Help with buying a second hand SUV for around 10K please

[Wondering101]

Hi im looking at buying a second hand car but im a bit lost with what to go for. Single mum to 4 children so need 5 seats. Kids are getting bigger and 2 are now teenagers. I liked the look of the following cars Nissan X trail, Kia Sportage and citroen C3 aircross. I guess im looking at SUV shape. I dont have any help with the car or kids so would like it to be reliable. Im going to get a loan for around 10k ish
Any suggestions please? Thanks in advance :)

How about a VW tiguan., ford Kuga, Nissan Quasqai or HYundai Tucson.

Just beware on marketplace too many scammers.

Also u can always book a mobile mechanic to do a ' pre purchase inspection' its around £200. They check everything is running ok, plug in for faults etc for peace of mind.

Be very careful about space in the back as having three across in many back seats can be a recipe for disaster as the middle child is often squashed. Ideally you want something with three definite seats to cut down on this and to try and cut down on arguments.

We have three children and recently looked into this issue - we found that in our budget £8-10,000 ish our best options were MPVs rather than SUVs as they offered more for the money. I would recommend adding cars like VW Touran, Renault Scenic, Ford S Max to your list as well. They all have three 'proper' seats in the back so each child was able to feel they werent in a worst position being in the middle. In the end we went for a scenic.

It may be worth looking also at seven seater MPVs as well so that you've got space for friends/ others.

The autotrader.co.uk website is the best place to look - you can specify the type of car you want, price, distance you are prepared to travel etc. Then go to a garage that stocks the cars you are interested in and try and sit in as many cars as possible to work out if you and children like it and can cope with it day to day.

And when you have decided make sure its got a good service history and that its been looked after - check things like tyres and obviously give it a good test drive. Before sale the garage should service it and put a years MOT on it for you and they should give you six months/ a year guarantee. And obviously keep some money aside for car servicing and maintenance etc so that any unexpected costs dont knock your finances - things like new tyres can be hundreds of pounds