I have a begun a new job with a 6 mile round commute but don't want to lose the space of a family car.

At the risk of stating the obvious, but do you actually need to use a car to get back and fore to work?. For example, I can walk 3 miles in 45mins, I could cycle it in around 15mins (depending on terrain) or a wee bit less less with an e-bike using maximum assist (circa 12mins @ 15.5mph). Or even a 50cc moped, which would cover 3 miles in around 6mins.

The reason I bring it up is due to the concerns you have over the age of Outlander you can afford along with the possibility of needing to replace the battery. If you were able to commute using one of the above, you could simply replace the diesel Astra with a simple and reliable petrol powered equivalent.

Regarding the 50cc scooter I was in bluewater shopping center at the beginning of December where they were advertising an electronic moped/scotter was around £2000 if I recall and would do 75 miles on a charge costing around £0.75p to fully charge the batteries. It was completely road legal and had a top speed of 25mph. I did consider it as that would be ideal for my commute but u don't like the cold and rain so decided that using my trusty 10 year old suzuki was still a better option.

Agree with this. My wife uses an e-bike to commute to work now. She uses the battery assistance to get there so she isn’t hot and sweaty at work (no showers there), but then cycles home under her own power, so is keeping fit at the same time. Much more cost effective than using the car (which she does still have!)