It's a good question. Our office car park (shared across several businesses) used to have a very nice Volvo 850 T5 auto estate, which I used to think was the ideal candidate. Yes, it's turbocharged but those Volvo petrol 5-potters were very strong motors.

Now I'd say a Honda Accord petrol as they're nice looking, roomy and not often seen.

"All the car you need" to me means utility, need as opposed to desire,, with genuinely useful design and few fripperies. 'Performance' doesn't matter at all within reason and I can think of very few cars that wouldn't meet that criterion.

My wife's Roomster impresses me and I use it quite often. I can enjoy driving nearly any car that isn't too understeery, and the Roomster 1.2TSI 105PS is actually quite perky too and certainly better from a driver's point of view than its predecessor, a 2002 Civic, which we loved for its space and reliability. The Roomie is no longer made but I'd consider a Fabia estate were we to replace it.

In the back the Roomster has acres of legroom and doors that one hardly needs to bend down to get through, once in you can put your top hat back on.Unlike many supposed luxury cars it's actually quite pleasant to travel in the back of. The vertical rear hatch makes it great for tip runs and furniture moving with the seats down.

Not necessarily a great second hand proposition, with a fairly complex direct injection turbo petrol engine and a DSG box, but so far it works really well. The only drawback is low speed close manoeuvring with the DSG so we drive around that and on the move it's rarely in the wrong gear We paid £12k new in 2014, we've had 7 years out of it and expect another 5 or so, if spared.

Thinking back, the first car I remember thinking of as supremely useful was a VW Polo I was given as a company car in 1979. Despite having only 40PS and a 0-60 time of about 20s, it always felt lively with 1 up. A full load of passengers left it gasping a bit but, for its time, it really was a decent little car. No frills, just beautifully made and a joy to use after having driven 60's-designed cars - the Polo drove like a much bigger car than it was, with decent interior space and good ride.

I won't be buying any more cars for the forseeable future, having spent most of my 'fortune' building a house over the last 18 months. My "do everything" car is a diesel auto Outlander now, and my fun car is an MX-5. But I still enjoy driving the Outlander, which is actually far better as an auto than a manual which I had previously.

Today's status or 'premium' cars, most of which which I consider to be massively overpowered, don't interest me at all. Nor do EVs for the moment. My own favourite family car I think was a 1994 Saab 900 - brilliant seats, as fast as can be useful on public roads, and the opposite of ostentatious. My least favourite was a '96 Galaxy diesel, a lumbering and noisy beast.

Edited by Manatee on 21/01/2022 at 23:08

I'd need to wind the clock back a bit but my favourite car of all time was a Saab 9000. The most comfortable car I've ever driven(amazing seats!), very quiet at speed, fabulous ride and for the time pretty economical. The light pressure turbo engine had a real go about it.

A Mazda Premacy diesel. Utterly brilliant car. Had it for seven years. Remove the back seats and it became a van for transporting children to and from university. It leaned into corners but then gripped like a bulldog - no other MPV came close. 50mpg and a DI engine rather than the common rail shenanigans: loads of turbo lag but when the turbo kicked in you got a wave of torque for overtaking. If they still made them, I'd buy one immediately.

i always said of my hyundai i10 was all the car you need.

had smooth autobox, 5 doors air co,. electric windows. kept up on the motorway, easy to park. good visibility.