Chaps,
It's been a few years since I was last active in the motors forum, and much like many other areas of the forums of late, I'm feeling rather out of touch. It feels a little rude jumping straight in with a request but I'm starting to run out of time so forgive me.
Having lived in London for the past 14 years or so, I've not owned a car since moving here, relying on rentals for longer journeys, so my experience with cars has become quite limited. Now however, with a change in circumstances (baby on the way) and needing to visit relatives much more frequently (who are both around 2hours a way) and needing to be able to just go as/when the time has come to purchase a car rather than rely on zipcar/virtuo.
Where I'm hoping you guys can come in is with helping to narrow down the choice of car - because I'm having a pretty hard time not ending up with 20 different options. I'm not overly fussy, but I'm hoping for something that's pretty decent, not terrible looking and ultimately is smooth/comfortable.
Criteria:
- Has to be an auto - I've driven a few different cars recently, I've found the VW DSG comfortable to drive (in the 2019 Golf), as I also have when driving a couple of Mercedes auto based cars (notably a few different 2019/2020 A180s), that's been smooth as butter to me but then I haven't experienced many others
- Ideally no older than 2018/2019
- Petrol
- Family friendly - so four doors with decent boot space
- Budget is up to £20k - not looking to PCP/HP, I just fancy buying something and owning it long term. I really don't want to stretch it further than that as I've a few other large expenditures creeping in.
The obvious option for me so far has simply been to get something like a 2018/2019 Golf. Am I missing any blindingly obvious cars? Should i be looking at something completely different? Should I be avoiding any particular brands? I'm not averse to looking at larger vehicles either, I just want something solidly built and reliable. If I should be looking at an older vehicle, I'm willing to consider that, part of me just thinks newer = less likely to have as many problems.
As is clear, I'm clueless so any assistance would be gratefully received.
Mike.
It's been a few years since I was last active in the motors forum, and much like many other areas of the forums of late, I'm feeling rather out of touch. It feels a little rude jumping straight in with a request but I'm starting to run out of time so forgive me.
Having lived in London for the past 14 years or so, I've not owned a car since moving here, relying on rentals for longer journeys, so my experience with cars has become quite limited. Now however, with a change in circumstances (baby on the way) and needing to visit relatives much more frequently (who are both around 2hours a way) and needing to be able to just go as/when the time has come to purchase a car rather than rely on zipcar/virtuo.
Where I'm hoping you guys can come in is with helping to narrow down the choice of car - because I'm having a pretty hard time not ending up with 20 different options. I'm not overly fussy, but I'm hoping for something that's pretty decent, not terrible looking and ultimately is smooth/comfortable.
Criteria:
- Has to be an auto - I've driven a few different cars recently, I've found the VW DSG comfortable to drive (in the 2019 Golf), as I also have when driving a couple of Mercedes auto based cars (notably a few different 2019/2020 A180s), that's been smooth as butter to me but then I haven't experienced many others
- Ideally no older than 2018/2019
- Petrol
- Family friendly - so four doors with decent boot space
- Budget is up to £20k - not looking to PCP/HP, I just fancy buying something and owning it long term. I really don't want to stretch it further than that as I've a few other large expenditures creeping in.
The obvious option for me so far has simply been to get something like a 2018/2019 Golf. Am I missing any blindingly obvious cars? Should i be looking at something completely different? Should I be avoiding any particular brands? I'm not averse to looking at larger vehicles either, I just want something solidly built and reliable. If I should be looking at an older vehicle, I'm willing to consider that, part of me just thinks newer = less likely to have as many problems.
As is clear, I'm clueless so any assistance would be gratefully received.
Mike.
