Buying advice - family car for three in rear

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Thu 26 Oct 2023 22:53
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Matt Smart

After having my trusty Astra Estate written off I'm in the market for a new used car. We were looking to upgrade anyway and get something with more space as Holiday trips were a struggle with family + dog.

The key need is to fit two car seats and have space in the rear for another (admittedly slim) person to be relatively comfortable for longer holiday trips and have a good size boot for prams/cots/luggage

Budget is £6-8k maybe £9 at a push. Location is Peak District/Sheffield

Mileage will be 10-12k of a 40 mile round trip commute (45-60 minutes each way) and other sub 20 mile journeys, mix of country roads and city centre traffic.

I've been driving myself a bit nuts trying to search for something suitable. Initially liked the layout and practicality of a Grand C4 Picasso but then am completely put off by reliability issues. Have looked at a Zafira but don't particularly like the interior layout and boot space does not really seem much better than the Astra

Most 7 seater MPVs seem to be too small (Kia Carens, Toyota Verso, C-max, Mazda 5 etc). Conversely the large 7-seaters (Galaxy/Alahambra/Touran) are too big for my partner to park/navigate on the narrow lanes near us. This leaves me pretty much with the S-Max unless I am missing something. My main issue is that the petrol engines are far too thirsty but I'm concerned with the shorter journeys being an issue for the DPF in the diesel. Especially as the budget is looking at 70k 10+ year old models where issues are looking to arise as the mileage increases. I've mainly been looking at the 2.0 TDCi as I think I've read about issues with the 1.6 (please correct me if wrong). I'm only after a manual but am aware to avoid the powershift gearbox.

The other contender is possibly a Honda CR-V 1.6 DTEC. I've not seen one in the flesh but from what I've read they sound decent, plus would seem to be kitted out slightly better than an equivalent S-Max.

I'm not opposed to another estate, the issue is that we definitely need more space than the Astra but I doubt we could to something as long as a Skoda Superb. So I think that pretty much leaves a Skoda Octavia estate. The benefit being I could go with a petrol and have less concerns about running it to high mileage with the shorter trips. Happy to be recommended other models, though I do seem to have ended up with a lot of requirements!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

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Thu 26 Oct 2023 23:22
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Adampr

If you can find a good one (which is hard as they're very old), a Honda FR-V might suit. It's a six seat MPV, with only two rows, so you get a decent sized boot. You would struggle to get two child seats and a person sat comfortably in the back, but you have the option of two child seats in the back and third person in the front.

I had one and it was a fantastic car.

You could also look at a Dacia Logan MCV. It would be tight for three in the back, but there is an awful lot of boot behind them.

Other options could be van-based MPVs like a Citroen Berlingo, but it's hard to find a petrol one.

In your position, I wouldn't discount a Citroen based entirely on reliability. Frankly, at the price you're looking at, there are going to be problems so a well looked-after C4 Picasso with the right engine is probably no more grief than anything else.

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Thu 26 Oct 2023 23:28
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - elekie&a/c doctor
Vauxhall Zafira tourer would fit the bill . Good basic all rounder . But must be petrol. In fact avoid anything diesel at this budget.
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Fri 27 Oct 2023 02:55
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Alby Back
Good luck with your search. When we were at a similar stage in our lives, longer ago than I care to admit ;-) my wife was nervous/reluctant to have a large vehicle for the same reasons. Anyway, I persuaded her to at least try, and we got her a used but not abused Mondeo estate.
At first, she thought it was huge, but it was really only a matter of days before she got used to it and began to enjoy driving it.
For years afterwards she really wouldn’t countenance anything smaller as she had found that car so useful. You can’t get a quart into a pint pot as the saying goes.
However, top boxes can be useful for holiday trips with smaller vehicles.
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Fri 27 Oct 2023 09:42
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Bromptonaut

Agree with poster above, Berlingo or one of its Pug or Vauxhall siblings.

We've had two the second of which is now ten years old and on 130k miles, diesel 1.6/115 HDi with manual transmission. Never let us down only significant problems have been a rear caliper that seized around 80k and the pump that adds the FAP(?) fluid for the particle filter packed up at around 100k.

Still on original clutch and exhaust.

The first, bought in 2005, lasted ten years and 150k and quite a bit longer with subsequent owners. Not fault free but pretty good until final year when things started to wear out!!

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Fri 27 Oct 2023 10:15
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - John F
. When we were at a similar stage in our lives, longer ago than I care to admit ..... we got her a used but not abused Mondeo estate. At first, she thought it was huge, but it was really only a matter of days before she got used to it and began to enjoy driving it. For years afterwards she really wouldn’t countenance anything smaller ......, top boxes can be useful for holiday trips with smaller vehicles.

Same here. Alby. From 1984 to 2004 (babies to adulthood), Mrs F had two 'nearly new' estates. The first, a 1983 VW Passat GL5 (cost £5,500) lasted 10yrs from 13,000 to 192,000 miles, and had a really practical roof-rail set-up, into which bars could be slotted and cases, boxes etc put on top, so no need for a pricey 'top-box' used once in a blue moon. The second, an ex-rental 1994 Passat 2.0GL (cost £13,000) also lasted 10yrs from 4,500 to 242,000 miles. No major bills, both carefully serviced by me with occasional application of belt spray to their original cambelts ;-)......although when the GL5 needed a new water pump circa 140,000 miles it made sense to renew it. Clearly 'estates' have been superseded by the more fashionable 'SUV' shape, so I wonder if they now provide better VFM in today's used car market? Anyway, they were both excellent VFM for our intensive family use - no regrets. After several decades the Passat estate still appears to be quietly successful, although today I think I'd look for a good used Skoda Superb estate for a family of 5.

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Fri 27 Oct 2023 10:35
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Matt Smart

Thanks for the responses.

The FR-V does look interesting but I don't think the boot is big enough for what we need. The Dacia Logan does certainly look like a contender, I'm hesitant about space in the rear seats but if one comes up locally I'll be tempted to have a look. Though the safety rating might make it a non starter with my partner.

Zafira tourer would be an option but the petrol's just don't offer the MPG for the mileage we'd be doing. I ran the numbers and the 1.4 Turbo would be £500-£1000 a year more to run than the other options I'm looking at. After 3-5 year running it that would likely cover a DPF and DMF with change left over.

My partner is coming from driving small hatchbacks, I've got every confidence in her getting used to a larger vehicle but after sitting in a Galaxy I think it may be be a bit too much of a jump. We live on a narrow country lane with awkward parking so I think it would be a challenge for the both of us to get used to. The extra space would certainly be handy though!

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Sat 28 Oct 2023 14:33
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Archie35

Thanks for the responses.

The FR-V does look interesting but I don't think the boot is big enough for what we need.

The boot is indeed not massive, but not too bad for day to day use. I have one (and might be selling it soon, but I think I live too far away for you!), and have had it through 2 children from very small ages. Most of the time we find the boot big enough, but when we go on holidays and need more space we use a roof box. You can get 2 child seats in the back, and someone else in the middle, if you slide the middle seat back (it will slide back 6 inches or so) - that's usually enough for an adult's shoulders to avoid bashing on the ca***ats. Or use the front middle seat as already suggested.

FRVs are well within your budget (I'm on a facebook FRV forum, and people regularly post there ones which they are about to sell), and you'd have a lot left over for a big roof box / roof rails!

*Edited to add - However I've just noticed you also have a dog... That might perhaps be too much if you need dog and pushchairs in the boot at the same time!

Edited by Archie35 on 28/10/2023 at 14:35

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Fri 27 Oct 2023 11:03
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - SLO76
Similar needs to myself when buying a car. I settled on a Toyota Avensis 1.8 Estate 5yrs ago and other than general wear and tear items it’s never let me down. It averages just under 40mpg, it’ll do nearer 50mpg on a run with a gentle driver so there’s no need to risk all the additional complication and likely failures with the diesel and it’s huge inside. Being an estate it’s ideal for transporting dogs etc.

It’s no ball of fire and not exactly exciting to drive, but it’s tough, decent on fuel and there’s little to go wrong if you buy a good one and look after it. They are in demand however so prices are daft down there. I found a few 10/11/12 plate cars between £6,500-£7,500 but that’s a lot of money for a 12/13yr old car in my opinion. I only paid £4150 for my 60 plate 5yrs ago!

I found this at a nearby Toyota dealer however. These are more modern, a bit nicer to drive and cheap to run. They’re well liked as taxis with the hybrid drivetrain, but the 1.2T is not much worse on fuel on the road. This will come with a Toyota warranty and if you service it with them it’ll receive a years warranty right up until it’s 10yrs old or in excess of 100,000 miles. It’s priced ok, it’s a good colour and the right spec, a hybrid would cost substantially more and thus save you nothing. I’d try it for size, as this would be a much safer bet than an older diesel MPV or SUV.

www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202307059322327
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Fri 27 Oct 2023 14:17
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Heidfirst

SLO76 beat me to it - if you can find one (as he says they are in demand from those in the know) an Avensis 1.8 Touring Sport (estate) could well be a good shout. Unlike many cars it has a flat floor across the back seats so no transmission tunnel for the person in the middle seat to straddle (Auris is similar iirc).

However, again as SLO76 says, current prices are crazy - according to We Buy Any Car my 2017 Avensis TS is pretty much worth 2/3 of what I paid for it 6 years ago! Autotrader prices would put it at about 90%!

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Sat 28 Oct 2023 21:09
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - Matt Smart

Thanks for the advice and for taking the time to do a search.

I'd not considered an Auris but is now a leading contender. The only snag is that the rear seats look a little cramped but that would best be assessed in person. Certainly tempted by the peace of mind of the warranty. I'm sure with some persuasion my partner could be convinced that the extra leg space was worth getting an Avensis but I doubt the budget would stretch that far.

Totally agree about current prices being daft. That is also what is putting me off getting anything too old. Presumably if the market settles down in a few years (here's only hoping) then I dread to think what I'd lose on a now 15 year old diesel with 100k+ on the clock.

We're gong to check out a 15 plate 1.6 Honda CR-V tomorrow but a trip out to Macclesfield will be on the cards if that doesn't fit our needs.

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Sat 28 Oct 2023 21:39
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - SLO76
We had a 64 plate CRV 1.6 DTEC SE-T for four years. It was a good car. Well made, very practical and great on fuel for such a large car. It’s probably the only modern diesel I’d recommend to anyone, but they are still much more complex and thus more likely to go wrong than a petrol model. If you want a CRV however then the diesel is really the only way to go as the reliable 2.0 petrol is thirsty and lacks torque.

The problem I found when looking at used examples a while ago was that many had been neglected or clocked - a sadly all too common issue again these days. Look for low ownership cars with full service records, preferably full of Honda dealer stamps. I found almost every car I looked at had either little or no history, obvious signs of clocking and/or poor paint repairs. These issues are directly caused by todays PCP/Contract lease marketplace, almost no one actually buys a brand new car, they rent them and thus they don’t care about them.

Service histories are often faked or the car is simply not serviced at all and mileages are wound back (note all the digital mileage “correction” adverts online) to avoid additional mileage fees. Finding a good, well cared for car with a full history is actually more difficult today than at any time I can ever recall.

If you do find one, you need to hear it start from stone cold. Listen for a rattling timing chain (very uncommon, unless neglected) and look out for clutch judder as you pull away. They almost all do this but some are much worse than others and you need to be sure you can live with it. Clutches are a weak point on Honda’s, particularly on the diesels. Ours did this, to an annoying level. I managed to get Honda customer services to agree on a replacement under warranty, but after a few months it was doing the same thing again. It improved significantly as the car warms up though, I just wasn’t prepared to accept it on a brand new £25,000 car. On a £9,000 used car however it’s less of a concern.

The 1.6 118bhp motor sounds on paper to be a bit weedy, but on the road it pulls well enough and the economy is amazing for a large SUV. Get a SE for decent kit and go for a pre 2017 model for the lower road tax, the SR model sits in a higher group thanks I assume to fatter tyres and pointless spoiler kit.

As much as I like the CRV, you’ll be in an older, higher mileage example that’ll come with a r****** aftermarket warranty while that Toyota Auris will be less of a risk, cheaper to run and it comes with 4yrs of manufacturer backed warranty if you service it at a Toyota dealer. I know where my money would go, assuming it’s a good example in the metal.
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Sun 29 Oct 2023 10:14
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - JonestHon

I own the same 2010 estate as SLO and I can vouch for them, they do all and are good dog mobile. Needed a new clutch at 130k but these are consumables in a manual box.

A friend of swambo was in a similar position as you last year, and they settled on a 2n gen 2015 Pug 308SW. Seems huge inside with proper three back seats. The engine although 1.2 is nice and I think a decent one will be well within the budget.

Honda Civic Estate is also worth checking. Narrowish body , large boot and the petrol 1.8 is robust.

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Sun 29 Oct 2023 12:44
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - RT

The styling of the seats won't tell you how much shoulder room there is - some big cars have two generous seats with a hump in the middle while some smaller cars have three very narrow seats.

Measure and try them, it's the only way.

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Mon 30 Oct 2023 12:51
Buying advice - family car for three in rear - daveyK_UK
For the budget the OP appears to be a little too fussy.

When buying at this price range you need to accept shortcomings when finding a good deal.

A left field option is a petrol Fiat Tipo estate
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