Car options for family of four and a large golden retriever!

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Please tell me a van isn't my only choice!

Budget of £20k and looking at nearly new estate and SUVs to pack the usual gear for two under two, and a large dog. Our "16 XC90 served us well but was getting too expensive to maintain - I would replace with the same but cant afford a newer model. The 5 series tourer and Skoda Superb estate look great. Accepted if you have a long weekend anywhere the roof box is going on for the extra space we would need for luggage and travel cots etc.

Anyone else in a similar position to myself, what did you choose as your family wagon?
 
Superb is a good shout or a Kodiaq, which I think has a bigger boot litre wise but isn't as long. I've managed a few family trips in mine with 6 people and 2 dogs with everyone keeping their luggage on their laps :p
 
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Please keep the suggestions coming. We are in a similar situation sans dog. 4 of us, regular trips abroad in the car to France and the like so long trips with lots of crap for things like cycling and climbing and as the boys get bigger that volume of crap will only increase.

Looking at the Skoda Superb mainly due to value for money but even then, something remotely nice that isn't 5+ years old seems to be £20k+. I feel like we bought our last car only 4 years ago and suddenly everything has gone up by 20% or more. If we wanted something similar from BMW etc it would be closer to £30k. Madness.
 
What costs are you experiencing with the XC90 which will equate to a similar cost of changing cars?

The XC90 is a very nice vehicle and feel £20k is getting you into something of quite a downgrade.

As others have said the Superb is a great car, but not a patch on the Volvo. Anything smaller than a Superb will be too small.

We are a family of 4 with a Labrador and now a sausage dog and have a Touareg for main family duties which is good, but felt smaller than the XC90.
 
What costs are you experiencing with the XC90 which will equate to a similar cost of changing cars?

The XC90 is a very nice vehicle and feel £20k is getting you into something of quite a downgrade.

As others have said the Superb is a great car, but not a patch on the Volvo. Anything smaller than a Superb will be too small.

We are a family of 4 with a Labrador and now a sausage dog and have a Touareg for main family duties which is good, but felt smaller than the XC90.

The XC90 was great and I would have another, if I wasn't responsible for paying for the maintenance so would need to be a lease or still in warranty. In 12 months we spent over £4k keeping it on the road mainly due to electrical issues, which were mainly relating to the SRS. Other than that we know there is some issue with the exhaust manifold (exhaust fume smell inside the car and fault code) the sunroof leaks and doesnt open, occasionally the passenger door wont open, and the overall wear and tear on the seats will need attention soon before they split after ding 120k miles.

Out of interest, how do you secure your Labrador while traveling?

The cost of upgrading to a newer, in warranty is currently over budget; may need to revisit this as its looking like the best option for the family still. The Superb Estate is next on the list - We had a test drive last year in the facelift model 1.5 SEL - Very spacious and comfortable. Not much of a deal at the moment though. We have a "23 Qashqai being used as our main family car at the moment which works if we don't have the dog to fit in!

We looked at the Touareg too - Lovely car overall, especially for the driver and passenger - but we found the boot a bit too small. My wife has an obsession with prams, all of which seem monstously large and difficult to accomodate - Mainly due to needing space house two children when out and about walking etc.

Has anyone looked at the ID.7 tourer? Looks to be based on the same platform as the Superb so has great interior and boot space - BUT its an EV, not sure how I feel about going that route for the main family car. We mainly do short'ish journeys back and forth to nursery and family on average 50 miles a day, so an EV would suit here. Once a quarter we will travel to the Lake District and Southampton which are around 350miles round trips so need to factor in a charging stop on these journerys.
 
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Has anyone looked at the ID.7 tourer? Looks to be based on the same platform as the Superb so has great interior and boot space - BUT its an EV, not sure how I feel about going that route for the main family car. We mainly do short'ish journeys back and forth to nursery and family on average 50 miles a day, so an EV would suit here. Once a quarter we will travel to the Lake District and Southampton which are around 350miles round trips so need to factor in a charging stop on these journerys.
As mentioned, good deals on the ID.7 still.

We visit the Lake District (grew up there) often and the main charging places (if you don't rent or stay in a place with a charger) are the Booths super markets, the south lakes have 4 fast chargers per supermarket, the north the booths has 8.. they can get busy, but we rented a place in windermere last year with its own EV charger which made life super easy.. they didn't charge for it either, so the journey back would have been free.. There are also a few slow chargers in the main towns car parks..
 
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In 12 months we spent over £4k keeping it on the road mainly due to electrical issues, which were mainly relating to the SRS. Other than that we know there is some issue with the exhaust manifold (exhaust fume smell inside the car and fault code) the sunroof leaks and doesnt open, occasionally the passenger door wont open, and the overall wear and tear on the seats will need attention soon before they split after ding 120k miles.

Where were you getting it repaired, a Volvo dealer or an independent? If the former, maybe you could save by taking it to an independent.
 
Where were you getting it repaired, a Volvo dealer or an independent? If the former, maybe you could save by taking it to an independent.


Based on the issues we had with the SRS, the two local independent garages didn't have the software to connect to the car to understand the issue - So I took it to Volvo for the repairs - Large chunk of the cost was labour to investigate the issues... For the rest of the servicing and maintenance it was handled by our local independent garage. We did have a warranty (Warranty Wise) but turned out to be useless - They wouldnt cover a single problem we had. For example they claimed the SRS module issue was relating to safety system and this was an extra to the policy, car went into limp mode due to a split boost pipe also not covered, next had an ABS sensor and also a loose tierod end they claimed was wear and tear and also not cover.


As mentioned, good deals on the ID.7 still.

We visit the Lake District (grew up there) often and the main charging places (if you don't rent or stay in a place with a charger) are the Booths super markets, the south lakes have 4 fast chargers per supermarket, the north the booths has 8.. they can get busy, but we rented a place in windermere last year with its own EV charger which made life super easy.. they didn't charge for it either, so the journey back would have been free.. There are also a few slow chargers in the main towns car parks..

This is great info, thanks! The whole range anxiety bothers me still, nice to see you've had a positive experience with charging. Is it possible to charge overnight to get maybe half full battery on a 3-pin if you dont have a 7kw/ 11kw charge point?
 
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