That the opinions of mumsnetters on the subject of which car to buy is much more interesting than what's elsewhere in the media?

[CoozudBoyuPuak]

I didn't notice at the time in the recent Grand Topic Tidy that one of the topics that disappeared (merged into "shopping" apparently!) was the Cars topic.

When I couldn't find the topic I started this thread in "Site Stuff" to ask where it had got to.

The lovely folks at @MNHQ said "if there's sufficient demand for a topic then we'd certainly consider adding it. Please start a thread and we'll monitor the situation" so I thought that a voting thread here would be helpful.

Obviously most of us won't be in the market for a new car very often - personally it wouldn't be more than once every 8 years or so, but when I do I would like to be able to browse threads from similar like-minded mums who have similar needs to me - and get recommendations according to what other people have found works for them. I find the more general websites about cars to be very offputting and although there may be a section that is about "family" cars it will often be full of sexist assumptions.

I think that a dedicated topic is important because that will help these threads to be all gathered together in one place and easy to find, and even if it doesn't get a huge amount of traffic because we will each grapple with these questions much less frequently than we need to ask for advice about pet care, education or TV preferences, it will nevertheless be useful.

Please vote YANBU if you agree that there should be a mumsnet board for car-related stuff

Please vote YABU if you think we should either go to other forums for car-related advice, or if you think it's OK for threads like this to be mixed in with other kinds of topics on much more "general" threads.

I saw that thread - this is what I wrote:

The old car board always used to take me out of my browsing page and into a new tab for some strange reason. I used to get very confused.
Agree - a car topic would be useful. I am currently buying a new one and searched MN for views and like others had no success using the search function 🙄

Also in the market for a new car - it's been 8 years! I used to be so knowledgeable but no longer. I'd love to chat about cars.

Don’t buy a Mercedes and think Mercedes rescue will be any help.

Have a flat tyre , parked on a side road, they said 60-90 min wait - it’s been 2 hours , I need coffee and the loo and am fed up.

I agree - car advice on MN much more helpful than anywhere else. And I'm a Which subscriber!

Yup, me too. Ten years ago, I could have given you chapter and verse about combined cycles and rear steer, and then I got a dog and a fifth-hand Discovery, and stopped caring. Now I feel like I've woken up in a brave new electric world, plus I'm even more suspicious of covert advertorials.

MN real life experience of warranties and battery life would be v helpful.

Sympathy @Eve

I think that any car rescue service other than RAC and AA has the same basic model - that they are actually just an agency call centre who receive your calls and then phone around local garages to find someone who can come and sort you out. Not that it's a bad model, but I don't think there would be any different quality of service from a great many other rescue services as they are all dealing with the same ultimate suppliers.

I recently bought a new (to me) car and the advice from Mumsnet was the best! I didn't post, but had to browse and find relevant threads.

I went into my garage (really helpful guys) armed with a list of potential cars... they basically confirmed the MN opinions. That and availability in my price range narrowed it down to one car! 😂

Honestly, MN is my first stop for any kind of review.

By very good luck the flat happened by a Mercedes dealership and I limped to their forecourt but they said we cant help you need to phone Mercedes assist.

After a 2 hour wait I phoned assist back to find out they had forgotten to book recovery - they use RAC so just pass on the details and hadn't passed anything on. I've been up since 4am and hungry so 1 rant in the Mercedes garage later they have given me a loan car and are sorting everything out. Home now and have had food and loo!

I vote no, on the grounds that MN has far too many boards with far too little traffic anyway.

I've seen plenty of posts in chat of people asking, "my budget is £5000 and I need a five seater xyz, any recommendations?".

A specific board would be underused and people would do this anyway.

I don't want to post in chat, the board moves too quickly and its easy for people to miss threads. I prefer smaller, quieter specialist boards.

I can't believe Vw are discontinuing the Golf next year! I love them

Whaaaaaaaaat?! No!!

I did a Google search of "new car" site:mumsnet.com, filtered for threads that have been posted on in 2023, and got more than 8 pages of results. Not all of them were specifically about new cars ("AIBU about neighbour parking his new car over both halves of a shared drive to avoid scratches" doesn't belong on a Car chat board) but I reckon there could have been at least 100 threads over the past few months that would be specifically relevant to a car topic. I stopped counting when I got to 30 but had only looked at the first few pages of results.

I had a citoen grand picasso, they're OK for a while but definitely not built to last more than 12-15 years and the mechanics hated working on it as the engines were a pain to access. I don't look for cars new, so I'm always interested in the longer term potential of a car. So I guess that relies more on people's views away from the car industry sellers on performance etc. I'm very sceptical of any of the car sites as they're all involved in making money off that market

Merging Cars with Carseats might ensure steady traffic?

Yes, I definitely missed the car board when researching.

There should definitely be a dedicated topic to car purchasing, car safety and driving/lessons etc

Would love car topic back.

Don't know how to vote using the app 😕

Yes, it’s not just about choosing new cars, although that is very useful, all aspects of driving, tests, lessons, taking cars abroad, insurance, it could all go on there.

Absolutely that's why it needs to come back.

Yes please 🙏 I'm looking for a good second hand car and have 6k to spend. No clue. I was sorry to see the Car topic had gone.

Totally agree. And people are genuinely more knowledgeable. In chat you always get 'think yourself lucky OP I can only dream of 6k to spend on a car'etc

Maybe a 'driving' topic or 'driving, cars and car seats' if MNHQ want to maximise traffic (see what I did there?).

Like a lot of topics on mumsnet, you'll get a lot of opinions, but very little facts.

Opinions are fine.