Exactly this. I really wanted an Audi S3 8V but settled for the a Audi A4 B9 Avant 252ps. Going shopping and being able to fit everything in the boot plus the trips to centre parcs it’s been very useful. Having a bigger car has so much utility as a young family. I didn’t want to compromise every time something came up that required more room.
Whilst its probably easy to get by without an estate it does make life a lot easier with a little one. I don't need to really plan how anything fits in the car, just chuck it in There have been times for a weekend away where the main bulky items have been clothes bags, Large pram, travel cot, toys (scooter etc) that do fill up a car pretty quick.
I was playing to the OP's point of "love my 350z" and "needs similar performance". Man maths make any of them viable
First things first how did you end up with a 350Z if you're not a car person. It's a drivers car I was in exactly same boat 18 months ago. Loved my 2008 350Z, really nice example, but once the little one came along it became impractical and had to go. I ended up with a M140i, but should be quite a few options in your price range. Good luck selling on the 350, I didn't have a great deal of interest which surprised me a bit.
I figured YOLO and it was the perfect time to have an impractical car! Have loved it ever since! (Previous car was a 1L Lupo, so it was quite an upgrade! I do low mileage (so don't care about the fuel costs), have loads of NCB, so insurance is cheap, no kids and (at the timeI bought it), no mortgage.
Feel you pain, when i finally had to get a grown up car i went from my last MR2 to a Lexus IS200, what was a great car for family use. But i still ended going buying an estate, well if you can call a 3 series touring an estate the boot is that great of a size. You could look at a subaru Legacy or Forester? If you really like the 3L V6 in the 350Z you could look at a Nissan Stagea??? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-S...185102?hash=item58fe74bb8e:g:epIAAOSwnHZYiHfC I am sure there is a forum member on here who has one.
Keep 350z and buy a beater estate. We are having our second child this September and I am shopping to trade in our hatchback for a 2 seater convertible! Doing it all wrong. Lol.
I have a 350z and bought the wife a Suzuki Swift at the same time. I have 2 kids and have never had a space issue in the dinky Suzuki. People Automatically think OMG a kid is on the way I must buy a huge Estate and take the whole contents of my house every time I go out!!! Why not keep your Zed and get the missus something for the family?
No reason why having kids has to mean getting a *completely* boring car: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901304439993? You even get to keep the sound of a 350z! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fSRUgczFdA
I wouldn't worry. It was hardly like the 350z was renowned for it's amazing performance handling or pace. Most fast saloons from the last decade including the ST220 will probably do.
It all depends on what you do for holidays and weekends though. We could probably get away with the qashqai day to day no bother it's the times we go to centre parcs and weekend away we would struggle. We purchased a tent this year and plan on going camping a fair bit, no way could we do that in the QQ. I mean my cousin has 3 kids and they get by in an i20...I would much prefer to not have to be some sort of Tetris champion trying to get everything to fit in the car.
My brother in law managed to put in a weeks camping, missus, child and a siberian huskey into his Mazda 3 so it is doable.
I'm not doubting it for a minute...however can imagine that it was some squeeze. I use don't think I could go to anything smaller than the superb now we've got used to the space .
The boot was tiny Liomited opening and the Sub int eh top of boot meant you lost a good amount of height too. NEeded to fit buggies n stuff
We did a 4 hour trek up to the lake district. Albeit he packed a smaller tent and was a lot more basic. It wasn't that much different to my Saab 9-5 Estate in terms of comfort. Just needed to pack a lot more smart where as i could just basically chuck everything in, pack proper beds/chairs etc. Although our collie still had to ride shotgun but i think she loved that!
