To ask if you bought a family car outright what was it?

[LilyPinkNoah]

2 adults two DC 8 & 5

Our car is 11 years old - it's 'ok' but has some issues (took it to a garage and they said not really worth doing all the work that needs doing). We bought it outright at 3 years old and have done over 100k on it so it's served us well.

A BMW 3 series it cost us £10k 8 years ago.

So kind of want to do the same again - what do you recommend and not really Aibu!

Skoda Octavia. It cost c.£12k 2 snd a half years ago, it's ace!

Vauxhall Astra estate. Bought a few weeks ago. 2016 plate with 19,000 miles. Cost 10.5k. Diesel and automatic which makes it a bit pricier. Really like it. Boot is massive.

Previous to that I had a Ford Focus estate. I’ve given it to dh as I needed an automatic. Focus is 10yo and still going strong, never had a bill apart from brake pads and new tyres.

Another cmax voter here. I bought an 59 plate petrol one 3 years ago for around £3.5k It's never let me down. Never failed an mot. I do around 10k-12k miles a year

If you can stretch the budget a bit my work car is a kia niro. As previous poster says all kias come with 7 years guarantee. It's a self charging hybrid so no need for plug in points. runs around 70mpg. They are between 17-19k but the money you would save on petrol may make it worth it

Bought mine 5 years ago from Motorpoint. 6 month old Renault grand scenic for nearly half the original price. Fantastic car. The Motorpoint cars are ex rental.

We've been really pleased with our Seat Leon estate. It's really zippy and by far the easiest car to drive that we've ever had. It feels much more premium than the price tag.

DH drives loads of hire cars for work and he prefers the Seat to pretty much anything else.

It cost us 16k at a year old with only 500 miles on it.

We bought ours outright for 3k but it’s quite old, Toyota prévia

8 years ago I bought a two year old Saab Aero. It’s still going strong.
I’ll replace it, when it dies, with a 2 year old Volvo.
Given the diesel fraud, I can’t bring myself to trust Audi VW. Who knows what else they are lying about.

3 year old Renault kadjar. It was about £20K when I bought it new and I think you can now pick up one like mine for are und £11K. I don't use it for transporting kids, but my 6ft nephew can fit in along with a shed load of physiotherapy and sports equipment including a full sized massage table. It's gorgeous to look at and fab to drive. I'm an old crock and even after 10 hours driving I can actually still walk after getting out of it!

Volvo XC90
Or even the one down. Super safe, super comfy, big boots.

I adore my Volvo XC60. Brought at 18 months old on 11,000 miles for £-15,000 this spring. Best money I’ve ever spent. Drives beautifully, massive boot for our two dogs and pushchair, roomy front and back. Really good mpg, I can’t fault it at all.

Because of the reduced emissions, road tax is only £30 for the year

Good point about this. If you get the right age and emissions car (pre April 2018 I think) could be paying £0-30 per year tax, which will be a saving of £1k or more in the long term and not to be sniffed at.

Changed our polo a fortnight before DD1 was born, so glad we did as she has so much bloody STUFF!!

I always save then buy, rather than pay through the nose through credit in the reverse. We bought a year old citroen c4 cactus with like 4000 miles on the clock for about £9k. Has been a great buy, never had any issues and great family car, 5 seats, decent boot, fails for a roof box if we go away, good mileage and parts aren't ridic expensive. Does the job.

Definitely going to buy outright can't bring ourselves to lease a car - don't want to derail my own thread in the pros and cons etc - we will buy outright.

Will look at the Volvos and look into Hybrids too

We have a similar approach OP. We just swapped our 10 yr old golf for a VW Tiguan, 4 yrs old, around 11k I think. It's v roomy inside and has an enormous boot.

Our second car, a seat Leon is also roomy and reliable and as op said, sportier than the average.

If you don’t buy a diesel what does it matter
what VW did? What about how far an electric car goes without charging? Do you believe what the manufacturers say? You shouldn’t because they are not tested on road conditions with air con, hills or heating on. Some of the mileage claims are way off. I notice no one is driving electric cars here! Few hybrids recommended too.

Volvo sold out to Ford in 1999.

Just bought a 1 year old Skoda Karoq for £18k. Had a zafira before that. Love the Skoda - kids same age as yours OP!

@BubblesBuddy I mentioned earlier that I bought an electric. You don't know what you're talking about.

150 miles no problem at all, yes affected slightly by hills, air con and heating but not by that much.
Zero tax, zero emissions. Cheaper to insure and service.

Hybrids will be going out of fashion because all new electric cars can go 150-300 miles now. Hybrids were invented as a stopgap when batteries alone would not give a decent enough range.

Yep. Bought a BMW 3 series tourer. It's now ready to be replaced and we're getting the same again.

Another vote here for the Honda CR-V. We bought ours outright - it's now done 130000 miles and has literally never broken down. Tyres and batteries are all it's ever needed.

L

Kia Sportage, 12k for a 2 year old one. Drives like a dream, 7 year warranty, best car we've ever had.

Literally the best car ever. We bought it outright but only lease now

We have Saabs - dh has the 95 estate, and I have the 93. Great bootspace...enough for a university run, and even without the back seats down, you can still get a heck of a lot in there.

Parts not a problem as there are loads of spares around, and they both go well on motorways. I have a manual and dh has an automatic.

Love the volvo v60. They've brought out a new version so you can get some good deals on ones a couple of years old. We've bought ours outright (and all our other Volvo's in the past) and it by far has been the best for family. Dogs/bikes etc. And the one we have at the moment is great for long distances and is so comfy.

We just bought our 2nd VW touran. Exactly in your budget. Great family car. We had our first one for 12 years, from when kids were little. Now I regularly carry 4 teenagers in it. There is loads of boot space and the 2 flip up seats in the boot are big enough for adults/teens for most normal journeys. They have come in very handy when carting kids friends around. When our old one finally gave up the ghost, nothing else that I looked at came close so I just bought another one :) The SE family version is great. Panoramic sunroof and loads of extras.

Best car for us was a Toyota Previa. Huge car, great for DIY projects. I dont think B&Q sell anything which it couldnt carry.

Brilliant for family holidays. Lots of luggage space even with 3 DCs in the back.

Had a big old diesel engine which did us for around 200,000 miles. It was still good for more when we sold it simply because DCs had grown up and big family outings were a thing of the past.