Question for parents

[ci_newman]

When my wife fell pregnant, we sold her 1.4 5-door Civic and changed to a Mondeo. The Civic was practical enough, it was just quite old and ropey and we didn't want to risk a break-down at the side of the road with a newborn.

The Mondeo excels it in every way anyway, more toys, more comfort, better engine and more space.

 

[RenoRanes007]

I became a dad 10 weeks ago, I still have my '85 ur-quattro Turbo and the missus still has her '00 VW Transporter T4 Panel Van. Neither of us feel the need to change for anything else.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Lol. Hurrrrrr durrrrrrrrr.

I went from a Z4 Coupe to a 330d. Probably should have bought a Caterham instead.

I made a deal with the wife - I would consent to having children if she let me build a Westfield.

3 kids later and http://web.bethere.co.uk/amigafan2003/index.html *

*normal day to day cars are a 2001 MK3 Mondeo 2.0l Ghia X and a Y reg Scorpio 2.9l v6 24v Ultima Cosworth

Had a nice big 5 door estate, and swapped it for a ****, smaller 5 door estate...

The reason? The insurance on the existing car went up by £500 just for ticking the box to "any children under 16".

My insurance always goes down when I tick that box Something to do with having young kids in the car makes you drive more carefully.

Went from a Caterham 7 to a Ford Mondeo estate. With hindsight I should have chopped my testicles of instead

Mug!

 

[Scania]

I became a dad 10 weeks ago, I still have my '85 ur-quattro Turbo and the missus still has her '00 VW Transporter T4 Panel Van. Neither of us feel the need to change for anything else.

Ditch the VW by all means (when - not if- the need arises) keep that ur or I'll personally hunt you down!!!!

 

[Diesel]

Chopping in a perfectly good car for some **** like a Xsara Picasso just because you've had a kid seems crazy, but then again plenty of stuff parents do seems utterly bizarre to me.

 

[Ben Cole]

I agree with a lot of the sentiments here, for some reason expectant parents go ballistic with choosing new cars (and everything else).

Personally I had no choice, shopped in my Boxster S for an Audi S4.

A lot of people insist they need 4+ doors. To date my favourite car for loading kids was a Mk4 Golf (3dr).

The seats came forward so much you could pick the child up and literally step into the car and place in the car seat straight on. Much easier than in 4 doors where there is inevitably some twisting going on.

This thread also reminds me of my daughter going nuts when we picked up our CLS. At the time she was 4yrs old and was adamant it wasn't a family car because it only had 4 seats. Even when I pointed out there was only 4 people in our family she still wasn't having it.

 

[latercomer2]

We had a little one about 20 months ago but thankfully already had a Saab 9-5 estate (3.0 TiD V6 ) which is about as big as any standard car on the market. Still had to buy a roof box due the amount of stuff OH now takes with us when we go anywhere for more than an hour.

I've got a mk4 Golf which doesn't have ISOfix anchor points. When shopping for a car seat on saying that only one car had ISOfix the assistant stated that obviously we would be changing the one that didn't....... I know babies are precious but people seem to think you lose your marbles when one is coming/comes along. I managed to bite my tongue but only just

 

[Jonny69]

My friend welded in ISOFIX mounts into his Hillman Minx estate. No way he was going to give up his classics. The boot on it is actually enormous for what is not a massive car.

 

[arch]

My Missus changed from a 3dr Beetle (3 doors are a PITA and the boot was too small) to a Qashqai. I just smugly kept the Evo as a practical family 4 door saloon

 

[Mr^B]

I need a 7 seater as I have 4 kids.

Before #4 arrived I was quite happy in a 3-door hatchback.

 

[Witor]

I went from a ctr to an old e36 323 saloon for various reasons. New house purchase, wife 8 months pregnant at the time, £220 per month loan on the ctr would be handy to have back in pocket (and was...), 3 doors was a concern (not much in hindsight...) and managed to sell the ctr at a great price, got the 323 and a few k to boot in savings. Right decision at the right time.

2nd kid 3 years later, chopped the 323i for 1.8T Leon FR facelift, had no worries on that front either, still think that was a great multi-role car.

Alfa has also coped admirably, though I've have no need for a double buggy for a while now.