How much do you need to spend to buy decent family car?

[theyoniwayisnorthwards]

OH is insisting we won't find anything safe, in decent condition and suitable for transporting kids for less than 10k. I know nothing about cars but that seems a lot. Is he right?

Depends on how many seats you need but you could buy a new car with a 5* ncap rating for that.

A five seater, we have two young kids, no pets and live centrally with great public transport. He would use it for work and we'd use it now and then on the weekends for daytrips but that's it.

Bonkers. You could spend a third of that and get something fine. Won't be new, will have some miles on it.

We've just bought a fab Volvo Estate, 4 yrs old, with one of them fancy fuel systems that means it's really economical to run despite having the enormous boot space we were looking for, and only £20 pa car tax, for £7K.

This was because we've been feeling a bit flush. All our previous family cars cost quite a bit less than that.

Of course you can get a decent family car for less than £10k. Unless you're doing mega miles then get a petrol. Look for something from the likes of Honda/Toyota.

one of them fancy fuel systems that means it's really economical to run

I assume it's diesel? Quite likely that if something goes wrong it will more than wipe out the fuel savings.

thanks for that encouraging thought rich

Thanks for all the helpful advice, no way am I agreeing to more than 7k!