Three cars and a baby (Aygo/C1/107)

inkie

I have a brand new 107 Allure in Plum and love it. Granted, it is our second car, but we have recently been holiday with it - 2 adults and 2 teenagers up and down the hills of the lake district and it managed brill. Easy to park, great fuel economy, no road tax, no congestion charge. It's fab

dontone

lil.smartie wrote: »

Boot on a 107 is smaller than a Smart! But I'll second the panda idea & add a colt or Smart forfour

Kate

Nah, I'd say the Pug 107 boot is slightly bigger - I know that 'cos I was (unfortunately) a Smart Fortwo owner for a while. Biggest waste of money ever!!
And a Smart car boot also has one of the most awkward closing mechanisms ever. You really have to slam it to make sure it closed properly, or the car's central locking doesn't work.:mad:

rising_from_the_ashes

Just seen this on a thread on the motoring section

If you do think about a Panda then cracking deals on new ones

http://www.fiatsupasaver.com/ItemDetail.aspx?mID=3

motherofstudents

I'd second the Panda, you should get a really good price on a used one. They don't have much power up hills but nothing's perfect. My Vauxhall Agila is also very roomy for a small car and the boot can be made bigger by removing a shelf so much bigger than the Aygo boot. £30 road tax.

Aimless

Ooh, that new Panda is slightly less than I paid two years ago for mine! *don't need a new car, don't need a new car*

The trick with the Panda is to change into a lower gear earlier than you think you need to, if you let it start to struggle, it's hard to pick up again. Mine does regular motorway journeys with no problems. My other half pulled faces when I said I was buying it, now he loves to drive it too

lovecake

Agree with the above re. the Panda. I love ours! No probs at all with motorway journeys - OH drives to work everyday via motorway - loads of room, speed up hills is fine if you judge it right, decent boot, £30 road tax and cheap to run!

Mad-Frog

pumpkinstew wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, I'll think about them when I start looking properly.

I'm not going to buy for another couple of months, my current car which is a 17 year old Polo and only cost £550 (so you can see how little I care about cars) still has a few more months of life left in it.


That really wouldn’t bother me.

Thanks, I’ll look at Pandas, I don’t care if it doesn’t look pretty, cars aren’t my thing so it’s just a way of getting from A to B for me, hopefully as cheaply as possible.

I’m not looking to buy new but I’ll take a look at second hand Picantos thanks.

I looked at the Yaris and Fiesta before but they are in higher tax bands than I want to go to, but I’ll keep them in mind as backups.



I should probably have said that my wife doesn't drive and I do the shopping on the way back from work so I would never have the baby with me.

Christmas shopping is easy as we only buy for immediate family and I bake cookies etc as gifts for everyone else.

We never stay overnight at peoples houses, my wife's family are within walking distance and my parents are 30 minutes away. If there was ever a time my parents needed to look after it, they have their own cot etc from when my sister used to visit with her baby.

We don't go very far on holiday. My wife's uncle owns a bungalow at the coast a couple of hours away that we visit a few times a year and we plan to buy a cot to leave there. We also tend to go in a 7 seater when we go as we often go with two or three other family members so we have plenty of space in the back.


Yep.

)h bless you, I too thought a trip into town or a supermarket trip was a doddle and didn't know what parents were going on about until my niece's and nephew arrived.

My goodness, it is/was a faff buggy, car sear, bag for nappy, bag for ([STRIKE]treats[/STRIKE] bribes) etc It was more than I took on a weekend away!

Small cars are okay for what they are but I very much doubt in two years time you will want to keep it, go for a slightly bigger model if you can afford it

spookylukey

Mad-Frog wrote: »

)h bless you, I too thought a trip into town or a supermarket trip was a doddle and didn't know what parents were going on about until my niece's and nephew arrived.

My goodness, it is/was a faff buggy, car sear, bag for nappy, bag for ([STRIKE]treats[/STRIKE] bribes) etc It was more than I took on a weekend away!

Small cars are okay for what they are but I very much doubt in two years time you will want to keep it, go for a slightly bigger model if you can afford it

Despite recommending the Hyundai i10 if you are set on only getting a small car I also wholeheartedly agree with this! If the small car is your second car it's not so bad as you can always choose to take the bigger car but if it was an only car and I had a choice between a small car and a medium car I wouldn't hesitate for a second - size is everything when it comes to kids and their paraphenalia!

lil.smartie

dontone wrote: »

Nah, I'd say the Pug 107 boot is slightly bigger - I know that 'cos I was (unfortunately) a Smart Fortwo owner for a while. Biggest waste of money ever!!
And a Smart car boot also has one of the most awkward closing mechanisms ever. You really have to slam it to make sure it closed properly, or the car's central locking doesn't work.:mad:

Nope, the one we had (Mamas & Papas Luna) fitted in my Smart but not in my sisters 107! lol

Test drove a Panda and really liked it but now my little one is nearly 4 we don't use a buggy & forward facing seats take up lots less space than a rear facing so have a Colt convertible with kid sized back seats!

Kate

psychopathbabble

pumpkinstew wrote: »

I looked at the Yaris and Fiesta before but they are in higher tax bands than I want to go to, but I’ll keep them in mind as backups.

Mine is £100 per year, and I think the hybrid might be cheaper.