SUV or Estate?

Nathaniel_Essex

It won't be for now, but my partner and I are starting to look at bigger cars. The Fiesta we have is great. We can fit the pram in boot, the shopping in the front seat and the 3 of us can get around with no problems. However, if/when we have a second child, we are probably going to need a bigger car.

I had my eyes set on a SUV but started noticing nicer estate vehicles (like the Jaguar) that seemed to have just as much room as the SUV's.

What are you thoughts on the two?

EssexExile

You get small SUVs & you get big SUVs. You get small estates & you get big estates. I understand that with children you get lots of "stuff" to carry around (I wouldn't know), estates can usually carry more "stuff".

tacpot12

I'm in the process of making the same choice, but my family is all grown up and living at home so I need to be able to seat 4-6 adults in comfort. I can't find any estate car that offers good leg room for more than two passengers in the rear, so I'm expecting to have to go for a SUV/MPV. MPVs/SUVs are so expensive to buy and run though. Estates are much better value, so I would say that if your children are small, get an estate.

You will get every thing into any estate you care to mention. Fabias, Accords and Superbs are all good estates.

Gloomendoom

Just looked at the V5 for my wife's SUV. It says it's an estate car.

My next door neighbour has a young family. He seems to manage with a Jag XF estate. Nice looking car too.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

We have a Merc C Class estate (2012) and a Q3 (2016).

Similar sized cars in terms of passenger space - Q3 is the better people carrier - happy riding with 5 in it, Merc is ok but the Q3 is bright and roomy feeling in comparison.

Boot space is better in the Merc and much easier to load into being far lower. The Q3 is shorter and doesn't quite fit luggage in in the same way.

Driving, both are nice to drive, but these days I do notice trying to turn left next to a Disco turning right in the Merc means you can't see and have to wait for an SUV to clear a junction.

There are SUVs and 4x4s and quite a few crossovers are too much pretend Range Rovers - we liked the Q3 because it is just an inflated A3.

Back in the day I had a Ford Explorer which was on the fairly huge side - popped a tumble drier in the back with all the kids' stuff for a long weekend visiting relatives.

I also like using a roofbox, which was useful in the teenage years especially for European trips. Used it both with a saloon and with the Merc estate.

When the kids were small a Peugeot 205 was fine for us!

[Deleted User]

I have 3 kids in a Fiesta sized car and it suits us fine. You don’t need a bigger car and all the extra expenses that brings. Smaller cars are more fun to drive, easier to park with no or cheap road tax and 50mpg.
I would say unless you need more than 5 seats, save your money. You could always get a roof box or/and trailer for holidays if needed.

Rolandtheroadie

With one child and possibly having another, I wouldn't even limit myself to estate cars.
A Mondeo sized hatchback would be big enough, and open up a lot more cars to look at.

photome

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

With one child and possibly having another, I wouldn't even limit myself to estate cars.
A Mondeo sized hatchback would be big enough, and open up a lot more cars to look at.

agreed the current mondeo is huge

photome

tacpot12 wrote: »

I'm in the process of making the same choice, but my family is all grown up and living at home so I need to be able to seat 4-6 adults in comfort. I can't find any estate car that offers good leg room for more than two passengers in the rear, so I'm expecting to have to go for a SUV/MPV. MPVs/SUVs are so expensive to buy and run though. Estates are much better value, so I would say that if your children are small, get an estate.

You will get every thing into any estate you care to mention. Fabias, Accords and Superbs are all good estates.

they may all be good but there is a gulf of difference between a fabia and a superb

GwylimT

Deleted_User wrote: »

I have 3 kids in a Fiesta sized car and it suits us fine. You don’t need a bigger car and all the extra expenses that brings. Smaller cars are more fun to drive, easier to park with no or cheap road tax and 50mpg.
I would say unless you need more than 5 seats, save your money. You could always get a roof box or/and trailer for holidays if needed.

You can't get three car seats and two passengers in a fiesta, so they're only suitable when children are 11+ and no longer require car seats. Lots of bigger cars are fun to drive, don't have to be expensive and don't have poor 50mpg performance.

GwylimT

We have two cars, the one we use for all of us to travel in (two children, two adults, push chair etc) is a Honda CRV. You can almost fully put the front seats back for leg room with child seats installed, plenty room for pushchair, shopping, nappy bag etc in the boot.

We do have a Jazz, but unless you're five foot tall you cannot sit in the front seats with carseats installed, so useless for family life.