Which family car should we buy?

[ButterflyOfFreedom]

Originally posted in Chat before realising there was a Cars section! (Sorry)

So...

2 adults, 2 school age children.
No dogs / bikes / prams etc. We're not campers and/or don't have excessive sports equipment etc (!!!) - the most we'd have in the boot is our weekly shop or a few suitcases when going away!

We never buy new - usually one about 3 years old and usually (though I imagine this may increase!?!) spend about £10k.

Short list so far is:
VW Golf
Seat Leon
Vauxhall Astra
Renault Megane
Peugeot 308

So, which would you recommend out of those? Or any others we haven't thought of?

Thank you!

"Age and mileage cause certain things to wear, the Lexus isn't exempt from that"

Please tell me where I said it was exempt?

Clearly, your VW-bias makes you incompetent at reading as is evidenced by your failure to understand what I wrote with respect to Lexus being faultless.

Duh!

Also I have never been 'butt fucked' by any of my cars.

I was talking specifically about M cars and AMGs. Awesome cars but try one out of warranty and you’ll feel the pain.

OK ladies (& possibly gents!) - let's do a random straw poll then. Which would you buy?

VW Golf
Seat Leon
Hyundai i30
Honda Civic

In rough order:

If I didn't care about image, and was going to keep it long enough that residuals weren't a major issue, a second-hand i30. It's probably the best deal: dirt cheap second hand, the dealers are nice, the car is OK (I've rented a few).

The Civic is more expensive, no better built, more expensive to run, but does have better residuals. So if you're going to keep it forever, it might make more sense. Smaller, though, isn't it?

The Leon is a nicer car than a Golf, probably built at least as well (which isn't saying much) and cheaper to buy second-hand than a Golf. But will depreciate more, so you'd have to keep it longer, and they aren't hugely common so if you're fussy about spec/colour/transmission you might wait a bit. Some of the shoutier people are going to shout, but DSG is nice if you want an auto if you get the six-speed, wet-plate version. The 7-speed dry-plate version is a bit riskier.

Golf is basically a Leon and vice versa: more expensive, not very well built, better residuals, expensive to run, lots of 'em.

Golf/Leon are one and the same (as well as being underequipped and shit).

Civic gets the nod here.

Civic
i30
Leon
Golf

"So if you're not going to keep it forever"

Residuals matter if you plan to sell the car before it's worth almost nothing. If you're going to run the car into the ground (which in 2018 makes a lot more sense, because rust isn't a thing any more: 20 years and 200k miles is easy to achieve, given regular servicing) then you don't care what it's notionally worth, because you aren't selling it.

Skoda Octavia

Browsing car posts....there's some bloody rude people on this thread

I ran a Honda Civic for 8 years, then replaced it with an Octavia that I ran for 8 years. I would say the Civic was a little more reliable, but there wasn't much to choose in terms of reliability. The interior of the Octavia felt a bit cheaper and it eventually rusted a little around the rear screen, which was apparently a common issue due to poor fitting at the factory, but overall it was a pretty solid car.

Of the 4 cars listed, I would say the Civic is going to be the best, but the price will probably reflect that. I don't have a strong opinion on the Golf/Leon/i40 comparison.