[Closed] What Family Car for less than £20k

S-Max or Galaxy

Tourneo Connect

Any clever ideas?

Spend £10k and have a nice holiday as well?

Can't fault my SMax.

Sorry did I say van?  I meant car.

20k is a lot to spend if you don't really know what you want.

Anyway, what about a Skoda Superb estate, lots about, well made, lots of engines to choose form and big and roomy.

£20k would get a low mileage, newish car with decent spec - you should get AT LEAST 10 years out of it if you even half take care of it.

I picked up a new focus estate last month for a bit less that that, titanium x 1.5 petrol 182, so top spec. It's a cracking car for the money and it's very quick.  I've never had a ford before but I'm serioulsy impressed.

Why not look at a Kia - 2yrs old still leaves you 5yr warranty.

20k is a lot to spend if you don’t really know what you want.

Yeah, I was planning on deciding first, then spending it.  🙂

Yeah, I was planning on deciding first, then spending it.

ho ho!

Mondeo.

Octavia estate of some variety and keep some cash.

How old / big are the kids?

We had a 1999 Passat when they were all under 4 - just about squeezed in three small seats.
This was changed at ages 2-6 for a 2005 Touran - much easier kid seat access, really really practical and comfy, yet unreliable.
At ages 9-13 we changed it for the 2006 Galaxy. We have one at 6', one a fully grown 5'9 adult and a third who is already 5'9" at age 12... Biggest car, best for mile munching and lugging bikes, kids and canoes around, all in their own full size seat. But not as comfy. Most reliable next to the old Passat. I can't imagine many cars having the space for 5 of us, two weeks kit, five bikes and two 17' canoes to South of France, in comfort, at car speeds.

If I had to go back to an Estate (And I will next time, kids are only 18months of first one leaving home), then it will be a V70, E-class, Accord or maybe Mondeo.

There is a reason people carriers are popular. Really practical and functional with kids.

Or you could be my brother in law who want's cool car over size. So his three kids and wife have to deal with and squeeze in a C-class Merc or BMW 3-series, and when they go on UK holiday they either do not pack half of what they need, even with a roof box, or take both cars...! Every time we meet his wife eyes up the practicality of the Galaxy and has a go that they should have at least one big car...

Oh god it looks like the time has cone when I've got to go for an mpv.  I knew it would happen at some point.

Kia Carens? Or Sorrento?

Or a lightly used 5 series estate? X3?

Don't diss the Galaxy...

It's in pimpin' tarmac grey, 7 cloth seats, full rubber mats and a diesel heart taken straight from Citroen...

#daddyrollin'

I see this as an opportunity and get a second hand high spec Audi S4 Avant...

Something along the lines of:

A6 Avant

Superb estate

E class estate

VW toureg

you can have my c5 and still have £19500 to spend on a holiday

Matt I've no doubt it's a great car but look at what you've become.  You're that guy who laughs at people because their cars aren't as practical as yours!

Buy a 2 seater sports car and tell the family to catch the bus.

Any reason all the mpv recommends are Galaxy rather than Sharan/Alhambra?

Matt I’ve no doubt it’s a great car but look at what you’ve become

...You'll have the last laugh though when you see me in Ikea's car park trying to get a wardrobe into a saloon car. 🙂

I still remember my mate saying the 370z wasn't going when he had a kid.

Think it was 6 months before the touran arrived.

And the 370z left.

No, we'll have the last laugh in a few years when your three kids are all six foot tall,trying to squeeze into the back of an Audi A4.

Good luck 😉

I used to have a boxster.  Then it was Mrs Linchpin in the drivers seat, jr in the passenger seat, me on my bike.

Grand S-Max, has sliding rear doors for better access, along with a higher rear roofline. A bit more compact than the Galaxy, nice car to drive, and very practical.

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Any reason all the mpv recommends are Galaxy rather than Sharan/Alhambra?

That's a C-Max, not an S-Max.

Have a word with yourself perchy!

I've had a word. It was "pedant" 😉

I've got a Grand C-Max (5 seater that can change to a 7 seater).

It's a great car and pretty much ideal for us with 2 young kids (and we aren't having any more), but 3 young kids would be too much. As it is we chuck a roof box on occasionally for all the crap of the day that we want to take on holiday. An S-Max or Galaxy would probably be ideal if you were looking in the Ford direction.

If you have young kids and that kind of money to spend I'd definitely get an MPV. If you have older kids you might get away with a standard-ish estate since they probably don't have bulky car seats that require specialist mounts etc and you could put stuff on their knees etc.

Latest Sharan and Galaxy are near identical in size, both 7 seaters. Within 35mm on overall length and width, and running a tape measure over the boots seems to suggest they are within 20mm in all dimensions...

If you've had too many children, simply sacrifice one of them to the gods and get yourself something interesting to drive.

If you don't have the stomach for recycling one of your own, you could always sell one into slavery, or to Madonna.

😀

Brand new Superb estates on Drivethedeal for under 20k.  The 1.5Tsi SE petrol was 17.5k

Or 18.5k for the 2.0 diesels in SE.

Or on Motorpoint the 2.0 diesel estates come in at around 14k at 2 years old.

I've been looking at buying a large estate and can't see past the Superb for space and value along with good reviews. My current car has got mileage left in it but I'm thinking that if I buy a 2015/2016 diesel car now I'll get a £20 or £30 road tax.  Wait another year or two and buy a 2017 car and it  will be £140 or more tax.

The 1.6 diesels are even cheaper but I'd need to road test one. I've read the 2.0 is nicer to drive, pulls better.

Nissan Prairie or Talbot Rancho. Be cool.

£20k would be a good deposit for a Macan

You can buy my BMW E91 for £19950 if you fancy?

2009 with Just over 100k on clock.

It's not had many accidents either.

4wd, loads of toys, seating for up to 11 or fewer seats and bags of space.. Probably completely theft proof...

I give you....

I have 2 kids (5+6) and a big dog. We have an E class estate Merc, it's a petrol as we generally only local trips, and it's an auto as it's a big merc estate. It's huge, bigger than the 5 series estate I had before. It's a big, comfy car that's fine for pootling around as well as longer trips. The huge bonus is that when the dog isn't there, and we need to cart more kids around, it has 2 seats that pop out the boot. The option of 7 seats is ace, as I'm still driving a normal car, I really dislike MPV type cars

The boot is huge, seriously. I've put a tow bar on it so I can carry bikes and have bars for a roofbox for the roof. We could probably get away without the roofbox if we didn't have a dog in the boot. Mostly does 3 to 10 mile trips but we'll be driving from London to Aviemore in it at the end of next month

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rickmeister

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4wd, loads of toys, seating for up to 11 or fewer seats and bags of space.. Probably completely theft proof…

I give you….

Available in RWD too, so you can give it a dab of oppo when the need arises

they all look the same when covered in puke and crayon anyway 😀

Oh god it looks like the time has cone when I’ve got to go for an mpv. I knew it would happen at some point.

We did the MPV thing when our kids were growing up. Originally bought it as a 3rd car for weekends and holidays but ended up using it a lot more and in fact got rid of one of the other cars (Audi A4) as it wasn't getting much use. We kept it for about 8 or 9 years and it turned out to be a very good buy. We now have a large SUV as our big car now and while it's better in some ways it doesn't have anything like the amount of space or versatility.

Well-sorted RX-7?

We have a Honda CRV (63)for our family car, 3 and 1 year old, cant fault the car.