Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

• Overview
• Bike Forum
• Chat Forum
• For Sale
• Wanted
• Forum Help
• Classified Rules

Bike Forum

1. thisisnotaspoon - Member

   Focus C-Max as well. + You can take the seats out (if your feeling stong) and have a van.

   I think of mine the other way arround, the seat's only go in if I need a car!

   The other downside (possibly unique to the C-max? or is it normal in MPV's?) is the seats don't fold flat into the floorpan like most other cars, so you lose ~20cm of length compared to say a focus estate, unless you remove them completely, in which case you gain 20cm, but then I'd worry about something heavy sliding forweard in a crash.

   Posted 11 months ago #
2. hora - Member

   Old Cmax is just a taller Focus IMO.

   Subaru Forester is awesome.

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. flippinheckler - Member

   Why is it as soon as couples start a family they feel the need to get a people carrier or bigger car ffs, when we had our first child I had a poxy polo and Mrs FH a Nova. Get a bloody grip.

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. ransos - Member

   Why is it as soon as couples start a family they feel the need to get a people carrier or bigger car ffs, when we had our first child I had a poxy polo and Mrs FH a Nova. Get a bloody grip.

   We manage just fine with one car between us. Who needs to get a grip?

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. TroutWrestler - Member

   Nipper one mandated the change from a 3-door Yaris to a 5 -door 206SW. Getting the kid/seat in and out is important. Somewhere to bung the pram/buggy is important.

   I have a Berlingo and don't need to fold the pram/buggy to bung it in the boot. Very convenient.

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. joeyj - Member

   We have had a number of cars between me and mrs since our sons were born heres a few and what we thought of them
   54 Astra - ok ish would not get another one
   05 Mini Cooper - great car crap for very yound kids as no room in boot
   56 VW Golf - loved it but the mrs didnt too big ????
   57 VW Jetta - excellent perfect for all the kids junk in the massive boot
   55 - Mini Cooper - great once little one was older
   58 - BMW 320d msport - great car crap for kids the boot doesnt allow large items in very well preferred the jetta
   59 - Mini Clubman - excellent and big enough for when junior no 2 came along o need to change as has a slightly larger boot
   56 - BMW 120d - great car smallish boot great handling when dry but dont go out in the snow
   59 - VW Passat - excellent and boot is massive and your bike can fit in too !!!
   Hope this helps

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. thisisnotaspoon - Member

   Old Cmax is just a taller Focus IMO.

   That's exactly what it is, the original one was even called the Focus C-max and used the mechanicals/suspension from the Mk2 focus. My parents had a focus estate and it's pretty similar in terms of space in the back, just much more headroom (can't sit in the back of a focus hatchback if youre over 6ft, there's a good 6-8" above me in the c-max) and the seats are higher which makes getting in and out easy.

   Posted 11 months ago #
8. hora - Member

   Getting the kid/seat in and out is important. Somewhere to bung the pram/buggy is important.

   If you are 60yrs old+ yes.

   Posted 11 months ago #
9. FunkyDunc - Member

   "If you are 60yrs old+ yes. "

   Disagree - We have a Mondeo & Altea XL. We always go out in the Altea with Jnr FD, just because you dont have to bend down so much to get Jnr FD in and out of it.

   Posted 11 months ago #
10. hora - Member

    Wow. My last car (for 10,000miles) was a Ford Puma with hora junior sat in the back. I never had any issues. Mrshora used to stand in the rear footwell to strap him in or any issues lifting him in there and shes a size8 so not a powerfully built AngloSaxon woman

    

    Posted 11 months ago #
11. buffalobill - Member

    Range Rover Evoque?

    Posted 11 months ago #
12. yunki - Member

    Wow. My last car (for 10,000miles) was a Ford Puma with hora junior sat in the back. I never had any issues. Mrshora used to stand in the rear footwell to strap him in or any issues lifting him in there and shes a size8 so not a powerfully built AngloSaxon woman

    ignore this pseudo-macho bolleaux..

    hora either had naff all to do with the raising of that kid or else has a super athletic structure and a very well developed core and back..

    if you're not a power lifter then get a five door at least to avoid hurting your back.. back injuries are the last thing you need with a growing baby to cart around everywhere.. with a value car seat and a 25lb kid that's a lot of weight to be moving in a poor lifting position.. especially with the twisting involved maneuvering in and out of a low 3 door hatch..

    Posted 11 months ago #
13. hora - Member

    3doors tend to have longer front doors than their 5door (same model) equvilient. Friends has a newshape 3door Clio and two children, 1x3yr old and 1x<1yr old.

    Posted 11 months ago #
14. ransos - Member

    3doors tend to have longer front doors than their 5door (same model) equvilient.

    They tend to have a low roofline, too. I've tried putting Ransos jr in the back of a small three door. It's perfectly possible, but much less convenient than a tallish 5 door. And I'm not mean enough to leave it all to my wife.

    Posted 11 months ago #
15. jam bo - Member

    my 3 door A3 has long doors and seats that fold all the way forward out the way. although I can fit the car seat in the back its a pain and i'll use the passat estate every time if we have to move junior around.

    Posted 11 months ago #
16. hora - Member

    I don't see any issue but then when mrshora was expecting I didn't think we needed a big car asap. I don't go for upscaling but then our buggy has always been cleverly packaged/designed (as are many small cars). The buggy that hes had since 0-2yrs fits in the boot of a C1 perfectly.

    The only downside of having a smaller car is that some drivers (Vauxhalls 99.9% of the time) assume you must be bullied.

    Posted 11 months ago #
17. ransos - Member

    The buggy that hes had since 0-2yrs fits in the boot of a C1 perfectly.

    And the luggage for a two week holiday?

    Posted 11 months ago #
18. hora - Member

    And the luggage for a two week holiday?

    I used to own two MX5's. You tend not to take those clothes that you never end up using.

    Posted 11 months ago #
19. ransos - Member

    I used to own two MX5's. You tend not to take those clothes that you never end up using.

    I'm taking a pram, travel cot and bike trailer. An MX-5 isn't going to cut it.

    Posted 11 months ago #
20. buffalobill - Member

    I used to own two MX5's. You tend not to take those clothes that you never end up using.

    
    You needed two mx5s to carry all your luggage? That sounds like a holiday logistics nightmare.

    Posted 11 months ago #
21. Mike_D - Member

    We had a Peugeot Partner when our eldest was born. She's now seven and has a brother, we still have the Partner. Sliding doors + tall = win for kids in child seats. But I can't see there's much wrong with a Jazz -- I'd always go for "not buying another car" as my favourite option

    Posted 11 months ago #
22. jambalaya - Member

    New cars are safer than olders ones. Bigger cars are generally safer than small ones. So an older big car versus a newer smaller one is a valid comparison safety wise.

    I suppose the middle ground would be something like a 5 door Golf / ... (FWIW I really like he Jazz and it's super practical with the flat folding seats)

    Once we got to 3 kids we needed a bigger car and went the 7 seat 4x4 route (2 Shoguns, over 200,000 miles and 13 years but that was before the penal road tax). But for 1 or 2 kids getting a bigger estate type car only really counts for holidays (or the not to be discounted biking holidays). Once we were down to 2 kids (eldest off to Uni) we went to an A6 Estate, which now we are close to being kidless is only useful for trips to/from Uni and bike holidays! When we started the family we had 5dr Golf's.

    Posted 11 months ago #
23. TroutWrestler - Member

    The world according to Hora is indeed an interesting place...

    Posted 11 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.