New car advice

[Soph88888]

Hi!
I have a BMW 2 series convertible and a 5 month old baby. We've just about managed for now with her car seat in the back, pram squeezed into the boot and my husband has had to accept leg room is a thing of the past... I'm the only driver and I'm out with baby every day so I need something a bit more practical and spacious but I'm really devastated to be losing my gorgeous car so I'm hoping to find something that will give me the same feeling but with extra practicality!

I'm currently spending around 60 to fill the tank with petrol and I fill up once every 4 weeks or so, so its pretty economical even though I'm out every day and I think the tax was £100something so I don't really want to spend more than that!

Does anyone have any advice on either:

Audi q3
Audi q5
Bmw x1
Bmw x2
Bmw x any others? (Think they maybe out of my price range though..)
I'd consider a Range if someone can convince me they're cheap enough to maintain and run?
And I'm potentially open to consider a different brand, if enough recommendations for it.

@Burnthurst187

Having owned SUV's I can safely say that the boot space is absolutely pathetic, it's been sacrificed for space in the cabin and with a baby and all the crap you need to lug around boot space is what you need

I own an estate car now and it ticks all the boxes. The boot is like a tardis. In the future dd will have a bike so we'll be able to fit it in with mine no problem

Driving an SUV was like driving a big, sloppy jelly. Poor mpg and handling too

Yes, typically an SUVs boot is smaller than the equivalent estate car, BUT it is bigger than the equivalent hatchback. It's a trade off - I like being high up and the SUVs I've had, have had adequate boots for what I've needed without the length of vehicle of an estate. For a big boot as well though, OP would need to look more to a full 4x4.

@romancer "Hyundai have developed Hydrogen Fuel Cell power which I think will take over from EV. "

Hydrogen was the future in the 1970s and it will remain the future for a little longer before manufacturers finally admit it's a dead end, at least for road vehicles.

The energy conversion efficiency of a petrol/diesel engine is around 25% (generously estimated), for hydrogen, it's around 50%, for battery electric it's around 90%. Obviously those numbers aren't the whole story or petrol would never have taken over from electric around the start of the 20th century.

Hydrogen requires a whole new distribution network, electric has challenges, but will use basically the same network we have now.

The biggest problem for electric vehicles is the batteries. Cars are launching now with 500 mile range, but the batteries are heavy and those cars are too expensive for most people. In 10 years time, the batteries will be a lot lighter and charge quickly and electric cars will probably be cheaper than the petrol equivalent to buy. They are already cheaper to run.

Hydrogen was the future in the 1970s and it will remain the future for a little longer before manufacturers finally admit it's a dead end, at least for road vehicles

Or until a few hundred years down the line when somebody finally works out to extract hydrogen from water using minimal energy. Then we will all be using cars powered by water and releasing oxygen as a byproduct. Greta Thunderbirds great great great great grandchildren will be very pleased.

I have a RR and the only issues i've ever had with it (and the ones in the past) is me running into things. What is your budget?

I have a RR and the only issues i've ever had with it (and the ones in the past) is me running into things.

If you get a good one they can be OK, get a bad one though and you’re in for a nightmare. I will never own a JLR product that’s for sure, some of the stories are incredible, especially around quality control.

If you get a good one they can be OK, get a bad one though and you’re in for a nightmare.

I know I've posted this earlier, but I must definitely have a bad one (RR Sport). And judging by the fact that, when I call to book mine in for yet another repair, it's always a 6 week wait, I'm guessing that there are a fair few bad ones out there... It's probably had over 20 faults over the last 3 years costing around £8-10k in total (thankfully covered by the warranty I pay for).

The interior is lovely, it's the best SUV to drive I've owned, very smooth and good round corners (and has bizarrely quick 0-60 stats) but I could never recommend buying one. The thickness of the interior trim also means the boot is a fair bit smaller than my Volvo XC90 and the rear leg room isn't great, particularly in the middle seat. Which isn't ideal for a car that is embarrassingly large to drive around.