To think a new/ex demo 7 seater would be a waste of money for us?

[Mastersstudent83]

For context, we are a family with 3 older dc still at home (1 adult who doesn't drive, 1 teen, 1 pre teen) and one just graduated from uni, not living with us but visiting every 6 weeks or so. We currently own a 2 year old hatchback (bought ex demo 2 years ago). This is the first time we have owned a nearly new car, having had years of running old bangers into the ground.

Most days this works well for us, as during the week there is only usually the driver or the driver and one passenger in the car. It's been reliable, is under warranty, has fairly good fuel efficiency (though not great for it's size), is easy to drive around town and the monthly finance is low as a percentage of our income.

However, when our dc who has left home comes to visit/when grandma comes to stay/on longer trips/ddog comes along with us all, it's not at all suitable. We either stick to walkable distances or split up the group and some of us take a bus/train instead. These situations crop up at least monthly, and although it's the minority of the time, when it happens it's just so inconvenient we have come to the conclusion that we do need to go back to a 7 seater.

The trouble is, DH loves the peace of mind of owning a newer car under warranty and would prefer this. I totally appreciate this. The younger 2dc are autistic and breaking down in an old, unreliable car would just be awful for everyone. We do rely on a car to get around as public transport overwhelming for youngest dc. But the payments on a nearly new car of this size would be £££ more than we currently pay. Although we could afford this, we don't have much left on our mortgage, and we were planning to pay this off early. This won't happen so soon if the car payments increase significantly. Plus the depreciation will be huge.

With our kids' ages, I don't think we will need a bigger car for long, so I wonder if it might be a better idea to buy a 12 plus year old Volvo XC90 in cash. The excellent safety record, luxury spec and good boot space even with the rear seats up is what attracts me to this model. I understand Volvos have a good reputation to go on for years if you buy one with FSH and maintain well. DH is sceptical, so I would love to hear people's experiences with older Volvos and thoughts about this situation generally.

I'm with your DH, Volvos are great but I wouldn't touch a very old car like that with a barge pole.

I'd get a newer one. Wildcard: Could you also look at cab vans with a rock and rock bed for the back seats? Would fit everyone and you can use it as a campervan when the kids don't need it as much.

Is it cheaper to buy another 5 seater that’s used for these occasions? Maybe something 4/5 years old? I wouldn’t be buying a 12 year old car. I can see your husbands POV and agree. Either buy another car or get the 7 seater. Either way you’ll be paying out but at least you’ll have piece of mind

The only expeerience I have with Volvos is that my FIL always has them, no other car make. They seem to go on forever, utterly reliable. He keeps them for at least 10y before upgrading to a newer model because he wants a newer one, not because there is anything wrong with his car.

As for the 7-seater, when our dc started heading off to uni, becoming independent adults etc, we considered whether our next car should still be a 7-seater. In the end we switched from an MPV with 7 full size seats to a 7-seater estate where the 3rd row was a little smaller. No regrets. The big boot is still useful day to day, and the capacity to seat the whole family plus exttras still gets used. It's a minor luxury.

Normally I would say prioritise the mortgage, but if you still have several years of travelling with autistic teens then you need to take that into consideration. An older Volvo sounds a good compromise.

Could you look at how much hiring one for a weekend once a month would cost compared to buying one? Or if there are 2 drivers a second smaller car?

I would also look at the cost of a 3-5 year old car with low mileage.

Thanks for your perspective. I am inclined to agree, but I have also heard many anecdotal reports about Volvos that are similar to @Aparecium , so thought it may be worth a shot.

Thanks. Have to say, id never considered this. Will look into it.

This is perhaps a viable alternative. What worries me is the ongoing cost of double tax, insurance, servicing, consumables etc. Once all considered, there probably isn't a huge difference between new car upgrade and running 2. I will look for some examples and run the maths. I have heard approved toyotas extend their warranty for 10 years if main dealer serviced.

For what you'd spend on a 12 year old XC90 you could get a Dacia Jogger still under warranty, or stretch another £2-3k for a brand new one.

Thanks for your suggestions. We have tried hiring, but 7 seaters cost significantly more to hire than standard cars and our dog sheds a lot, so always a lot of hassle and worry about keeping spotless.

DH bought a 2010 Volvo c30 diesel a couple of years ago to "scratch an itch". When they were new we couldn't really manage with a 3 door car with 2 kids and large dogs.. I don't think we'll get rid of it for another 10 years! Not a minute's bother with it, DS took his driving test in it last year and now uses it. DH now looks longingly at older xc90s! He can afford newer but is tight fisted and impressed with the last old car purchase!

Can you not hire a small cheap car, take 2 cars and take the dog in your family car?

This is a good suggestion for shorter trips, but on longer journeys with our autistic dc, it is helpful to have one parent on hand to deal with their needs and one driving. Having one car helps with this. The extra boot space would also be really useful for shopping, tip runs, dog even when the back seats not in use.

@Aparecium @Furrydogmum thanks for your reassuring replies about older Volvos. Helpful to hear.

Volvos are wonderful, when they're REALLY old (25 years plus) finding parts can be troublesome as obsolete so likely need to find a scrapper and get one off that.

buying a car always about compromise but try and find a great older one without too much electronics/computer management stuff as I think that's what's most likely to kill off otherwise perfectly good cars.

I have fond memories of many trips in my dads old 760 estate, scrapped at 225,000 miles because an uneconomic repair was needed, we needed to take the engine out to fix the (original) exhaust manifold which had blown to get it through another MOT and the cost of that just wasn't worth it. That was a very sad day for all of us. She would have been 30 odd years old and my dad had bought her brand new. Silly I know but I still think of the happy times we had in her.

This could actually be a great solution! I will look into boot space and legroom with third row up. Don't have any experience with Dacias but relative has one and they love how cheap it is on fuel etc.

What’s your budget?

We had a similar dilemma. We only have 3 kids but 2 are in big isofix carseats and the other is 6ft 4! We physically cannot all fit in the one car if going somewhere so we had to take 2 cars. It was fine at first as we don't particularly go many places altogether.

We were going to save up and invest in a newish 7 seater next year but instead we were able to get a 10 year old 7 seater with low mileage and trade in our smallest car against it. It only ended up costing a few grand.

The reason we opted for this was as our teen will be driving in 3 years anyway and by that time we will have saved up enough to buy a newish car and we may be able to do without a 7 seater by then again.

I really don't think 12 years is 'very old' for a car, especially not these days if they've got a good service history. We had an XC90 that we bought when it was 9 years old. It never had any issues, got through every mot fine and we serviced it regularly. We would have kept it a lot longer but it got written off after someone crashed in to us. There's a reason volvos have got such a good reputation and hold their value

My parents liked ours so much that they've now also got one

@CrotchetyQuaver So nice to hear your positive memories about your dad's old Volvo. It seems like the older ones become a part of the family!

Currently spending close to 300 a month on finance. We do 10k miles a year. Could spend double that plus (seems to be the going rate for new 7 seaters), but not without changing plans to pay off mortgage early. Cash budget around 6k.

Thanks for replies everyone. All perspectives appreciated. Got to go for now, but will check back at lunch.

I agree with checking out how much it would cost to higher a big car once a month vs buying one.

I wouldn't buy a 12 year old model, we had many years of older cars and I now don't think it's financially worth it, with parts becoming unavailable and the fact that insurance companies will declare them a write off at the smallest accident. But that doesn't mean you need to buy new, something a couple of years old would be perfectly suitable and much more affordable.

We have 4dc. As we had a 7-seater, when our eldest started driving lessons we got a 15 year old Yaris (3 door) for driving practice. 3 or 4 years later the 7 seater packed in. We started to look for a replacement (in fact, we’d actually booked a couple of test drives), when we realised we simply didn’t need two cars, and rarely needed 7 seats.

We rented when we needed the additional seats or the journey was very long - the Yaris was not that comfortable. But for shorter journeys it worked (even with 3 tall teens in the back).

I’d seriously check out rental options when needed. I would give a word of caution on this though - there tends to be a limited stock of 7 seaters to rent, and the rental companies sometimes tried to fob us off with a 5 seater (always claiming it was an upgrade).

We recently had a super similar debate - had an old Vauxhall Zafira that was limping along. Two kids but we are immigrants so have months a year with 1-2 grandparents. Went round in circles with all the options as neither of us drive for work so it's really just socialising and visits and various dance/taekwondo comps in silly places.

Ended up getting a 2 year old Dasia Jogger on part-finance for £22K - had about half in cash and paying the rest over 2 years. It was a bit cheaper than buying new and had more stuff included as it was the premium version (heated seats - not that I cared at all). We've been happy with it. Keep a seat in the boot for when my (autistic) daughter needs more space but when we take them out there's loads of boot space without it being a total pain to park.

It came as quite a shock as we had always bought 8 year-ish cars and drove them until they broke, but the secondhand 7 seater market is really, really limited (at least where we are) so we had a list of very rubbish options until we expanded to hybrids. Wouldn't have been our first choice but nice to have the savings on petrol!