To ask which family car you own?

[DriveAway]

Posting here for traffic.....

My other thread gained 0 posts so I thought I would rephrase on here.

Money is tight so I need to make sure that I am making the right decision. I am wanting to buy a 3 year old Nissan Qashqai. It is a small engine 1.2 but I am told it has plenty of power for motorway driving.

Can I ask which car you would recommend for a family car which is reliable, spacious and cheap to run.

When we first had ds we used to have a Fiat just like the inbetweeners car it was a 0.9!! We used to drive to London and back in it from Norfolk and although it did used to take a while to get up to 70 on the motorway it actually flew along! It was fab! People used to stare at us as we overtook, it’s like they didn’t expect us to be able to!

In fact, 10 years isn't old enough any more. Needs to be 2000-2005. I still mourn mine, which I sold while on 300k miles with plenty more life left 😁

Fairylea

I used to do that in my old school micra

Would posters go for petrol or diesel considering new legislation regarding diesel and emissions and congestion charges etc?

Monkeyface, my sister owns a 15 year old volvo xc90 i think. She loves it.

My favourite ever family car is our current one - Mazda 6 so reliable never had any engine trouble in 6 years .

Of course she does.
Everyone loves an old volvo.
I bought mine for a grand, used it 2 years, got 65mpg as it was so old it ran itself. Straight through MOTs, I loved her. Sold her to buy a brand new Audi Q5 as I'm a total twatface and regretted it within the month 😂

Sold that now too, and have a Land Rover Discovery. Bloody love her, too.

Seat Leon FR
Fun to drive but far too small.
Dh and I and 2 ds

We're holding out for a camper at the moment as I do so few miles

Ford Focus. She's perfect.

Qashqai 1.6 here. I love it. Economical and dead comfy. Rear seats are a bit shallow as in leg length but I spend all my time in the driver seat so it doesn't bother me! Big boot. Doesn't have a lot of giddy up but it's not a turbo. It is really comfy!

I've got a Dacia Duster. It's lovely. Nice big boot, plenty of space for 3 teens in the back.

Don’t know what to choose now.

Fairylea 😀 We used to do the very same trip in our 1.0 purple Micra. With a buggy in a footwell as the boot lock was stuck. I have many happy memories of that little car and the service stop at Elvedon.

We now have a year old Outlandr PHEV. It's a super family car. Lots of go, very comfy and super safe.

I've got a Ford Kuga 2l diesel. It's my second one, I love it. Spacious and fast if needed. It's quite economical as well.

We currently have a Kia Sportage 2.0l and we love it. So responsive and punchy. We're now awaiting delivery of the new Toyota Rav4 2.5l hybrid. My husband test drive it and said it was a dream to drive.

Our last car was a Qashqai. It looked good and was comfy but, at 1.5l, it had no oomph at all, both locally and on motorways.

Mazdas & Toyota's. Both really reliable. Mazda in particular ours is dead old but never breaks & hasn't had big bill in 7 years owning it (from 2nd hand).

We have a 2015 1.2 turbo qashqai. It's totally fine for motorway driving, I imagine the turbo makes a significant difference. It's more powerful than our previous 1.6 cmax.

However, if you haven't checked the width of the back seats it would be worth it, it's narrower than our cmax so we couldn't fit a third seat although our two are wide (and we only have two so it's not a problem...)

I also have other gripes; the automatic wipers, automatic lights which are really unreliable and seemingly less sensitive to dark than everyone else's....., the back seat belts are difficult to do up due to the narrow seats and wide car seats and most annoyingly, you can reach down the door side of the drivers seat as the seat it close to the door to pick up the innumerable things my children will repeatedly drop on the floor during car journeys. Seriously, I'd swap the cruise control and sat nav for being able to pick up child related crap off the floor and therefore have my three year old screaming considerably less during car journeys...!

@stucknoue I loved my Mazda 6 ts2 estate car. Drove lovely, sounded lovely, big and powerful, spacious and plenty of boot space with or without the seats folded down. I was heartbroken when the engine blew up on and I had to scrap it. I think I was more heartbroken because it was my Dad's pride and joy and he'd wanted a Mazda for years and years but he was never allowed one. The car became mine after he died 5 years ago. If I could afford another one I'd go out and buy one again tomorrow!! Don't get me wrong I love my little Vauxhall Corsa too but it's not a patch on the Mazda. For a start off for a car that has isofix points in it you'd think the boot would be big enough to fit a pushchair or pram in. Mine would fit one in ok with the seats folded down but given the seats fold together not separately I can either have a baby in the car or a pram in the car I can't have both in together!!

I've got a Toyota Aurion (like a Camry). Are Toyotas popular in the UK? In Australia they're known to be fuel efficient and go forever. I love it and they're not expensive secondhand.

We have a Nissan xtrail, the 7 seater version which is handy when all the kids want a friend home on the same day or MIL or my sister and kids is with us so we can go out together.
We tested a lot of cars and this was the best one width wise in the back to fit 3 booster seats. Kids are a bit older now so not so much of an issue.

2018 VW Sharan 2.0 TDI with DSG automatic. Decent amount of go but not cheap (£21k at a year old with 11k miles). Plenty of room for me, DW, DS13, DTS2 x2 and DDog. Planning to keep for as long as it will last.

Used to have a qashqai diesel. I really liked it but felt it was too small for the 5 of us.
I have a VW Tiguan now which I prefer for driving but it still annoys me space wise.

We couldn't fit 3 children in our qashqai as we needed 3 big car seats because if their ages. Plus wanted boot space. We've got a really old XC90 and it's great

Renault scenic1.5 dci loads of space inside, low on tax£20 low on your insurance, 50 mpg ( not motorway) my 4th in a row!
I changed from a BMW X3 and have never looked back!

I looked at toyota rav4 which is fab but they are outside my budget.

Quite a few have mentioned mazda. Do they do SUV style that is cheap to run?

Honda CRV 1.6 Diesel. Fine on motorway, nice and economical (I’m averaging 55mpg), loads of space and HUGE boot. Low emissions -£30 pa road tax. Petrol better for the environment obvs but you’d struggle to find one second hand.