A what "family" car thread.....

chroniclard

chroniclard

chroniclard

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Cant find a car both my wife and I agree on, doesn't help our criteria is vastly different. She wants an SUV, I really cant stand SUV's and would find no driving pleasure in one.

Criteria
Decent room in the back, doesn't need to be huge just more than your average hatch(Golf/A3).
Ideally petrol, only do 6-8k a year, no need for a diesel, though would consider a modern diesel if its not tractor like and offered some performance.
Good handling.
Good performance.
£25k-£35k ish


Already discounted, Golf R, S3 Sportback, any estate, Octavia vRS. Quite like the 3 series higher end petrol variants but concerned they are small in the back, brother has a 3 year old 320d and its pretty tiny in the rear.

Anyone got any suggestions.
 
Nissan Qashqai? In terms of SUV's, they are on the small side so hopefully should be fun to drive and it'll keep your misses happy with regards to it being an SUV?
 
Buy 2 cars, one SUV for the wife and a fun car for yourself?

My personal experience, i find my Audi A6 (C7) small for the family (its just not a great Family car). And its pretty boring.
 
5 Series
Jaguar XF (probably a bit big for you but if a 3 series is too small..)
A Range Rover is a very nice car to drive if you can be swayed
E Class/e63
Lexus IS maybe?
 
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p1RATE said:
5 Series
Jaguar XF (probably a bit big for you but if a 3 series is too small..)
A Range Rover is a very nice car to drive if you can be swayed
E Class
Lexus IS maybe?
Click to expand...


Not sure if they are in budget yet but a 5 Series Touring Xdrive would be a very nice family car. (If they did do one with XDrive?) Looks like they dont , only a 3 Series Touring X drive.
 
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Another note, it would be a new lease/or finance deal.

Most of those above look a bit too expensive to get a decent engine.

Mondeo......just cant do it!

Cheap Qashqai and another car sound more interesting! :)
 
Kuros said:
Nissan Qashqai? In terms of SUV's, they are on the small side so hopefully should be fun to drive and it'll keep your misses happy with regards to it being an SUV?
Click to expand...

We have a 62 plate Qashqai and a 56 plate Audi A4...always pick the A4 to drive!

Wife loves the Nissan, I hate it. Terrible seats, shocking driving position, awful steering feel, boot space is crap.

What it does well however is the kit and price you can get them for. We bought ours for around £16k I think it was, 8k on clock and less than 12 months old. The kit we have on the N-Tec is decent...Bluetooth, 360 reversing cameras, speed limit/Cruise, auto lights, wipers etc etc.

The 1.5 diesel engine, whilst it doesn't set the world on fire has enough power for the car, economical and cheap to run.

As a second car it is doing the job just fine, just look forward to the day the wife changes up to something different!
 
Personally I found the S3 Sportback(and the Golf R) we looked at to be perfectly big enough. Kids are only 8 and 5!.....but no.....for the 4 times a year an adult sits in the back...........
 
If you can take the slightly less good looks, the 335i Gran Turismo (longer wheelbase and big hatch compared to the saloon) is a decent shout I reckon.

There were cheap leases going on fast diesel GTs a few months back but not sure any more.
 
Why have you discounted the Golf R? If you don't need anything bigger than that, it's probably the perfect car? The boot is gigantic anyway.

Get a 535d, or a GT. Those are very good value for money as nobody wants one, and they're somewhat SUV-like. Maybe you can convince your wife!
 
mjt said:
Why have you discounted the Golf R? If you don't need anything bigger than that, it's probably the perfect car? The boot is gigantic anyway.

Get a 535d, or a GT. Those are very good value for money as nobody wants one, and they're somewhat SUV-like. Maybe you can convince your wife!
Click to expand...

I havent discounted them, hot hatches are one of my ideal choices, wife has discounted them. :p

Will see if she has any interest in the 335d(not sure its in the price range), think a 535d would be too expensive.
 
Plenty of SUVs you can enjoy driving (albeit from a straight line performance perspective) for £35K if you don't mind second hand:

6.4L Hemi powered Grand Cherokee
ML63 AMG
Cayenne Turbo
5.0L Supercharged Range Rover

Porsche would probably be the best handling on road I suspect.
 
Would an estate not be better than an SUV?

All the guys I know who have bought a Qashqai have hated it and said that actually once you put just a stroller in you pretty much have no space for anything else. But then again their wives loved it :/
 
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