Need a much bigger car on a small budget - worried about mileage

[Spanneroo]

We've found out that baby number 3 is actually 3 and 4, and we're having a small panic about the car arrangement. We only have a small hatchback at the moment so need to upgrade. Due to needing the boot seats in use 24/7, I think we're looking at a SEAT Alhambra, Ford Galaxy, or VW Sharan.

Our budget is only ~£7k (which was going to be fine when we only needed one for 3 kids!) But, looking at AutoTrader etc, the only cars I can find on there are comfortably over 100,000 miles and it's making me anxious.

We bought our current car almost new. The one before it had 60k on the clock. My first car had 150k but it was my grandad's, and I knew it had been very well looked after.

Currently, we do around 12k miles a year, and we'll probably not be able to afford to upgrade the car until around 5-6 years from now, so that's another 60k miles.

Can anyone give me any info about how many miles is too many for these specific cars, and what to look out for when we're looking at them?

Personally wouldnt spend that much on a car with over 100k miles no matter how many seats it has. Can you look into the 7k being a down payment then a small finance or loan which you can slowly pay back? Im also very sure youre aware of the risks but we bought a dud second hand car and i would recommend going to a garage that gives you a bit or warantee. The last thing you need with 4 children is to have spent 7k on a heap of sh*t.
Good luck to you and congratulations. Also try not to panic... it will all shake out alright in the end

We can maybe push to £8000 but that's WITH finance. Things are really, really tight at the moment and this news hasn't made things easier!

I’d go for an older car with fewer miles on the clock in that situation.

Have you looked at a vauxhall zafira? Saw a 2012 plate with 70kmiles for 6k in the garage i bought my meriva from. Just an idea

I’ve just done a search on Autotrader for 7 seaters between £6-7k and loads came up with 50k miles and under.

Modern cars are designed to last 200,000 miles with proper maintenance.

If you change the oil every 5k miles, and change the fuel and air filters regularly it should have no issues.

Something I learned since leaving the UK is that us Brits are terrible at routine maintenance. Hence why our cars have such short lives.

I also did a search, 7 seater zafira, 78k miles for 4grand.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get 3 car seats across the back in moat smaller 7 seaters, and my understanding was that "occasional" boot seats in smaller 7 seaters should be avoided for permanent use because they aren't as safe as full seats, and many child seats arent approved for fitting in them.

Our eldest has only just turned 5, so we will have 4 in car seats for quite some time yet.

and my understanding was that "occasional" boot seats in smaller 7 seaters should be avoided for permanent use because they aren't as safe as full seats

Complete BS. They wouldnt be there if they were only for 'occasionsl use'. Qhat do you do, set out of the house thinking "oh i can use the boot space today because im less likely to crash for X reason". Sounds like youre making a bit of a mountain here op. Can easily find a 7 seater within budget

A Zafira would be fine with 4 car seats in. You just need to research which would be the best fit.

Giraffe - 3rd row seats do not, by law, have to be crash tested by Euroncap. The only three UK cars with third row air bags are the three I've mentioned. Personally, I don't think I'm making too much of a big deal of this, but appreciate you're entitled to your opinion.

Thanks all for your help.

I'm with you on the safety front, can you afford to wait until the right car pops up? Do you walk to school or drive?

C4 grand picasso has 3 full middle seats and could use a RF child seat in the front passenger seat with air bag off and an adult in the back.

We walk to school but it's our only car, and nearest relatives are almost 2 hours away, so ideally we wouldn't wait too long to get something we can all travel in. I've given myself a mental cut off of August, so we have a few months to keep an eye out. I'm going to speak to my dad this weekend and see if he might be able to help out a little with a loan of some sort.

We could put one of us in the boot of a smaller car. That could work as an interim solution. Though it'd be me as OH is 6'6 so I'm not sure he'd manage to pretzel himself into the back seats, bless him!

Something I learned since leaving the UK is that us Brits are terrible at routine maintenance. Hence why our cars have such short lives.

We can't be that bad. One of mine is over 60 years old, lives outside and starts on the button.

I'd go for an older Volvo XC90. They are massive and very sturdy cars. I had one that had done 200k+ and it was still going strong. Buying second hand they do tend to smell of someone else's dog but a valet gets rid of that! We only got rid of it as moved from rural to city and our kids were past the kiddy car seat stage. I still miss it though, it was my favourite car to drive and very easy to adjust the 7 seats, cup holders and storage in all the right places, etc etc.