Tell Toyota what you look for in a car and see what MNers thought of their Hybrid range! £200 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

You may have recently seen that 7 Mumsnetters attended an event day at Toyota HQ all about hybrid cars. Now, Toyota have asked us to find out what other Mumsnetters look for in a car.

Toyota say, “Toyota have been making hybrid cars for over 12 years and have sold over 2.4 million Prius Hybrid models to date, but there are still many myths surrounding this technology, like do hybrids need special fuel? (No!) Does a hybrid save me road tax? (Yes!) How does it feel to drive a hybrid?”

Below is a video of the event day. Please watch it and let us know your thoughts. (To read the feedback of Mumsnetters who attended the day please click here.)

Mumsnetters who attended the event commented on different aspects of Toyota hybrids including cost effectiveness, technical features found in the cars and its spaciousness. How do these rank for you when purchasing a car? What other optional extras do you look for? A feature that’ll park the car itself, perhaps? Or maybe car seat heating? Whatever it is, we’d love to hear about it!

Everyone who adds their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

[BetterWithCheese]

I need a new car and the things I want are:
-fuel efficiency
-cheap road tax
-good visibility
-stereo with Bluetooth or other way to link to my iphone
-4/5 doors as have two kids
-comfortable seat/driving position
-solid feeling build
-heated windscreen - I hate scraping in winter
-good cup holder (seriously current Renault doesn't have any and it's a PITA).

That's it really. I'm on mat leave but when I go back to work I'll have a 30-40 min daily commute so need low running costs and comfort.

[ouryve]

We bought a new to us car last year (actually a Toyota Avensis Tourer!) and looked for the following things.

Space - particularly rear leg and headroom, as by the end of the 5 years we expected to keep the car, at least one of the boys will be a 6' teen.

Boot space - enough for a Maclaren Major buggy and a week's shopping, without everything being crushed.

Fuel Economy - DH works 35 miles away, so despite wanting a large car, we didn't want a as guzzler.

Oomph - also for that 35 mile journey. We rarely do any town or city driving.

Petrol Engine - our last car put us right off diesels and their sodding useless DPFs.

Air Con/ climate control

Lockable rear electric windows, so the boys, who both have ASD, can't open them when we're travelling at 70mph on a drizzly day.

Not silver.

[Rooners]

No idea about the hybrid element of it but I'm not sure what stands out as being different in other ways.

Tbh as a driver for nearly 20 years, I'm fed up with 'normal' cars and want something that is aimed GENUINELY at the parent driver.

What I mean by this is, can you PLEASE make a car that is easy to clean? On the inside? Like, maybe a laminate floor (or at least vinyl!) And inside panels that do not mark in an instant...and seats that don't hold on to stains like their life depends on it.

And no nooks and crannies for crumbs and sick to get into, never to depart.

Family car makers are still so blinded by the 'luxury' tradition that they can't see that true luxury, to a parent driver, means something that is easy to keep looking good - not something that looks great for about five minutes and you have to get cross with your children about, when really they should ENJOY going on muddy adventures and eating a picnic in it after without having to remove all their clothes.

Cars might look posh (temporarly) with 'carpet' and so on but honestly - I want something I can hose down.
Start thinking along the lines of the best aspects of 'family' rooms - things that work really well and still look stylish.

Marmoleum flooring, wet rooms, durable/washable paint.

The common thing is they are easy to keep looking great however much dirt and chaos and mess you throw at them.

So make a car like that and you've sold it to me already.

[Rooners]

Also, Seat are on the right lines with their built in child seats.

Why hasn't anyone else copied that yet? It's brilliant.

[MadMonkeys]

In a new car I would look for:

A generous boot
Good score in safety tests
Good mpg
Reasonable power
Upholstery that wont show the dirt too much...

[manfalou]

We're currently looking a for a new car for myself, my IDEAL car would have the following:

A large boot space with enough room for a double pram and shopping.
Good MPG
Cheap road tax
Heated windscreen... I HATE defrosting my car in a morning!
Plenty of leg room for both the passengers in the front and back.
No tiny spaces for crumbs to get in that I can't get out!
Electric windows
5 doors.
Height adjustable drivers seat.... Im 5 ft 1, my partner is 5ft10.
Reversing sensors.

[ShatnersBassoon]

Fuel economy is the one thing I'm going to look at carefully next time I choose a car.

I want cruise control too. I have it in my current car, thought it would be a silly gimmick, but I love it and don't think I'd be happy to lose it.

[RubySparks]

What I look for in a car now are low running costs! So fuel efficient, low road tax, low insurance. We have been used to an estate car though so large boot space is important and live on top of a hill and can get a lot of snow so 4 wheel drive/engine power would be great and heated windscreen though I believe ford hold the patent on that?

Self cleaning interior would be great... We have a lot of mud tracked into car by kids and dog.

We inherited a new yaris which has the reversing camera which is pretty cool, could get a bit over reliant on that though I think.

[BetterWithCheese]

Ruby my FIL's Seat has a heated windscreen (and heated seats-amazing!) so pretty sure Ford don't have the patent. Ford's is called quick clear So guessing there is something special about it, or they want you to think they do.

[BetterWithCheese]

Oops, they want you to think their quick clear thingy is special.

[NicNak71]

I changed my car last year, space was a huge decider for me. My eldest daughter is tall for her age, although she's still in a car seat, she didn't have much leg room. My husband and I are both tall, I'm 5' 9 and he's 6'2 so our seats are pushed quite far back, taking up more of her space.

Front wheel or 4 wheel drive as we live in the countryside on roads that aren't treated in winter. I've been stranded for over a week before because my rear wheel drive car couldn't handle the snow.

Visibility and safety, again my last car had a few too many blind spots.

Boot space, I still need to carry a pushchair and changing bag for my youngest and I need to be able to fit in a couple of bags of animal feed and possibly a bale of straw.

[changedirection]

We are looking for a new car (actually, 2) at the moment. For both, we want 5 doors (easy access to child seats in back), good fuel efficiency. For the big car, plenty of space for pushchair / tent etc without feeling too big to drive.

for 2nd car, low insurance group, good value, reliable, space in boot for pushchair keeping car as small as possible

[aristocat]

We also need a new car and I want

Reasonable boot space
Heated windscreen
Adjustable driver seat, DH is lots taller then me
Fitted sun blinds
Good MPG

Also can central locking keys have a new design please. Surely with all the new technology we have now they can be made smaller/more compact. I hate having a huge key!

[CheeseTMouse]

When buying a car we look for one with a decent automatic gear box as I don't like driving a manual and it's surprising how many cars this rules out. We also test the car by sitting in the back seats and we ruled loads out as our heads were too close to the roof (I am 6'2").Finally, I want something relatively compact as I have to park on the road. Oh! And the buggy needs to fit the boot...

[JuniperTisane]

We need a new car. My wish list would include:

BIG boot
BIG interior
Wipe-clean
Fuel-efficient
Heated windscreen
Interior glass panel with soundproofing to screen out the squabbles I wish

Right now I would settle for a car made in this century and has working central locking/boot lock TBH...

[mistlethrush]

Legroom is critical - we write off most cars on the basis of the lack of it - and the driver's seat needs to go low enough as DH has a long back and is quite tall. We also need to be able to sit an adult behind DH when he is driving - headroom in the back also important.

We then move onto boot space - we need to be able to get a double bass in with one of the back seats still useable (that's most of the rest of the cars written off).

Fuel efficiency is important

We would like 4wd as an option - although that is less critical.

Agree with Rooners - we would like an interior with optional / removable mats and no carpet up the side (dog and DS) (In fact, an easy way of cleaning door pockets would be appreciated as DS managed to be sick into one the other day.. it was not at all nice trying to clean it out)

[CMOTDibbler]

At the moment we have a Mini Cooper S and a Discovery 3.
I love the handling, the auto gear box (disability requires an auto) and the fuel economy of the Mini. The overly complex control interface, the fact that the seats don't go back to their position after a rear seat passenger has got in, and the fact you have to select the auto wipe every time drive me nuts.
I love the go anywhere, power, storage lockers, headphone points and audio control in the back seats and sheer capacity of the Landy. I hate the mpg, and the million places for crud to accumulate in it. I'd love an interior more suited to removal of hay/straw/mud/dog hair/mud/pony hair.

My ideal car would be easily adapted for those with disabilities, be cleanable, have a 3 pin plug for charging devices, let me plug a memory stick with MP3 files in to upload to a car hard drive, have great performance and handling (and not at extra cost for a sports pack - this drives me batshit when looking for a new car), proximity unlocking, 'save your setup' for seat positions/mirrors etc, and seats that fold really flat in the back

[turkeyboots]

Good mpg like others. Heated windscreen a plus. I like the idea of a no carpets, wipe clean family car!

I'd also like modern electronics to be considered, espically ones which aren't just iPhones.

And having met too many tailgating twats lately, how about a LED screen on rear window which you could program to tell them to back off! Or automatic photo taker - send to police device. not having a good day

[WowOoo]

When I'm looking for a car, I look out for:

Space - overhead as my husband is very tall
Boot space - for weekends away
I like having 4 doors so everyone can get in and out easily.
Good mpg

My last 2 cars have been Toyotas. I love them.

I'd love to get a hybrid next time. Dh wants a Prius, I'm not sure what I'd like.

[VivaLeBeaver]

I look for a massive boot.
Good mpg
A heated front windscreen so I don't have to scrape it.
Ideally a built in pull out bike rack.
A built in sat nav is nice.
Diesel

[Oodhousekeeping]

Currently car hunting, have a old Toyota yaris but the new Aygo is the same same so planned on getting one. But then I drove it :( it's too sluggish for my commute so am back looking again since the yaris is now too big for what I want.

So I want a small car with enough oomph to do dual carriageways as well as city driving (VW do one ...)

[chocolateshoes]

Ideally I look for:
A decent sized boot
Heated windscreen -no more scraping ice in work car park after a parents evening
Reliable starter
Good back support
4 doors
Fuel efficient
Electric windows


But in reality all we can afford is the electric windows!

[Nottheshrinkingcapgrandpa]

Big boot is our main need- we never have enough space :/

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Safety is always a massive consideration. I really liked the airbags in the seat belts that I saw on the MN Ford day that I went on.
Good all round visibility - I like quite a high driving position.
Small blind spot or blind spot indicators on the wing mirrors.
Big boot / 7 seats, I don't need both at once.
Some kind of hard drive for storing music and films.
Inbuilt sat nav.
Heated seats and windscreen
Sliding back doors (never had them but think they would save a lot of angst with ds1 getting out and not banging his door into whatever is next to the car)
Easy to keep clean interior - especially in the back and boot.
Economical and low road tax
A good, stable cup holder.
Programmable seat settings.
Parking sensors (not bothered about cameras or a car that can park itself).

Not asking for much am I?!

[Maiyakat]

Relatively small car but decent sized boot. Would like a hybrid but find them comparatively more expensive.