Tell me what car to buy as I'm totally confused!

easylife73

Hi, looking or some advice re what car would best suit us. Have looked at so many options now I've totally confused myself!

We are a family of four, our two boys are 13 & 11 at the moment, but if their half brother is anything to go by they will be 6ft within a few years.

• So we need reasonable head & leg room in the back

Mostly we do local driving but every summer we drive across France and camp.

• So we need a massive boot to hold all the camping gear

We currently have a Renault Scenic which is about to die and has cost us a small fortune over the years to keep on the road. It's a 54 plate. The boot size of the Scenic is too small so whatever we buy needs to have a fair bit more space than this. We will not be buying a Renault!

• Would prefer an MPV but would be willing to accept an estate if it proves to be a better option
• Preferably less than 5 years old
• Preferably under 50k miles
• Budget is about £6,000

So what should I buy?

Netwizard

Something like this seems to fit your criteria; http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201401100932135

or this: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201401281363230

easylife73

Can't tell what the boot size is like so will have to investigate further...also, I have an irrational pathological hatred of Volvos which I might have to overcome!!

GwylimT

Mondeo estate diesel.

Netwizard

GwylimT wrote: »

Mondeo estate diesel.

No diesel would be a good idea if most of his driving is local town driving. Modern diesels do not like short trips at all

Nodding_Donkey

Have you thought about getting a reasonable sized car as a runabout and hiring for your holiday?

You could then have lower running costs all year round and then get a big Doozil on hire with no breakdown worries.

Just a thought

Netwizard

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Have you thought about getting a reasonable sized car as a runabout and hiring for your holiday?

You could then have lower running costs all year round and then get a big Doozil on hire with no breakdown worries.

Just a thought

That is a cracking idea!! :T

easylife73

Haven't seriously costed hiring on holiday, no...would assume it would be expensive, and we'd need to hire in the UK and take it over on the ferry in order to pack all the camping equipment. It just seems a bit complicated!

Have started considering something like a Kia Karens with roofbars and a big roof box now...every new option seems to make it even more complicated!

colino

As you presumably liked, when you bought it and, "have a Renault Scenic which is about to die and has cost us a small fortune", is your prediction just pessimism and instead, you have sorted out all the faults on an, originally, badly maintained car that already meets your needs?
A 10 year old Scenic is a net zero trade-in and if you have fettled it so much, getting rid now without a genuine big bill on the horizon is crazy economics.

easylife73

I liked the Scenic very much when we bought it, but it has had so many problems and known faults that needed rectifying I no longer trust the brand.

In one particular year it cost us £2k just to keep it on the road. Last year it was essentially impounded in France and cost us 800 euros to get it back on the road. It has always had issues with steaming up inside the car, but these have recently got worse, to the degree that I now have a squeegee in the car and have had to squeegee the inside of the windscreen before driving. Windows have to be left open in rainy weather to help keep the condensation at bay otherwise visibility is impossible. The car often won't lock as it thinks the boot is open when it isn't. And this week the dashboard display has gone, yet another known fault with Renault...occasionally the dashboard display comes back at which point it has invariably added several thousand miles (we have apparently done 64,000 miles since the problem started midweek!)

Sine we have had it it has been serviced yearly, but frankly I've had enough! It won't get through the MOT in June, obviously. We have inherited a small amount hence wanting to replace it now.

Hintza

To get this to work you want an estate. Your budget is bit tight though to get anything very young so it will be a bit of pot luck on whatever you buy.

The only way to minimise the risk is to buy something that is generally proven to be reliable so that brings you back to a Mondeo.

Or perhaps a Skoda Superb or a Mazda 6.