Help me pick a car! I’m useless!

[87SPD]

Sorry shamelessly posting here for traffic as I’m going crazy looking at cars now and just can’t decide!

Looking for a used car ideally estate, SUV, MPV basically to suit a family of 2 adults, 2 kids (13 and 10years) 2 dogs, lab and cavapoo. Needs to last and be reliable.

We love spending days at the beach, lakes etc and also enjoy camping weekends so a huge boot would be ideal!

Budget is no more than 11.5k

I have seen a Ford Kuga in our price range and I LOVE it! It’s a 2015 with 75k miles - is this too many? I prefer high up car but DH (who will be driving it mainly prefers estates)

Can anybody please recommend a suitable car?

TIA 😃

Skoda Karoq. Massive boot and the back seats can be removed if you need to. Comfortable ride and good space in the back.

too many miles it'll start having issues soon. Id bot buy over 40k miles personally.

What about nissan quashkai? I'm not sure how much they are second hand but they are reliable roomer and higher up.

Skoda octavia for definite. Spacious, reliable and great to drive.

I find the comments about mileage bizarre. An 8 year old car with 75k on the clock is below average mileage
I'd much rather buy a car with average mileage for the year meaning its driven probably every day and good decent get the engine warm journey's than one that has been sat on someone's drive just used a few times a week.
I once bought a Ford fiesta with incredibly low mileage one older lady owner and so many things went wrong with it mainly because she hardly ever drove it. It probably had never gone beyond thirty miles per hour!
But like others have said check the service history and the MOT history fully and make sure things likes belts have been changed when they should have been

And just to add I have an S Max and its a great car. Had it five years now. Done getting on for 170k miles and only thing I've ever had to spend money on was tyres and to get the air con re gassed. Its serviced every year and it had full service history when I bought it.

Don't buy any ford car with an eco boost engine. Google eco boom. There are literally thousands of people who have had the engine die and needing replacing. There's a problem with the wet belt degrading and blocking up the oil pump. Steer clear!! Unless it's a diesel in which case I'm sure it's fine.

I've just bought a Nissan juke. Very roomy and like that it's high up but mother of God, it rattles like no car I've ever owned 🫣

I’ve got a Citroen grand Picasso C4 2017, at 74,000 mile thé cam belts just gone on it. It has been with the garage for 10 weeks as needs a new engine like above Ford eco boom….. my suggestion to you is to run the license plate of whichever car you buy for any outstanding recalls- there were 3 on mine.

they fit the bill for what you are looking for size wise…..

also drive the car, as I hated the seats in loads I’ve test driven… thought I wanted either a sportage or Tiguan didn’t like either. I’m hoping for a Skoda kodiak or Hyundai Santa Fe (suv boots are teeny compared to what I expected)

We did have a Suzuki Vitara. High up, roomy, economical. Sad I traded it in now.

We have a VW t-roc and love it. Just been to France, family of four with dc and dh all over six feet.

one black lab who goes in the boot (didn’t come to France with us).

I'd go with a Volvo personally, our XC90 is 13 years old, just about to hit 100,000 miles and has not once let us down. It's massive inside, the boot is enormous and the back seats more than spacious enough for long limbed teenage boys, let alone smaller children.

We're having to change it because of the ULEZ expansion and I'm actually genuinely quite upset about it.

Another vote for the XC90. It fits all my kids and dog. Drives really well.

Maybe have a look at Dacias x

Subaru Forester
they are good for 250,000 miles so don’t be worried about buying an older one
I have had mine for nearly 20 years, she is probably going to outlive me

My NDN have just bought a Nissan Elgrand. They are 2 adults and one DC, and 2 dogs (collie and small spaniel thing) but they can also get 3 bicycles in it and the DH uses it for work (he does car boots and markets as a side hustle).

They seem really pleased with it!

One of the best cars I've ever had is the
seat ateca. It's an SUV, huge boot, really nice to drive and very similar to the VW Tiguan.

I do love fords too though, SMAX are nice or the mondeo estate

If you got an estate shape you'd get more bang for buck as they are less popular. Toyota avensis estate is a bit boring but will keep quietly doing its thing for years.

Skoda Octavia estate - boot is huge, lovely to drive. You will get a reasonably new one with low mileage for your budget.
https://www.whatcar.com/skoda/octavia/estate/used-review/n854

Don’t get the boxer diesel. They have expensive issues. Sound lovely and are great to drive though

Or, if you really want an SUV, the Seat Ateca
https://www.whatcar.com/seat/ateca/estate/used-review/n840

The mileage wouldn’t bother me if it’s been well cared for…. full service history etc.

I used to have a Sportage (old shape, 2008 model). It was my favourite car, a dream to drive but the boot was deceptively small.

I now have a 2013 Qashqai +2 (7 seater) which isn’t as lovely to drive but so spacious with the back set of seats folded down.