larger family car - recommendations please

[littlegreenalien]

I need more space in my vehicle, kids are getting bigger and complaining about legroom in my modest hatchback plus we need to cart loads of equipment about to various activities in the week. I do live in a rural area so increased ground clearance wouldn't go amiss. However, I don't really want an estate car due to having limited parking space length at home/work so I'm looking at things like Nissan QashQai, Ford Kuga etc which don't seem much bigger length wise than my hatchback.

Does anyone have any advice in this area of the car market ?

Vw tiguan is lovely, are you looking for sven seats though? We are in the processof changing our vw passat for a vw touran, which is the smaller mpv, so not much longer than a hatchback.
As you may gather i love my vw's!
The qashqai is nice, i looked at one but have never owned one.
Would def reccomend looking at the tiguan though :)

My sister had a Qashqai and loved it but it just wasn't big enough so they bought a Ford S-max instead and have been very pleased with it.

Hi LGA! Would love to help to know more about what you need - how many seats? how old are the kids? what kind of budget? what kind of car do you have at the moment?

Without knowing more it sounds like you might want one of the smaller people carriers, like a Toyota Corolla Verso, VW Touran or Ford C-Max.

Byeckserslike, being a northern bird "meself", I'm loving your name.

Don't need 7 seats but would like to be able to get 3 passengers in the back comfortably, the dc and their friends are only going to keep getting bigger.

I'm looking for something a year/18 months old to keep initial purchase cost down (as the trade in value of mine amy well be not much)and don't mind if it's done high mileage for that year or so. I thought I might get more for my money with a far-east brand but I'm fairly ignorant of this particular market so considering all options based on price/reliability etc.

Would rather not say what I currently have as don't like to post too much detailed info on t'interweb.

I don't change my car that often as it's such a hassle and time consuming(and I like to get value for money) and plan on keeping whatever I buy long enough for my oldest dc and their friends to be 15 by which time based on current growth they'll be taller than me (over 5 and half feet tall) so something with low cabin height might be annoying and I think the rear seats of a qashqai might make this a a problem.

I'm definately looking for a smaller people carrier but wanting it to look more 4 x 4 than mum's mini-bus iykwim.

I kind of lost interest in cars for a while so I'm completely out of touch with what's available, currently making mental notes of vehicles I see when out and about and looking them up later.

Off to google Ford S max and Ford C-max and Toyota Corolla Verso or a while now, oh and VW's.

All recommendations/advice much appreciated.

OK! The ones I mentioned before are more what you might call mummy-types so maybe not on the money for you :) If you want the 4x4-type thing you might prefer something like a Honda CR-V or Nissan X-trail. I would stay clear of the RAV4 it has a smallish boot and it sounds like you need space back there.

Ooh the volvo...hmmm xc60 i think its called, is lovely, the family across the road have one, have a gander at that one too!
Why thankyou, i am ridiculously northern!

Honda CR-V quite big, no ?

Fancied the Nissan Qashqai as smaller than X-trail, parking issues to consider

Is the Volvo XC60 a smaller version of an XC90 ? Haven't some across that one - goes off to google again.

Hav heard bad things about RAV4 and cornering/stability/ability in snow. My modest hatch back made it here and there through the snow last winter with a bit of careful driving.

Adore XC90s but just too big parking wise.

This is proving most helpful, thankyou ladies or gents or whoever you all my be.

Bad news, having googled, can't afford a Volvo unless I have one with more miles on the clock than my current hatchback has already done !

I do 8,000 miles a year, mostly stop-start short journeys. I think the motoring I have to do means the car doors get more wear than the engine. Dh says I should get a diesel this time but I'm not convinced.

you know LGA, I was talking to my mechanic last time I got the car serviced and he was telling me that short trips are much harder on cars than longer journeys. The reason is that you spend more time driving the car when the engine is colder and that is when a lot of wear happens.

OK, about sizes, I checked it out:
A qashqai is 4.3M long and 1.8M wide.
Ford Kuga is 4.4M long and 1.8M wide.
Honda CRV is 4.6M long and 1.8M wide
Toyota RAV4 is 4.3M long and 1.8M wide.
Nissan X-trail is 4.4M long and 1.8M wide.

So maybe the CR-V is a bit longer but all the others are basically the same size.

Oh definitely get a diesel, i have the 2.0l tdi passat and my touran will be the same engine, fast and 55 mpg average! From tequilla's list i have heard the nissan is excellent

Wow Tequilla, loving your detective work, I am quite sad and will probably set up spreadsheet with all the facts to aid the decision of what to bother test driving.