Best family car that doesn't cost a fortune to run?

kle87

Ive got a Pug 207 1.6 90 Sport and its great. Lots of boot room ideal for a 'travel system', looks great, good choice of colours, economical and good on the diesel!

Chris2685

Thanks for the info kle. I've always been put off by Peugots, everyone I've ever spoken to that's had one only ever tells me about how much they're had to fork out to get it repaired.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

I'd buy an E34 BMW 5-series estate, preferably the 525TD. You won't go wrong for the money.

Chris2685

A little bit expensive for me, and all BMW drivers are !!!!!! on the road :P

Just done an insurance quote. The Micra would cost £371.31 per year to insure right now for a year.

The 1.9 TDI Trendline Passat (100BHP) would cost £561.72

So a difference, but hardly surprising.

markelock

Chris2685 wrote: »

A little bit expensive for me, and all BMW drivers are !!!!!! on the road :P

that's not entirely true.

once one let me out from a side road in traffic!

goldspanners

markelock wrote: »

that's not entirely true.

once one let me out from a side road in traffic!

your making that up,i don't believe you.:p

TiTheRev

How's about Skoda? Octavia are great, and if you can see past the badge it's actually an Audi/VW engine and gearbox with an improving quality shell. They are competatively priced to buy, but similar to run. Again, i'd recommend diesel.

Road_Hog

TiTheRev wrote: »

I think Ford do good ones as often as VW do bad ones :rotfl:

That's where you'd be wrong. Volkswage have long done campaigns about their reliability (if only everything in life was a reliable as a Volkswagen) and if you say something often enough people will believe it.

But let's not listen th hearsay, let's check the facts.

http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/search_results.html?apc=11913195781996932

This is done by Warranty Direct and it is based on the actual costs of actual vehicles that WD have covered and had to pay out on, so there is no customer bias.

We'll look at 3 cars, Golf, Focus & Civic and pick the current or most recent variant.

The lower the reliability score the better (you pick up points for failures), so a zero score would be best. You can look at the scores yourselves to check but I'll put them here to save you doing it.

Golf 89.61 (97-04 model)
Focus 43.20 (98-04 model)
Civic 18.86 (01- onwards)

TiTheRev

Interesting how Skoda are 4th, and essentially the same car?!

Cannot believe that Suzuki are top

Chris2685

Interesting.. Maybe I should get that brand new Honda Civic type R after all
All of those cars you mentioned above aren't too bad though, it says "The Average of all cars is 112"

I think we will go down to the big traders in slough just to have a look at the different models and see which ones we like.

I have made a shortlist of ones to take a look at, and ordered the brochures from the dealers to take a look too (although im not planning on buying a brand new one!).

Thanks for all the hints people