Considering a medium sized SUV/Family car up to £10K

Gepetto

Gepetto

Gepetto

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Deepest, Darkest, Essex.
We are thinking about a family car with some load carrying capacity as we currently have a Mini and a 3 Series convertible. SWMBO does loads of bootsales and indoor markets and really needs something more practical than her Mini. I'm using my convertible as a commuter so she's decided I'll be better off in the Mini and we get her a bigger car. :cry: I actually have no problem with this as I love the fun factor of the Mini.

Current thoughts are along the lines of Hyundai Tucson, KIA Sportage, Honda CRV, Volvo XC60, Mitsubishi Outlander (maybe PHEV).

Anyone have any experience/thoughts/opinions on any of those, or possible alternatives?
 
I'm going to throw in a left field suggestion simply because it's a car I looked into recently and it might fit the bill. But a lot of people don't like the image.

Take a look at the Skoda Yeti. It's an older car so within your budget. Most people look at them and think "old persons car". But the more you look into them, the more you realise it has a lot of really clever design details such as easily removable rear seats which would be great for the car boot sales. You can also get them in a 4wd if that is needed to get across muddy fields. I would avoid the petrol engines because the VAG TSI engines of that era have proved to be less than reliable. But the diesels do seem to be reliable and fairly efficient (particularly the Greenlane 2 models although they are slow). They only made them until 2017 so if you go for diesel then you would have to look at 2016, 2017 or some 2015 models to be ULEZ compliant.

Sadly my wife hates them so I won't be getting one. She can't get past the looks or badge although I personally like the utilitarian look. But I will throw it out there as an option. If my wife didn't hate them so much, and if ULEZ wasn't an issue, I would probably be looking at a 170bhp diesel 4x4 version. They seem to be a bit of a marmite car with many people not liking them but they also have a very strong following among previous owners. So values seem to hold quite well.
 
Hades said:
Sadly my wife hates them so I won't be getting one. She can't get past the looks or badge although I personally like the utilitarian look. But I will throw it out there as an option. If my wife didn't hate them so much, and if ULEZ wasn't an issue, I would probably be looking at a 170bhp diesel 4x4 version.
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Thanks Hades. My wife wouldn't object to one, and I'm aware they have a great reputation, although I do find the looks questionable. My son, however, threatened to call Childline! :cry:

We would discount the diesel as well because of frequent travel within the M25. Nice shout though. :cool:
 
We've had a 2008 Honda CR-V since 2013. We've put about 120k miles on it since then (160k now) and it's only let us down once (clutch slave cylinder failed).
In 10 years, all we've done is service it, the usual consumables replaced, fitted a new clutch, 2 front springs, and the slave cylinder. It's been very cheap motoring, albeit very dull motoring.
 
Rilot said:
We've had a 2008 Honda CR-V since 2013. We've put about 120k miles on it since then (160k now) and it's only let us down once (clutch slave cylinder failed).
In 10 years, all we've done is service it, the usual consumables replaced, fitted a new clutch, 2 front springs, and the slave cylinder. It's been very cheap motoring, albeit very dull motoring.
Click to expand...
On a few people's recommendations I've been looking at Honda CRV's. They seem to be fantastically reliable motoring. Was yours a diesel (I ask because the only negative of the diesels seems to be risk of clutch issues, although still far more reliable than most cars).
 
Hades said:
On a few people's recommendations I've been looking at Honda CRV's. They seem to be fantastically reliable motoring. Was yours a diesel (I ask because the only negative of the diesels seems to be risk of clutch issues, although still far more reliable than most cars).
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No, petrol. The 2.0 iVTEC.
 
Rilot said:
We've had a 2008 Honda CR-V since 2013. We've put about 120k miles on it since then (160k now) and it's only let us down once (clutch slave cylinder failed).
In 10 years, all we've done is service it, the usual consumables replaced, fitted a new clutch, 2 front springs, and the slave cylinder. It's been very cheap motoring, albeit very dull motoring.
Click to expand...
Thanks Rilot. The CRV was one of my first choices, probably for the renowned Honda reliability. We were parked next to one on Sunday and the lady let my wife have a really good look at it. SWMBO wasn't overly impressed with the size of the boot in comparison to the Tucson but I thought it seemed a bit more solid than the Tucson. I think the Tucson looks a bit better too but that is subjective. Thanks.
 
The packaging isn't up to modern standards and so the boot is a bit smaller than you'd like. On the plus side, the seats drop easily and can double fold.
If you can find an EX model it's worth having. The seats are very comfortable and the hifi is actually pretty good sounding. I actually prefer the sound to the Bose setup in my Mazda CX5. The nav is laughable of course and likely to not work due to them having a habit of eating the nav DVDs.
Ours is now on school-run and dog duty only. She's a beat up old girl (the car, not the dog) and probably won't last too much longer. She's got a bit or rot on the rear subframe and just feels very tired. Fine as a runaround though.
 
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