To get a new car?

[barrysnotter]

Atm have a an S-Type Jag for weekends days out with dh and dd's 9 and 13m but am 18 weeks pg with dc3. and a vw polo for shopping, school run and farting about in as it's very cheap to run (currently putting around £10-£15 petrol in a week)

We need to get rid of the jag as 1. It's very expensive on petrol (is a 3l) and 2. I really would like to get a tandem buggy for when dc3 arrives.

We are currently looking at Ford Mondeos and also Vauxhall Vectras - need something with a bit of poke for long journeys, shopping with DCs and hill starts etc with dcs shopping, buggy etc..

Does anyone have any advice? I know we will need either a Mondeo or Vectra hatch back due to the amount of equiptment I need to transport etc and also really would like a diesel (again for eco reasons) have had both a Mondeo ST220 and Vectra SRi in the past and love the quality and added extras.

Has anyone any experience of say a Mondeo ST diesel of a Vectra? Or anything else around the 5k mark?

We had a VW Sharan 1.9 diesel for 3 years and I loved it, it pulled like a train, did 55mpg and the back seats were removable so it became a huge van when needed, oh and they have built in child seats in the two outer back seats and you can take the 6th/7th seats out permanently which gives an enormous boot , the tailgate is the perfect height for loading things like buggies too, competely flat. They turn on a sixpence and are lovely to drive, I miss it.
I imagine the insurance is cheaper than a jag, tyres and consumables too - FIL has an XJ6 and parts are horrendously expensive.
Not much bigger than a mondeo but you have the advantage of being high up, a Ford s-max is identical to a Sharan btw and you can have a heated windscreen which is great as it is huge, ours used to take an age to defrost .

We test drove an s-max last year and it was lovely, we ended up with a Seat Altea as there's only the two of us at home now, I know we'll miss the Sharan when DD moves from Uni next year.