Car choice for new baby in London?

optique

Hi,

We're planning to get a car for the first time, due to a new arrival in the summer. Currently tube and public transport are fine, so we will probably only do aroun 5k miles a year, mainly local trips and the odd drive to family around Britain.

Our budget is £5-7k. We have no off-street parking, so don't especially want a brand-new car, even if that was moneysaving. Criteria are

* Reliable -- prefer idea of Japanese, and probably something with well under 50k on the clock & no more than 3 years old.
* As short as possible -- ideally well under 4.50m for easy parking. The family estates seem too big to us.
* Big enough boot for buggy etc -- but doesn't have to be two-weeks-camping-in-France vast.
* If possible, option to switch off passenger airbag for a rear-facing babyseat. I couldn't find a comprehensive list of cars with this feature on google.
* Reasonable fuel economy. Power, engine and looks less important!


We looked round Cargiant, and ideas so far were a Nissan Almera Tino, a Honda Jazz, or one of the van-derived cars.

Suggestions welcomed -- many thanks!

rdwarr

Honda Jazz is the best of those by far. If you can afford it, go for it!

kitchpoo

rdwarr wrote:

Honda Jazz is the best of those by far. If you can afford it, go for it!

Will echo that, a good choice and well built with high residuals.

Similar ones to consider

Suzuki Swift - chunky and well built - a surprise from Suzuki as what is considered by some the 'real new mini'!!

Mitsubishi Colt - Nicely styled - Jap but European built with some clever design features.

Smart ForFour - Odd looks, but nice prices - it is a Colt underneath.

peterg1965

Definately Honda Jazz or new Mitsibushi Colt.

optique

Thanks very much. Had not thought of the Mitsubishi Colt, but it looks good -- will try to see one at the weekend.

balsingh

The Jazz is an excellent car but its quite expensive for what you get. My personal choice would be a Focus TDCi - not much bigger than the Jazz but cheap to run, insure and maintain. You also have a large boot and 5 doors.

Syman

How about a vauxhall meriva?

not too big, good sized boot and very economical.

you can pick up nearly new from dealers for under 7K

alanrowell

Can't recommend a specific car but I'd go for the smallest that you can get away with because if it's anything like around my way anything bigger than a supermini is a PITA for parking

Try looking at some of the "tall but small" cars like the Yaris Verso, Nissan Note

kitchpoo

optique wrote: »

Thanks very much. Had not thought of the Mitsubishi Colt, but it looks good -- will try to see one at the weekend.

Just curious as to your thoughts now, and if we have helped muddy the water in your decision process.

optique

Many thanks for all your replies. Have now read lots of Colt reviews, but we've decided the boot would be too small, especially when two people are in the back seat and need to slide it back for legroom.

Ford Focus is too long compared to the alternatives, I think -- new shape is 4.34m and old one can't be much smaller than that.

Vauxhall Meriva seems objectively a good car, but it's hard to get excited about a Vauxhall and the brand tends to come much lower than Japanese ones in reliability surveys.

So I think the Honda Jazz is our first choice. Will update when we get round to buying.