What to think about in a family car?

bauk

Let us know what you looked at today and your thoughts... I would be very much interested having gone through something similar.

bigjl

property.advert wrote: »

I've got a 2007 Astra 1.8 (140) auto which is a decent car. 19k miles when I got it 6 months ago, 2 years Network Q warranty, decent spec (Design = leather seats, air con etc.) and it does about 30 mpg on 2 mile trips a few times a day with a longer run a couple of times a week. You can get one for about £5k now. At 3 years old many are coming from Motability.

Even considering another for 2nd car as it is about the cheapest, newest, half decent thing around.

Glad to see the newer Astra with the well tried 1.8 petrol engine and the autobox, still showing itself to be a decent family runaround.

Was a great combo in the mk4, quick and handled well even when loaded up with gear.

We wanted the same as you have in estate form but the idiots in fleet bought Zafira diesels!

The older one had about 115/120 bhp (I think) and the extra power that you mention would more than make up for the extra weight of the mk5.

Did your one have optional leather seats, our Zafiras where in Design spec and only had half leather and all the Design Astras i have seen have had half leather aswell. Would be a lot nicer with full leather though.

grizzly1911

pinkteapot wrote: »

Thanks for all the good points. I actually hadn't thought about kids throwing up in a brand new car (couple of years old by then)...

Err no just a couple of months if I remember correctly. Little darling was in the font seat, rear facing, I was driving.

Think Icelandic Eruptions and Projectile.

On that journey I think it was three times over 250 miles - oh what joy. Just a good job it was in the winter. Hate to think what the car would have been like in the summer.

bigjl

I think she means the car will be a couple of years old by then grizzley.

The OP doesn't have kids yet, or at least that is how i read her posts.

Kilty_2

bigjl wrote: »

Glad to see the newer Asta with the well tried 1.8 petrol engine and the autobox.

.

Slightly different engine (Z18XER) with VVT however it is still bloody solid. Early MK5s came with the 125BHP Z18XE you know and love.

bigjl

Kilty wrote: »

Slightly different engine (Z18XER) with VVT however it is still bloody solid. Early MK5s came with the 125BHP Z18XE you know and love.

I suspected they had made some improvements to get the extra oomph.

I take it the engine is the same as fitted to the Vectra then?

I remember some people moaning that the 1.8 vvt engine was initially difficult to convert to LPG for some reason.

You have to love the bullet proof reliability of vauxhall petrol engines of a few years ago.

Pity they have blotted their copybook recently with the problems with the 2.2, strangely though most of the knackered ones I have seen at auction have been Astra Coupes would this indicate the main problem was the owner and lack of maintenance?

The Astra mk4 I drive these days is much faster than the Zafiras, even though it is certainly not in its first flush of youth.

We did have one that started to overheat, but it lasted a while before it died, and another one that is still being used by somebody else has a slipping autobox, I asked them to make one out of the two but they aren't interested in spending any money on them, just safety related items until they get sent to the crusher.

The thinking is that as the LAS hasve been using these Astras rounbd London for over 10 years then it is better to scrap them rather than risk them being sold to the unscrupulous.

Kilty_2

Same engine as >2006 Vectras, yes.

grizzly1911

bigjl wrote: »

I think she means the car will be a couple of years old by then grizzley.

The OP doesn't have kids yet, or at least that is how i read her posts.

:doh: That's a man for you.

pinkteapot

Yep, sorry grizzly, I wasn't very clear. No kids yet.

Well, dealer visit was interesting. Only got to one at the weekend (Vauxhall and Mazda - in the same dealer in our town).

We ruled out Vauxhall completely - the Astra boot is just too small for us and the New Meriva was a total let-down. It felt really cheap inside. Bad start when I didn't like the handle for moving the driver's seat forward (I know it shouldn't be a big deal but it felt like a good pull would break it off!).

Into the Mazda area and despite drooling over the Mazda6 I decided it was just too big for me to drive. So, we had a good look at the Mazda3 and the Mazda5.

The Mazda3 is nice and the boot is better than the Astra. But I just look at it and worry we'll outgrow it when we have kids. And I know that people manage with kids in much smaller cars but we're really bad at travelling light even before the kids come along!

I actually liked the Mazda5 which surprised me as I never, ever thought I'd be a people carrier person. And that's the thing - I can see so many upsides to the practicality of it. But it's a people carrier which surely screams "I'm a mum ferrying their kids and all their mates about and my own life is over." I'm also scared I'll never get confident driving/parking something that large. And the running costs will be higher than our current car.

After about 90 minutes in the dealership with a lot of discussion with the exceptionally helpful sales guy, he summed it up - we want something the size of the Mazda3, with the practicality and interior space of the Mazda5 but that looks like a Mazda6. Poor guy, he did his best to help us. I'm now scared to go to any more dealerships until we have decided on what class of car we're looking at or we're just wasting their time. Do we want what WhatCar would classify as "small family car", "MPV/people carrier" or "family car"?

More confused now than ever.

Even more confused by the fact that a Mazda5 is only 10cm (3 inches) longer than the Mazda3 (which in itself is a foot longer than our Mk4 Astra). Finding that hard to believe.

Kilty_2

Good thing about a people carrier is nobody parks near it in supermarket car parks because they assume your little darlings will smash the doors into other cars. I found this when I had one for a bit (and it was only ever me driving it) - suited me fine because I didn't want to pay for scratches to a courtesy car anyway

You'd get used to a car the size of a Mazda6 though, they're not THAT big