 3 times.  To be perfectly honest if I could find a Volvo 940 diesel estate with manual box and aircon I’d jump at it, but they just aren’t around.

[Parky]

Bit leftfield but what about a Seat Altea? Tick all of your boxes and aren't a bad drive.

 

mechanically easy to sort and most stuff relatively easy to do yourself. It's all VAG innit so absolutely reliable*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*might not be entirely true

[UltraWomble]

Citroen Berlingo HDi (90 with the 2.0 engine)

 

Seriously, we went all over in ours and would still have one now if we didnt need 7 seats. 40MPG easy, will cruise at 80, bags and bags of room inside but interiors are frail.

Air con was a cost extra on these so finding one with air is rare.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

There's good reason that almost every Passat/a6 estate you see is full of crew cuts and dayglow vests, tons of room for 5 builders ,good on fuel and you can make a profit on it when you go East for your holidays .

Whether your Mrs would accept one after been spoiled by the smoothness of an S-Type, is another matter.

 

If an Octavia's too small ,what about a Superb? Finding one without 400k miles that doesn't smell of kebabs and vanilla Magic Tree might be difficult.

For passenger space without VAG stigma, how about a new* shape Mondeo?

[face]

SWMBO had a CMax for about five years. It was tough, reliable and pretty good to drive. I quite liked it.

[Louise2cv]

Our A6 has done the job over the last 4 years. It's big but is soon full once you have the 2 car seats and a dog in it.

 

Only had that one mechanical problem so far (EGR valve, as seen in News 24) its 8 years old now so we've had it for half its life, and the only other jobs I've had to do are a couple of lightbulbs. Obviously other things have happened with servicing but we've paid someone to do that

 

 

We like the looks (although I prefer the more angular newer model) and really didn't want a people carrier. We have gone with extended rear facing child seats which are the same sort of size as forward facing seats but do overhang into the rear footwells somewhat and back when it was an issue, reusable nappies - so trips away required that extra bit of luggage space for all that paraphernalia.

 

Bit of inverted snobbery about Audi in some places but what can you do about that? Some people like to be judgemental, holier than thou and rather childish about other people's choice of vehicle. *shrug*

 

Poss the most girly part of my nature comes out with cars and what they look like is a big thing. I like the look of Audi's, the Mazda 6 of a few years ago and poss one of the Honda's.

[LC Torana]

Rover 75.

[dollywobbler]

Another vote for Berlingo/Partner. I'm not sure cars get more practical.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Why is practicality seen as a virtue, she's not starting a job as a farmer is she?

[dollywobbler]

It's the 'three kids' requirement. Three proper seats make the Berlingo a top choice. I've seen an Octavia estate with two kiddie seats in it, so I fully understand how that's never going to happen. When did child seats get so enormous?

[castros_bro]

Shirley this .... it probably has the three seats in the back

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/22359-renault-vel-satis-for-sale-ultimate-in-luxo-barge-shite/

[HMC]

I rated my old a6 tdi estate 2002 model with the 130 engine you mentioned. Despite having 250k on the clock it never went wrong in the year I had it at all. Would do 60mpg at 60 mph, 56mpg at 70mph so OMG MPG; comfortably over 700 mile range and a good size for the family and 3 3 point belts in the rear too. A painless and dare I say satisfying ownership experience. And no that wasn't because I became an "audi driver" but I did drive an audi. So there.

[gm]

a petrol crv will struggle to get 30mpg, shame as they are very nice cars. I had a mk1 for a couple of years but I only kept the mk2 for a couple of months, I was fed up of putting fuel in the thing.

[dollywobbler]

Actually, something even better than a Berlingo. I love Google Image search.

[Lacquer Peel]

Baleno estate? There's an automatic one on eBay.

 

Berlingos are pricey for what they are, glorified vans. C5 estate is good value and roomy, reliable if you stick with the 2.0 HDi and non-HPi petrols.

[mossymossy]

TDi 110 passat. Roomier than a B5 audi A4. Cheap to buy. 45-50 mpg. However, choose carefully. They are getting on a bit now. Grab one before they all disappear to Poland to be broken for parts.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

http://autoshite.com/topic/22312-alfa-156-sportwagon-24-20v-now-for-sale/page-3

 

laquerpeel's suggestin made me think, these days there's no reason to go outside the family* for anything.

Ok 159's aren't massive in the back , but unless your kids are all in seats or three 6' teenagers ,they should fit.

 

Edited to correct 156, it looks like a 9 though with those facelift lights!

[Junkman]

Peugeot 405.

[LC Torana]

Oh I see, you need 3 child seats.

 

Therefore you need bench seats, front and back.

 

Vauxhall Velox.

[fraser.innes.3]

Grand voyager. 2.8 turbo diesel. 7 seats. 30mpg average, better on a run. Engines are the same as black cabs, so go on forever with proper maintainace. Get a stow and go and the seats will fold into the floor giving you a van.

[garethj]

The Velox is not as insane as the suggestion of a Rover 75 for reliable motoring.

 

The Alfa sure is purdy, but I don't think they're a paragon of reliability?

 

Interesting about the Crv not hitting 30mpg, my commute is mostly motorway and I'm usually in lane 1 at 60mph so I should do better than most.

[Junkman]

All Vauxhalls are shit.

[Asimo]

Berlingo or it's Renault equivalent.

 

Or  FRV, Honda's Multipla clone if the French rural aesthetic is not appreciated.

[andrew e]

Keep the car you have, you know, you trust, and suffer the extra gallon a day.

 

£100 extra on fuel a month - but no surprise bills. Worth contemplating.

[mouseflakes]

How can you resist???

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ssangyong-Kyron-2-0-Turbo-Diesel-S-91k-Jeep-4x4-Bargain-/171908825124

 

[trigger]

Stick with the Jag.

 

https://youtu.be/OgvhvaSQZeE

[dugong]

Yue Loong Feeling 1.5 DPRK 'Human Rights Abuse' limited edition.

[John F]

Give her the Baleno, you take the Jag. Sorted.

[garethj]

Yes, but nursing 30mpg from the Jaguar is really tough. I'd prefer upper 30s to the gallon, 30 is really a minimum.

 

While the Jaguar has been reliable this year it's still an expensive car if something goes wrong.

 

I wondered about an Frv, but like most people carriers it's not a looker

[garethj]

Yes, but nursing 30mpg from the Jaguar is really tough. I'd prefer upper 30s to the gallon, 30 is really a minimum.

 

While the Jaguar has been reliable this year it's still an expensive car if something goes wrong.

 

I wondered about an Frv, but like most people carriers it's not a looker