not much money and need reliability

[hettie]

V long story but our very reliable 10 year old Seat altea looks like it may be being written off. We will (hopefully) be getting a check for £2200. Not sure what we could buy that would be reliable, cheap to run and fit camping gear, growing kids (2, but increasingly lifts for friends) and not over budget....
Half considering a loan and moving up to a budget of around 10-11k, but wondering about depreciation costs etc. Our plan had been to keep the Altea until it died (2-3 years) and then buy a 2-3 year old estate/mpv...
Any advice?

Sounds like you need an estate car. I think many of these have better boot capacity than an MVP . They usually drive better too. Also secondhand MPVs have been somewhat used and abused by families. I would look at a Volvo, a VW Passat, or Mazda 6 estates. You will get depreciation on all cars but at £12,000 all of the above cars will have taken the biggest hit on depreciation already. Most modern cars are reliable but bigger estate cars are never going to be the cheapest to run unless you buy a much newer car with greatly improved technology to enhance fuel consumption. I would avoid French and Italian cars and anything a bit quirky if you want to maintain resale value. I think a Mercedes would hold its value but obviously it would have to be an older one with the money you have. Have fun looking.

Lots of secondhand MPVs have been Motability vehicles actually because they are easy to get in and out of. As Motabilty pay for the maintenance and servicing they have been very well maintained and have low mileage.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/honda-tops-reliability-survey/1202107 Here's the list of the most reliable used car brands in 2013. It makes interesting reading, especially to those who keep saying avoid French cars!.

I prefer MPV's to estate cars because of their versatility. If you buy one with 3 individual rear seats, you can take them out. So when you go camping, you could just have 2 in the back and free up more space. We've done it quite a few times on Ikea trips!

Link

mme very interesting reading, thanks Iam... I think we understand the practical nature of the MPV style, but wonder if we might get more of a bargain with overlooked estates.
Having had a long look at finances (and the state of our leaking house), we might have to forgo the loan and opt for something make do with the insurance money. This worries me as I feel as I 'know' our car and don't want to swap it for something that's going to cost us money/be unreliable.

Hardly any MPVs are notability cars! They are mostly family cars and used as such. You have to take out seats and store them which is a complete faff in comparison to an estate car. If you use the third row of seats, the passengers are sitting in the boot space and I would not like anyone running into the crumple zone with children seated in it. A good estate car is just a better built car.

Long term ownership of large estate cars would never point anyone in the direction of a large Citroen or Fiat! Reliable brands, is not the complete picture. Depreciation and quality of build is also an issue for most owners. How many large Citroens and Fiats do you actually see in this country? No-one buys them! I forgot about a Honda. One of these would make sense too.

am looking at honda and hyundai too.....
Can't believe how insanely expensive cars are!

As a previous user of Motabilty and the daughter of a car dealer who has been in the business for 45 years, I can assure you a lot of MPV's have been Motability.

Not all MPV's have 7seats. You do not have to put a child in a third row seat. Taking a seat out and storing it is not a faff, it takes minutes. DH whips them out, we put them in the dining room and put them back in, in less than 5 minutes when we get back. It is personal preference if you go for an estate or an MPV at the end of the day.

WRT depreciation the car that I know personally that depreciated the most was FIL's Honda Accord estate. He said he might as well have set fire to a pile of bank notes!

I agree with you, Hettie, cars are incredibly expensive at the moment.

It might be worth looking at Kia? I have heard that the more recent Kias are fairly well built and (relatively) good value.

I have no experience of Kia myself.

Also think about Skoda. They are ususally significantly cheaper than VW/Audi, but use the same mechanical bits. We bought a 3 1/2 year old Skoda Octavia Estate 7 years ago. It's still going strong and has a humongous boot, so, if you don't need the extra seats an Octavia estate might fit the bill.

Is your car still likely to be drivable? If so you can get it fixed and keep on driving it if that would work out cheaper? I had an old car that was technically written off. The insurance paid out but it was still road legal, and I kept driving it for another couple of years after that. I don't know if this is a possibility for you?