Help me with car suggestions please.

[AwkwardAnnie]

Hi, my trusty Toyota Auris is in the garage and it needs nearly £4000 of work doing to it. It's 10 years old, so we've come to the conclusion we'd be better looking for a new (second hand) car.
I've only had Toyota's, the auris boot is just big enough, but as the kids are growing I think we'd be better getting something with a bigger boot.
Also at the moment the choice is whether to take some chairs, or take the husband, (chairs usually win, husband's not a camping fan anyway.)

Can you please tell me which cars you have, and whether you'd recommend them or not. What do you like about them?
I've a budget of about £8000 second hand.

I'm currently on holiday in Spain so I'm trying to research as best I can before I get home and have to spend the weekend car shopping!

We're on our second Skoda Octavia and love it. Huge boot. We have a diesel but it does over 50mpg.
Lots of head and leg room too.

I've just bought a second hand Nissan Qashqai.

Love:

Massive boot
Reverse camera
Inbuilt satnav
Heated leather seats
Auto lights / windscreen wipers
Panoramic roof
Connects to phone
Rear windows have privacy glass
Keyless locking / unlocking
Cruise control

Hate:

The cup holders in the front are useless as I bash my elbow on my bottle when I change gear
No where convenient to store charging phone.
struggles a bit in low gears (my last car was a Yaris so might just be me not used to a bigger car)
Centre console bit with radio / sat nav etc is a bit dated to me.

But I would highly recommend.

Coincidentally I spent exactly £8k on mine and it's a lot of car for the money.

I’ve got a 2016 Peugeot 308SW (the SW is the estate version). It’s the best car I’ve ever had and i absolutely love it.
The boot is huge and we easily fit all our camping gear in (we camp in comfort, so that’s a huge tent, plus camp beds and air beds, awning, carpet and so on) without having to take the parcel shelf off. It’s the kind of car stuff keeps disappearing into! But it’s not too big for day-to-day use around town or to easily park in the supermarket or whatever.

Completely love my Nissan Qashqai! Fantastic for school runs, going to work, camping, days out, anything. It's very trusty and hasn't gone wrong (7 years old). When the time comes to change it I want another Qashqai.

By the way, if you are looking at second hand consider a garage which sells used Mobility scheme cars. They tend to be lower mileage and well loved after as they have the full service history.

Skoda Superb estate. Absolute beast. Loads of legroom, mahoosive boot, good fuel economy (ours is a diesel auto).

I'd definitely buy another.

Thanks ladies. Liking the look of the Qashqui, (even if I've always called them Cash Cows in my head)
Cornishmum, how old was yours and what mileage at £8000. Any idea if they're any good in the snow too?

Will look into the Skoda's too. My boss has one and I hadn't realised quite how much bigger the not is than my Auris.

Ooh, I really wanted a Skoda estate (my very first car was a little Fabia) but they were all out of our price range.

Haha cash cows I like that

Mine is a 2011 and had done 41,000 - it was quite a high spec so that plus the low mileage bumped the price up but I've easily seen 2014 models at the same price with higher miles / less spec.

Not sure what it's like in the snow though I'm afraid!