To want to buy a second hand car?

[Looking4wards]

DH and I aren't sure if we should be buying a second hand car.
We have a 17 year old car at the moment and a new baby. It's very very small car, the pram doesn't fit into the boot so it's hard taking DS out anywhere. Visiting relatives at their homes without a pram is ok as we just use the car seat, but anything else would need a pram.
We were thinking of getting a bigger car. Probably be looking at around £10k.

The issue is we have a lot of debt already including a mortgage where the monthly repayment is almost 40% of our take home pay (fixed for a few years so can't re-mortgage), a £15k personal loan and
£3.5k credit card debt.

We're not sure if taking on more debt to buy a car is sensible, but at the same time would love to be able to take baby out.
WWYD?

Ive got an automatic 7 seater that cost me £2.5k

I wouldn't assume that by using a dealer you're more likely to get a quality car. If anything, I'd suggest the opposite. A dealer needs to make a living, so must maximise profit on each car. More likely to be fixing up a lemon to sell on than a private seller imo. Private sales are also likely to be cheaper. A good alternative to Autotrader is to ask friends/colleagues if anyone is selling a car.

Places like Money Saving Expert have good advice on buying used cars. You can pay a mechanic to check a car over if you're not confident. Good advice seems to be research brand/model reliability. Typically Japanese brands like Honda and Toyota do well.

10k on a car?
I've just bought a "new" Peugeot 307SW. It's got rain/light sensors, electric windows, air con, etc. It's also got masses of space inside. The boot looks huge and our pushchair fits without issues. Had a mileage of about 25000 miles. Granted, it's 15 years old but you wouldn't know it. I paid about 3k for it.
I had a 207SW before, which I really liked. It's in the garage. (Can't drive it. We moved abroad and I'd have to have work done on it to register it here.)