Can a small car be a family car?

[rattling]

Of course it can, but do you think it would work for me. If so which one?

I have just driven my 3rd car to the scrap yard. I never have much of a budget so have bought older cars and driven them to the point of being economically unviable. I still don't have much of a budget (£2000) but this time I have children to think of.

Car 1&2 were peugeot 205s, recently departed car was a Nissan Almera. I got a bigger car to help out with deliveries for DH's business, but that is irrelevant now as the twins I had 4 years ago put a stop to that anyway.

So the boys will be moving into high backed boosters in the new car. This means we really can't offer anyone a lift anyway - the back seat will be all theirs. I expect to hang onto this car for about 5 years - how much legroom do 9 year olds need?

But. It seems odd to downsize as my family grows up. The car is mostly for my fairly short journey to work and taking the boys out around town. We do 1 or 2 trips a year with all of us in the car for holidays no more than 3 hours away and I worry about the safety in a small car. (Like the look of a Honda Jazz but only 3 star safety rating for passengers).

Should I stick with the medium size family car idea, or would a small car work?

2 kids, 2 adults? We are 4 kids (including a teen) and 2 adults, I get by with a Fiat 500. We do have a huge beast of a 2nd car which does about 50 miles a month, usually when we want to haul something huge home from B+Q (they could deliver instead).

We have a Yaris which has enough room for 2 adults & 2 bigger children

Likewise. My Yaris is perfectly big enough for our family of 4. We use it to go holiday too (and that includes our clothes, food, utensils and everything!) They're surprisingly roomy.

We have a Nissan Almera. It's fine. 4 times a year we feel crammed in when we go on holiday 8 hours away, but the rest of the time a big car would be overkill.

Did really notice the size though when we had 3 adults, 2 kids, a pushchair, baby carrier & dog in the boot!

The jazz is great, very flexible space and a decent boot. Although the children get bigger, their paraphernalia surely can't be as big as now (eyes travel cot, high chair, pushchair, box of nappies, etc. which are required for us to stay anywhere for a reasonable amount of time)

I've got a skoda fabia and its plenty big enough for 4 of us and all of our general crap. You get a lot for your money with skodas too.