£10k to spend on a roomy, petrol, economic family car with big boot... C-Max Ecoboost?

[SatsumaFan]

Hello

We're looking to chop in our 07 plate Touran Sport for something slightly smaller in January. We have two kids in car seats plus a 19yo on occasions. I'm so used to my lovely big boot and being able to pop bikes and things in there I want to find something with a big boot.

Always had 2.0l diesel turbos for past 10-15 years but have been told by so many mechanics to get a petrol next. Have had lots of trouble with the dpf on this one as I now only do short trips for the most part.

Has anyone got one of the newer Ford C-max EcoBoosts? 999cc engine, but with a turbo so packs a little punch, £30 per year tax, economical...sounds perfect? I've never had a Ford before as havean irrational hatred of them!

If not, any other suggestions or recommendations? Skoda Octavia Estate perhaps?

Not had a Cmax for a while but it was an ok car except it had the turning circle of a bus. So if you get a test drive take it into a car park and try it out before you buy.

Ah ok, thanks for the tip! I had an S-Max for a couple of weeks last year (courtesy car) and yeah, turning circle of the titanic

Octavia all the way. I’m not sure what you’ll get for 10k but diesel prices have dropped a lot so you could be lucky. This is our second Octavia (first was a manual diesel). I’ve also had a Fabia from new and just scrapped after 16 yrs. Skoda cars are great. You get a lot for your money with cars built to last. Just check out what car.

Just looking on AutoTrader now and actually, for our £10k budget we'd have to go quite old (2010-ish) and there seems to be a lot of high-mileage 2.0l petrol VRS models out there. High tax, rubbish fuel economy (but have awesome 0-60 stats! Sadly my girl racer days are over)

I'm after a smaller, more economical engine and definitely petrol.

We're currently looking for something similar, and currently our search seems to be narrowed to:

Vauxhall insignia
Skoda octavia
Hyundai i40
Toyota avensis
Mazda 6

Admittedly my girl racer days are definitely not over, so I keep dismissing poor 0-60 options which is causing a bit of budget creep!

@Notlostjustexploring thanks for your short-list - will check them out tomorrow! I'm drooling over some of the sportier Octavias doing 0-60 in 8 seconds! (I've currently got the 170bhp Touran Sport which does it in 9, so anything under around 10/11 seconds will take some getting used to !)

Perhaps we can car shop together What do you currently have?

Google the ecoboost engine. Loads of problems with it. I had a cmax 13 plate. It had done 44k miles when a year ago, the engine went. I believe I've posted on a MN thread of others who had the same problem. I had to scrap a 4 year old car!!!

I just searched. I was wrong. It was 38k! Even worse!

://m.facebook.com/groups/FordEcoboostNightmare/

We have a Ford Galaxy which I love because of all the room for 2 x teenage DC stuff and friend wrangling etc. However, its a company car so I haven't had to pay for all the things that have gone wrong with it. I would be really pissed if I owned it and it has really put me off owning a Ford.

So far the whole electronic boot opening system including the back door has had to be replaced, the ABS brake system has failed and has to be replaced and there has been a major electrics fault resulting in warning light bingo at regular intervals. It's been pulled apart twice and the electrics problem still isn't fixed.

Oh dear, maybe my irrational hatred of Ford isn't so Irrational after all ! Had heard there were teething problems with the EcoBoost, and not to touch a 1.5l version with a barge pole as they have a rubbish Peugeot engine in them. Was hoping a newer 999cc version might be ok.

Thanks for advice @ThisMustBeMyDream and so sorry to hear of your car nightmare!

Scrapping a 4 year old car with under 40k miles????? Ouchy!!

The car we're replacing is a mazda 3 sport, so I think about 180bhp and around 8 seconds 0-60. My husband was trying to talk me into having a lower powered car because, and I quote, "it's not like either of us actually use all the power that's available in the engine anyway".

Darling, I think you'll find on occasion that I do indeed rev the nuts off your the car.

I'm not a total speed fiend, ie I do drive legally, but I do like acceleration with a bit of oomph. I drive hire cars with work occasionally, they are always the gutless eco versions and they are so annoying and so slow.

Our car shopping has currently slowed to a temporary halt due to a newborn, but I can definitely recommend visiting a car supermarket if you've one local to you. We walking round one basically opening up all the boots. There were a couple of massive cars with really disappointing boot sizes actually.

I don’t think I could bear to own something that can only drag its arse to 60 in 8 seconds, properly gutless, as is the Ford 1.0 eco boost.

Octavia all the way. You could fit a donkey in the boot, I'm not joking.

I have a Ford Ecoboost .999 estate.

Great car. I lease it and will give it back after three years in February and I will get another.

The previous one I had did have the coolant hose problem, but that tends to happen over 30000 miles on older models, which is why I now lease new ones.

I have a Grand C-Max. I like it, but if you are looking for a big boot, I'm not sure a C-Max will suit. I had an Octavia vRS before that, and that had amazing boot space, but it was't economical.

Thanks for replies and advice, and congrats on the new born Notlostjustexploring

I've realised after having Tourans for nearly 5 years I do love the higher driving position. Would I be mad to contemplate test driving a Davis Duster and a (very fugly) Skoda Yeti ?!

*Dacia Duster! Not Davis