My 07 plate focus hatchback has become a bit small for our current needs (new baby and all the extra luggage that goes with them) so we’re on the look out for a car that has more luggage capacity. i’ve suggested getting a roof box but my wife has suggested we just get a bigger car – who am I to stop my wife getting what she wants when she asks for a new car!

we’re looking for a car with more luggage capacity than a focus hatchback but without a. buying a van or b. buying a huge people carrier.

we’re thunking about a car in a similar price bracket to the focus so please dont recommend a merc c class or audi a6.

i’m currently thinking about a vauxhall insignia or astra estate or a ford mondeo or focus estate. not sure what engine I want as petrol engine is cheaper to buy but more expensive to run.

please recommend me a car to look at or at least think out. wanting something 1-2 years old.

Toyota are punting one year old petrol estates at around £11k to £12k. Boring but reliable. That or just wait a few months until you take less crap out with you? Focus does for most families once you get rid of pushchairs, high chairs etc.

might be a bit longer than a couple of months if i’m waiting til we’re done with highchairs or pushchairs.

is that an avensis estate or something else?

The Avensis – there’s another thread going about Toyota. Only know ’cause my mate works for Toyota and he’s always banging on about them being bargains.

I think our Focus estate is perfect for the four of us (3 yo and 6yo kids), if we had a Mondeo estate we would just take more unnecessary c##p with us (particularly pertinent for your ‘we must take the world’ new Mum situation).

If you like your focus, a focus estate or c-max would fit the bill. We bought a c-max pending the arrival of Ransos jnr, and it does seem to swallow a fair amount of baby-paraphenalia. We bought a 1.6 diesel, 4 years old, cost £5k. Bit of a bargain when you think of how much they cost new.

Don’t knock people carriers, they’re not all huge monsters like the Chrysler Voyager. If my Renault Scenic were more reliable it’d be a perfect family car – nice height, reasonable motor, easy to get the kids in and out of, etc. As is the electronics are made of (runny French) cheese, so I can’t really recommend it.

We were in the same position last summer (due to little monkey). Sold the 07 Focus and bought a mint 06 Saab 93 estate (1.9TDi Vector).

Decent amount of room (about the same as my A4), plenty of toys and generally excellent VFM. I’ve never been a Saab fan but in this instance we didn’t want to spend the extra on a Teutonic tourer and took a couple of test drives. Sure, the 93 isn’t as sure-footed as its main rivals and the cockpit is all a bit “wrong way round” but I don’t care about that – it does what we need and does it very well.

Do you Really need another car is your current one about to fall apart? If you have just had a little one surely the money you’d waste on a newer car would be better spent on something you really need.

If you need a new car just to take all the stuff need for a baby then you need to take less stuff with you there is no need for a bigger car.

The car I recommend is your current 07 Focus, save your money and do something nice with/for your family instead.

Sorry probably not what you want but just my thoughts.

Kia Ceed SW

+1 for a Focus Cmax.
Just bought one myself and I have a 11yr old and a 3month old plus the wifey and got all the room we need.
If your filling the boot up on one of these then you must be taking too much crap out with you.

We’re in almost exactly the same situation.
A two year old and another one due in September..
We have an 06 focus hatch- toyed with the idea of getting something else but the focus has been great so think we’re gonna just take the cheaper roofbox option..
The only time I imagine we’ll really need to use it is for the long drives down south for holidays.

I have a focus estate and it’s great for chucking in pushchairs and assorted kids’ stuff, for a practical family car without spending a lot I’d recommend it. Mine isn’t the most inspiring drive in the world (small engine and auto box) and I’m getting shot of it for that reason, but it’s done us proud for 3 years and was cheap, paid.5k and will hopefully get 3 of that back.

A Focus is plenty big enough,we had a Punto when our kids were small and that was fine.Why waste money on another car?

I love my Mondeo if that helps.

In the same vein, a Passat? I’d take either of those over the Insignia, previous motor was a Passat and it served me bloody well.

We coped quite well for 2.5 yrs in a Mazda 3 with a roof box (newborn twins) and that included several holidays with all the rubbish needed when bottle feeding, pushchairs etc.

If you like your focus, a focus estate or c-max would fit the bill. We bought a c-max pending the arrival of Ransos jnr, and it does seem to swallow a fair amount of baby-paraphenalia. We bought a 1.6 diesel, 4 years old, cost £5k. Bit of a bargain when you think of how much they cost new.

Or spend 1500 less and buy a Mondeo hatch in the same spec, get a similar boot, better handling and fuel economy. You lose some convenience but we looked at both and as much as we really liked the cmax the vfm going up to a large hatch is much better.

If you go mpv then I would definitely get one with 7 seats. If youre paying the premium get all the features.

Avensis estate is really nice as mentioned above.

I just went for a focus hatch as they were so cheap to buy (just over a year old and 7k less than new). I have 2 kids (2 and 7 yrs), however we came from a berlingo and I must say, although the focus is solid and a great drive, the berlingo would trump it in almost every way for use as a family car – for almost the same size of footprint, it is much bigger inside – bigger than anything else this side of a 7 seater, nice to drive, and the 2.0 Hdi feels a bit faster than the 1.6 zetec petrol focus depite 10 less horses. I owned 2 of these and would really recommend them – my last one was at 91k miles when sold and ran great, they are more dependable than usual french cars I reckon.

I went for a focus as I needed less space and fancied the sporty handling and fairly cheap running costs as they are fairly run of the mill. I did consider a focus c-max, my folks have one but they are only a little more useful than the hatch and dont look as nice IMO.

If you are looking for something less ‘utility’ than the berlingo – my brother bought a year old passat estate 170 sport TDi a few years back, cost only 12k (instead of over 20k new!) bigger cars seem less desirable these days… wonder why 🙂

My 07 plate focus hatchback has become a bit small for our current needs (new baby and all the extra luggage that goes with them)

So how did I cope with a Puma then? 😆

We also had a mk1 Focus and it was humanly possible to get a bike in, weekend away kit, baby, pram and two adults and be able to have 360degree vision out of all windows.

Currently drive a Citroen C1, 1 pram (City Jogger), 2yr old and two adults.

My point is do you need the space or is it a case of you think you need more space?

I’d say Mondeo estate. Drive better than a Focus, loads more room etc.

However I do think a roof box is partly the answer too, they are really good for just chucking a load of the stuff in.

The other thing to think about with young kids is the height of the back seats. I didnt get this at all at first, but my wife insisted we got a car with ‘higher up’ back seats. We ended up getting a Seat Altea XL and its much easier to lift Jnr FD in to, rather than having to bend down to fasten him in like I have to in a Mondeo.

My point is do you need the space or is it a case of you think you need more space?

Hora, you haven’t read the original post, and I quote:

my wife has suggested we just get a bigger car

I know but me and a friend (Mother of newborn, 2yr old son) were discussing cars etc recently and everyone at her nursery has something ‘big’ yet shes keeping her newshape Clio 3door partly because its already lost a massive part of its value/depreciation but also she doesn’t see the point of something bigger for her actual needs.

I went through a similar process a year ago – ditching a Grande Punto (which was a great car but just too small and impractical for use as our ‘main’ car) for something with five doors and a bigger boot. I ended up going for an Octavia estate. Granted, not as big as a Mondeo but still plenty big enough for pram, highchair, etc. It ticks pretty much every box that I wanted it to, the only things missing being steering wheel controls for the radio and bluetooth phone, but I don’t really miss either now to be honest. I’ve got the 2 litre diesel, but the 1.6 is meant to be very good and very economical, and the turbocharged petrol engines are meant to be good too.

The only other thing I would say is that the highchair/pram stage has passed pretty quickly, so a huge boot probably isn’t a necessity in the long term, so if you’re not desparate to change the focus then don’t – just find ways to manage for a year or so (roofbox, keep a highchair at mother-in-laws, make two trips, etc.)