[Closed] Righteo - you know what's coming - what family car for ~£9000?

02 Golf TDi Estate and spend the 6.5k change on a holiday / 2 seater / new bike

EDIT: 7.5K change

vw tdi passat as new as you can afford, in black or blue of course, preferably the highline with silver trim and leather interior.

Go and look at a Berlingo.

Drive a berlingo.

Stay away from expensive to fix when they fail volks/audi/skoda/seat.

Mondeo.

Next?

^Feline boy is right.

You know a mondeos not a bad shout....although how would mrs mankylung cope with parking a barge ?

Parking sensors and beer for local car body repair shop.

/end thread

Oh and some driving lessons .....wonder who could do that....

how would mrs mankylung cope with parking a barge ?

although my Mrs (and me ashamedly) managed to rag it anyhow...

still cavernous though.

Mrs mankylung can reverse small trailers. she is a former farm girl...

Someone please suggest an Octavia, standards are slipping here.

Has to be an Octavia. Partly as I own one, partly as you are on STW and if you can't afford an Audi to transport your Orange 5 you need the next best thing, and partly as the last two mates who have faced this dilemma have gone from "anything but a Skoda!" to "I can't find a reason not to get one".

Every make/type of car will throw up internet horror stories, Skodas are no worse than any others.

would have said Saab for cavernous carrying capacity (and because that's what I had), but obviously that's out of the question these days. So -- we replaced our 900 with an '10 Octavia and so far so good. Was about £9k as it happens, petrol rathe than diesel, nearly went for a hatchback (saloon with opening lid really), but glad ended up with estate -- ideal for our purpose, straight swap in terms of capacity, size, functions, and good VFM.. hopefully we'll have it as long as the last car.. 🙂

He only said 1/2 decent to drive, so if you take the high position, space, comfort and leave the fact that it handles like a canal barge it is a winner. Seriously for families they make so much sense. The fact I can pack for a family of four for a week put it all in the boot and fit my bike on the parcel shelf seals the deal. Plus sliding doors ace, sitting down in the boot with the boot lid up ace and your unlikely to get a speeding fine. Love my family barge.

I'd say a top spec Mondeo Estate Titanium X with a rather big engine would be fun.

Civic 2.2 diesel. Like the Tardis inside, shit visiblity, but ticks all your boxes

I rented a Vauxhall Zafira for 2 weeks.
The biggest piece of crap I have ever driven. It was an 1800 petrol. It drank fuel like a 6 litre V8. It had the power of a 1 litre metro. Handled like a hovercraft. Had the most annoying indicator stalk ever. I hated every second of being in that car.
I'm not helping much i realiss but just in case you see one avoid it like the plague.

I just got a skoda roomster, so far so good. An easy 55mpg with bike racks, rear seats adjust fore/aft for space, boot is ok. Parks like a small car and all passengers have amazing air light and visibility.

Personally, I'd go Passat

Just bought myself one for £3995, as I remembered liking the company car I had a few years ago. That was an SE saloon, but this is much better in Sport clothing - handles well for a big car, goes like stink for a 140bhp - especially in S mode on the DSG, really comfy, all the toys, huge boot. You'd get an absolute belter for £9k and far nicer than a Mondeo

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I've had mpvs before.I loved the practicality and versatility,but it wasn't often it actually got driven loaded with all the kids and loaded to the brim,so most of the time you pay the penalty of driving a car that is less economical and not as nice to drive as a regular family hatch.
I have 3 kids and until recently managed fine with a mk 2 Focus which had a decent size boot and plenty of interior space.
I now have a BMW 320d f30 company car which is a nice drive,gives 60mpg but you'd need the touring and would be over budget.
At this price you could get a low mileage relatively recent Mondeo with a high spec.Hard to beat for vfm and great to drive.
The Passat does look good,lovely interior and looks classier but having driven many mondeos and a passat extensively preferred the mondeo.

Mazda 6 sports estate.
45/50 mpg no problem 180 brake handles brilliantly. Does not make you fall asleep lime all the vag alternatives plus you'll get better spec and about two years newer for the same money.

commodore SS Sportwagon with the redline pack.

wrightyson has a good suggestion too ^^ albeit not as big as some of the others

I've been driving around in a Mondeo estate for the last week or so and it's petty nice.
2.0 diesel business edition [whatever that means] with all the fancy electronics - cruise, parking beeper, sat nav etc.
I've done around 2k miles in it so a reasonable test.
Hard to say much about it really, comfortable, easy to drive, the onboard mpg display says avg 47.9mpg for the 2k miles.

My only gripe would be that it's a bit wallowy in fast motorway slip road bends compared to the Accord I'm used to.

str have you not had that like 2 weeks ?

Lower mileage 320d sport touring for much less. What's to lose?

far nicer than a Mondeo

Nope.

I've had both, the Passat is a truly great car, but the Mondeo is simply better in every respect.

and cheaper to fix to boot cougar.

anyone that says a passat needs fixing less is deluded - and the OP will agree having had a near new passat that was a bag of nails.

str have you not had that like 2 weeks ?

A week today - why?

I'd have a Mondeo over a Passat every day of the week. Wouldn't have said that 6 months ago but when we were car shopping I compared them side by side and the mondeo was better.
Octavia is good. Very good. 9k should get you a face lift mk2 vRS estate. Big boot but not as well built as people would have you believe - vw and audi do keep the nice stuff for their own ranges in terms of interior bits. Still a great call though and we were on the verge of getting a 1.8tsi Scout before we got a bmw. Still hanker after a scout when I see one...

a week , not very long for any issues to develop, hopefully not long enough to have recieved your first inflated repair bill.

i use the same mechanic for all my car - no reason to believe he was ripping me off , he gives me the reciepts direct from dingbro for parts.

yet all my other cars are stupidly cheaper for similar repair parts..... even the oil for the VW was silly money.

I had one for three years as a company car without a single issue

your company gave out 7 year old cars ?

What on earth are you rambling about?

I had a brand new '56 Passat for thee years and clocked up 90k without an issue.

I liked it, so needing a run around for a few months I bought myself a 7 yr old one. I have no idea if this one will develop any issues, but at 126k it seems to be running well.

On my experience of owning a Passat, I recommended one to the OP. With £9k to play with, he'll be going nowhere near 7 yr old 100k+ one.

Are you always this hard work?

320d

I had a look at a 5 series estate recently. The boot on that wasn't very big so I dread to think how poky the 3 Series is.

On my experience of owning a Passat, I recommended one to the OP.

Me too.

Identical situation, all roads led to S Max. especially with child seat aged children, once they hit boosters an estate becomes and option again (assuming it's a daily drive for the child carer).

50mpg I think is probably a dream with all 3 kids in.. definitely with all the kit. Loading for holidays tonight, going to look like a train into Mumbai .. tow bar rack with 4 bikes, one more in bits in the roof box, plus 2 surfboards.. if you see a sad middle aged man picking bits up off the A303 tomorrow, say hello 🙂

Just to add to some other posts - I wouldn't have 3 series - not very big at all

All BMWs have a smaller boot than their FWD peers as being RWD they have more gubbins back there

The S-Max is the only MPV that I find vaguely acceptable, vaguely

I've not found the boot in my 3 series a hinderence coming out of a mk2 Octavia estate and a mondeo st before that. Got a roof box for holidays and decided that for 9k, our low mileage loaded 330i basically pissed all over most newer stuff in that price range in terms of build and drive. Honestly, you really don't notice the marginally smaller boot but with two kids seats in the back you can't get anyone else inbetween them. Also falls somewhat short of the ops mpg need. By quite a lot!

Pre F30 3 series were a bit tight in the back.
F30 3series is big enough to make a 5 series redundant!

My e46 330i is a bit short on space, but it does 2 adults and 2 kids very comfortably.

you really don't notice the marginally smaller boot

Depends what you used to put in the marginally bigger boot you had before 😉

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso VTR

Passat estate boot, before even dropping the seats.

As an aside, I'm thinking of getting one of these liners - looks well made. £84 sheets

[img] [/img]

^wheres that boot liner from?

Jeez, do you not have eyes? I sussed it out with my super sleuthing skills of reading the label 😉

Hatchbag mate 🙂