Family car 30 March 2016 at 10:19AM in MoneySaving mums 20 replies 4.5K views

Lennylegs

Hello
Just after some reccomendations for cars that have a decent boot for getting the pram & some shopping in please. OH has a Honda civic which were happy with, I however drive a yaris, now if my boy was a bit older in a lightweight pushchair / our family was complete it wouldn't bother me but we still use the Jane rider pushchair and are hoping a sibling will come along. Pushchair stays in car as we have a 2 bed flat & a narrow alley way. Currently putting pushchair base in boot & seat unit on backseat next to his car seat and all the other clutter in foot well. So looking for a bigger car, more useful bootspace, budget 10k I think, to be honest I can admit I'm rubbish at parking ... And rather terrified of getting a bigger car, god help us all :rotfl:
Thank you

xxlouisexx56

We have a golf. Not a huge car but big enough for us.

I could fit our bugaboo in the back no problems.

Both girls (10 and nearly 5) fit in will too.

Lennylegs

Hiya
I do love a golf, my dad had one but once the whole pram unit is in the boot there's no room for shopping, will be on my list once my lo is older !
Thank you,

DigForVictory

Look at Mondeos. Yes, big & long but boot space to stack bodies in, three diagonal belts across the back & the scrappers will sort you rear tail light & wing mirror units for relatively modest sums as you learn!

Plus the heated windscreens mean snow & ice become less complicated to sort in a hurry.

When I was adapting to a Mondeo from a Ford Escort, my husband held the baby while I figured how near they were to my rear corners. I learned *fast* & husband didn't have to whisk the young monster up for safety, just for giggles.

balletshoes

I firmly believe everyone should own a "big" car at least once in their driving lives. I had a series of hatchbacks until one died, and we had to buy a new-to-us car in a hurry when my DD was a toddler. We ended up with a Rover 600, and at the start, reverse parking it between 2 vehicles was an adventure to say the least . But I learned, and I loved all the space in the boot for the shopping and pushchair.
I was quite sad to let that car go quite a few years later, and I'm back to a hatchback now that DD is older and we don't need a big car (although you might want to consider how you'd get 4 medium-size suitcases in a little car for your holidays when they get to be teenagers ).

GwylimT

Jazz? Not huge, but not small either, very easy to park due to visibility.

Lennylegs

Thank you for the replies, I think I probably just need to get on with it & buy said bigger car then practice practice practice parking a lot!!!

Savvy_Sue

I do miss reversing sensors when I'm not in my car (Yaris), and you can retro-fit them if whatever you buy doesn't have them. You get used to driving a bigger car fairly quickly.

balletshoes wrote: »

(although you might want to consider how you'd get 4 medium-size suitcases in a little car for your holidays when they get to be teenagers ).

Hire one. We downsized from a petrol-guzzling Saab with a cavernous boot to a Yaris with an adjustable back seat at around that age (and we had three teenagers!)

The first family weekend away in the new car was 'cosy': I sat biggest boy in boot and told him to get seat as far forward as he thought he could bear for several hours. Then I flipped the seat forward and filled the boot from the inside out ... you can get a lot more in that way, without the 'will it, won't it shut?' excitement at the end. Sleeping bags were wedged in around them.

And don't use suitcases. You want soft bags you can squish into odd spaces.

It was OK until we had to pack on the way home, when ten Easter eggs had to be added to the equation ... :rotfl:

Anyway, when we downsized the car it was with the thought that when we needed a big one, it would be cheaper to hire one than run a big one all year round.

Person_one

balletshoes wrote: »

(although you might want to consider how you'd get 4 medium-size suitcases in a little car for your holidays when they get to be teenagers ).

You mean other families don't just shove all the luggage on top of the teenagers in the back seat?

Must speak to my folks...;)

balletshoes

Person_one wrote: »

You mean other families don't just shove all the luggage on top of the teenagers in the back seat?

Must speak to my folks...;)

we had to do exactly that with my little Peugeot 207 last summer - 4 people in the car, 3 hard-bodied cases and my nice squishy one - only 2 cases fit in the hatch with the parcel shelf removed, the other 2 had to be plonked along the back seat with the teenagers .

kingfisherblue

A Nissan Note has loads of boot space, but is compact enough not to seem like a 'big' car. I used to have a wheelchair, changing bag, shopping for me and my mum, and all sorts of bits and bobs in the boot.