How do you choose a family car that’s right for you? Share your experiences and questions for Autotrader expert - £100 voucher to be won!

[CeriMumsnet]

Whether you’re searching for your first family car, about to replace your current one, or you’ve recently upsized, one thing is clear: parenting brings a specific set of needs when it comes to cars.

We’d love to hear about your experiences of choosing a family car. What made you realise you needed a new one, and which features matter to you most? What advice would you give to parents currently searching for their perfect family car?

We're also pleased to announce that Autotrader's trusted car expert, Erin Baker, will be on hand to answer any questions you have around choosing a family car, from which make and model to choose, to whether now's the time to go electric, and everything in between - she promises there's no such thing as a stupid question!

Everyone who shares their experience or question by 12 February will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 VEX voucher.

About Erin
Mum of four Erin is Autotrader’s Editorial Director, and has spent most of her career as a motoring journalist on The Daily Telegraph. She also writes a monthly car column for Vogue, hosts She's Electric, and is a World Car of the Year judge. She has a motorbike licence, and used to have a race licence.

We chose a new family car recently. Reliability was key as was space and comfort. Research paid off and we are now very happy with the choice. Our old car had some maintenance issues which kept recurring leading us to realise we should look for another.

Definitely boot space is important! Also we find we had to try to make a balance between cost and reliability

Safe spacious, go anywhere and practical a Range Rover Sport if enough cash is available, one mum with lots of kids has a Transit van with seats in the back

Size, safety and price. Although we are out of the buggy years, we have a dog and need to take bikes often, when we go away want space for all our things. But then for every day, I don’t want to be trying to park a tank.

Limiting pollution

We have just bought our new family car. It has childlocks on the doors. Fixing points on each of the three rear seats for our off springs' car seats, especially important for the 3 bundles of joy. Pockets at the back of the front two seats for essentials. Room by front passenger seat for a small bag of vital baby/small people supplies. Most importantly, we checked that we can get pushchair, bags of spare nappies, clothes and such like, as well as little bikes etc in the boot.
We haven't gone for looks or street cred as we need to be practical. The car is good on fuel economy, lowish tax and not too high insurance, helping keep costs down. We had the seats treated so spills can easily be mopped up without leaving stains.
We had a lovely little car but it wasn't practical for our family. Too difficult getting 3 little ones in and out of the back seats, small boot, too cramped overall.
I would recommend taking the things you need to carry in the boot with you when trying new cars. See how it fits in. Saves a lot of heartache in the end.

Reliability.

That’s why I won’t really consider anything that’s not Japanese, specifically Honda or Toyota.

We don't worry about street cred or style so it tends to be about managing the balance between cost, reliability and space/practicality.

I have a question: other than trying out a whole bunch of cars, is there a way of telling how much space is left behind the drivers seat when it's all the way back? My DH is quite tall and always has the driver's seat slid right back. However, we now have 3 children and as they get bigger, there isn't enough leg room behind the drivers seat for the eldest. Ideally we need a car with enough space for 5 adults, but I also don't want to drive a massive tank (for economy/pollution reasons and because I hate parking big cars). Other than asking for recommendations, I don't know how to find out stuff like legroom/seat width etc for particular cars.

Having 4 doors - after struggling with a 2 door car - having 4 doors and been so much easier getting the family out for the day. As for make and model - well that's not as important to me - they all get you from a to b.

We had a 2 door hatchback, and when DC1 came along, we bought a 4 door hatch, having boot space was just so essential, especially when going to nursery and grandparents when we took toys and travel cot for the weekend.
We looked at lots of reviews from other parents on reliability, running costs, safety features and having windows at the back which have a shaded colour to them.
Having a 4 doors with a car seat is essential.

I am partly safety and partly reliability. We got our Toyota hybrid Auris about 4 years ago, and I've NEVER once had to be worried that it wouldn't start or that I would be without it because of any issues. I think boot space also was important for us with bugges but less so now DD is a bit older. Still the size and reliability is something I wouldn't trade.

I made a thread about this the other day and it's been soo helpful!
We had a baby last year and our little hatchback is just nowhere near big enough for our needs now.
Our cars have always been reliable, so that's a huge factor for us.
But of course safety, space and also just being fun to drive are up there! I'd also love an upgrade in infortainment, so I can listen to Spotify as I drive around instead of my cd's. 😁
I'm not very car savvy, so I'd say ask around for advice! Ask a trusted mechanic, family, friends. Then research online and watch videos. I posted on here to ask advice on 2 cars, but someone recommended a completely different one. Since doing a bit of research, I'm actually going to view that model today and hopefully will be buying it. Exciting!
(Bring on the boot space - dismantling the pushchair and putting it in different places of our current hatchback is not ideal! 😅)

As I need my car to start in the morning , get to school and work, reliability is the top of my list - I read reviews, and check the service history of the car I want to purchase.

Most of our driving is short journey town driving so we’d like our next car to be an electric one. However cost is off putting. Are secondhand electric cars worth buying or will the battery expire too quickly? What should we look for/be careful about in selecting one?

New enough to be reliable, then balance between cost and space.

Just bought a family sized car to day- reliability and safety was top fo my list. Three seats across the back and a large boot helped the decision.

Boot space, hight (as top low you can struggle to get children in car seats), safety and the ability to sit an adult In the back with car seats either side.

Reliabilty, safety, designed so that both me and DH can drive it easily. The last one is because there are so many cars that DH is fine in, but when I test them, my height means the pedals are too far away so I'm pressing them with my toes and I somehow end up with more blindspots than him.

We are in the process of buying a new car ATM. Well, a used car, but new to us.

We need a car with a decent sized boot for sports kit or suitcases, and which can fit 3 teenagers in the back - both width and legroom and headroom. Having Isofix points used to be a major factor for us, but we’re past that now.

Easy to use sat nav and radio is key - I’m always dashing somewhere and having to fiddle with a complicated menu can be stressful.

Reliability is a big one - we need a car that isn’t temperamental and isn’t in and out of the garage.

We have been booking appointments back to back at showrooms, so we can compare models directly. The kids are quite enjoying hopping from car to car to compare backseats etc.

Finding a new family car was really difficult. We looked online using what car and then went into the showrooms so view some of the options and test drove 3 different cars. When we did our test drive I took both of our children and made sure to transfer the car seats over and put our pram in the boot. Our new family car needed to offer the front seats plently of leg room whilst being safe for the kids in the back. I needed a boot that comfortably fit in our pram aswell as some bags or suitcases. We landed on the new Mazda cx80 and it’s the perfect family car! We wrote a list of our needs and likes and this was the only car that ticked every single one. Stretched the budget but worth it.

Boot space. Not for buggies, we don't have those any more. But food shopping for a whole family takes space. Then bikes or scooters. Fold down seats are great too, for needing to transport larger item such as furniture.

We bought a 2nd car last month after being a one car household for the last 3 years.

All of these applied for us, despite having an estate car already and only 2 kids we were constantly running out of space (we also have a dog)

Boot space for buggies and bags - and space for the dog.

Reliability and peace of mind - we chose newer and low miles over a fancy brand on this front. Remaining manufacturer warranty was important.

Running costs and affordability - we’ve opted for hybrid to maximise our solar panels when just doing nursery drop off and quick trips. But also wanted to have the range for longer trips having experienced a full-EV

Comfort (for kids and adults) - this also tied into space as we found big variations in the leg room and cabin space even in SUVs and “bigger” cars

It's so hard, it's such a big decision for such a lot of money and only a short test drive and the word of the car salesperson to go on. We have made a choice to only drive electric which limits us, we have also tried to get our monthly outgoings lower. We just chose a car, went on a test drive, it was ok, checked it had several features (I love the automatic speed limiter so I know I'm within the speed limit), ordered it, turned up to get it...and no limiter. We rejected the car. Half the issue is they don't have all the models to test drive so we went on the word of the sales person. In fact when we collected I said I would want the person to show me how to use the limiter and he confidently told me that's no problem (...argh second person to tell me is has a limiter!). We've then had to rush to get a new car, I'm without a car at the moment and it is really hard to be so limited! We've now ordered a VW ID.5...but it's been delayed due to a fault. I'm still waiting, and getting impatient! What do I look for in a car? Speed limiter, comfort, safety, legroom in the back.

We have a big Honda Jazz - Honda are super reliable. There's so much space in them. And if one of us is using the car to transport things, or do a huge shop, then the back seats can be flipped like cinema seats. The children have a good view out of the seats and safety and reliability is high. It's a hybrid and very economical to run. But a safe , reliable car was the most important.

When buying my car 7 years ago I looked for space, reliability and style/comfort.