New family car with lots of space for 20k?

[madoldwoman]

As above really! Intend to keep the car for a long time so requirements are....

• Doesn't have to be brand new but as low a mileage as possible.
• Don't need to seat 7 but may be nice to have the option as the kids grow and take friends.
• Must have big boot as we're thinking of starting camping next year.
• needs to occasionally get an adult in the back seat between the2 car seats (both rodi's)
• Would like good performance but reasonable economy and low-ish road tax
• Not french - have not had a good experience with french cars in the past!

Our current thinking is a VW passat Estate (seem to be able to get 2.0tdi pre-reg's which are as new for around our budget) but was wondering if there's anything better? (I know this isn't 7 seat but it seems to tick all other boxes!)

Did I mention I miss my Mazda6?

You can't comfortably get an adult in the middle of a Passatt estate that has 2 maxi cosi rodi's in the back. I was that adult at the weekend. It was far from comfortable and I was thankful that we were only going 10 miles.

I know you said not French, but my peugeot 5008 is great and easily ticks all of your boxes apart from the French one.

I love my S-Max.

Big boot with the 2 back seats down, roomy in the main cabin and my 2.0 diesel is surprisingly economical.

Thanks all for your help. The Skoda Octavia estate is back in the running - have convinced DH to look past the badge (although it's 0-60 time of 8.5 secs certainly awoke his interest!). Think we will still look at the passat just to see but Skoda makes more sense from a cost perspective, we're looking at the 1.4 tsi engine. We're also going to test the Toyota avensis, mazda 6 and hyundai i40.

although it's 0-60 time of 8.5 secs certainly awoke his interest!

That's pretty slow to be honest but as long as he likes it! I like the Octavia and Skoda do seem to have the best reliability out of the VAG brands which is odd as they all share the same tech. Only thing that would concern me is the 1.4tsi motor - I'm not entirely convinced about their long term reliability - lots of high tech to go expensively wrong. Have also heard of high oil consumption on them although that may be resolved by now

I know ramrod - but compared to every other car we've owned so far it's positively a rocket! I've read a few things about the tsi too but You can't win can you? Go diesel and you're likely to fall foul of the dpf if you're not doing enough. You seem to be running a risk whatever you choose these days

I guess a day testing cars in order to see how they all stack up.

To be honest a naturally aspirated petrol that's been around for a while is likely to be the most reliable/cheap to repair - one of the reasons I suggested the Honda was that the motor is tried and tested and pretty much indestructible. Do they do a naturally aspirated 1.6 Octavia?

No is the easy answer. The manual is actually 8.1 sec to 62 rather than 8.5 for the DSG. I'd take the manual - less to go wrong. Would hate to have to get a DSG box repaired out of warranty!

For truly massive see if you can get a skoda superb estate, though I suspect used ones might be like gold dust.

We used to have a ford galaxy, your budget would give you the a choice models with more bells and whistles than the basic. So roomy and most reliable car we ever had. Miss the space now, the boot was massive with two rear seats down but you could comfortably fit 7 adults when all seats up.

Oh it'll definitely be manual ramrod - can't bear automatics or paddles. Half the fun of driving is the gear change! (And don't even start me on electric handbrakes!!)

I really want to love the Honda you suggested as I'm sure you're right about its reliability... but I just can't see myself driving it! If you don't mind me asking, do you work in the motor trade or are you just an enthusiast? You seem to be very knowledgeable on these things!

The more I think about it, the car for us probably isn't an mpv 7 seater but a medium to large size estate. Not too ridiculously big for parking round town during the week but spacious enough if we do start camping (we have a roof box as well so can always put that on). So I think we'll start looking at the list I had earlier. It might be a bit of a squeeze for the third person in the back but they're unlikely to be in there for very long journeys and in all honesty not that often at the moment.

Thank you for all the replies - I wasn't expecting so many! Clearly I'm not the only one who's spent so much time thinking about this .

Have you looked at the VW touran?

I love my SMax. Great to have the extra seats for when I need them and the boot with the seats down is huge.

I'm just an enthusiast although I generally find I know more than most people in the motor trade. Most of the info is generally pretty easy to find though especially if you start spending time on make specific forums. I think you'll find the Kia and Hyundai stuff extremely reliable. I spent a couple of days with a new Sportage and was really impressed with the overall quality.