[Closed] What car for a new mother

Do you need a 4x4? Or is it just a safety thing?

Just a safety thing. Would go for a 2WD versions for MPG.

I'd have thought something like a Focus will be as safe (and roomy) as some on that list?

My Wife has a 2wd Qashqai - bought partly as the extra ride hight makes putting the nipper in and out of his seat a little easier with a chronic back problem, without having to go full on 4x4.

They all seem to have citroen C3's round here (my wife included). Cheap, roomy, 5 doors and cheap. NCT set all have range rovers, or quashqai's.

Mrs Cat transported our round in a Sportrack (fab vehicle if a bit agricultural) and a Terios, until last year, so 15 years in total. Now has a Panda 4x4. (job dictates 4x4) The advantage of the first two is height and visibility and they seem to be pretty tough whilst remaining small enough not to have the Cheshire Tractor tag. Also the raised height meant the kids were waist/chest high (depending if was me or the tiny wifee) when you need to tend to the little darlings. It's easier on the back when loading them too.
Would recommend the Terios, nippy little thing.

Aren't Renault Meganes meant to be some of the safest cars on the road? you seem to have just gone for a list of soft roaders in the belief that they're bigger = they're safer?

Have a look at NCAP ratings.

OK too many shandies at lunch time, I will say sorry now for the following...

See this is where the problem starts, people who have normal practical and lets face it, sensible cars such as the Honda Jaz, suddenly realizing that in a rear end with knuckle dragging owner of a oversized 4x4 killing machine, might just be worse off in a prang.

Lets look at how cars grow over the years, as an example a mk1 golf is probably the size of a polo now and a modern day golf have two options a standard or an oversized fatty version that could swallow half of Belgium and a bit of Holland!

Then you have the original bad boy a Mk1 BMW X5, but that is on par now with its baby brother the X3 now in size!

Lets not mention the original Mini and the new MINI with its pig ugly oversized flabby modern day version of the Countryman!

Everything car wise, is getting bigger...

I feel your pain codebauer, I feel your pain.

Old Mercs or Volvo's are quite butch from what I have been told codebauer.

I do remember seeing some research suggesting that whilst you may be better off when you do have an accident in a larger car, smaller cars are less likely to be involved in an accident in the first place (due to better handling or other reasons) and overall you're no better off.

Being high up is all very well, but this typically means worse visibility of short people standing near your car, and as such there's a better chance that you'll run over your own kid on your own driveway.

I test drove a CRV and I discounted it as you just feel slightly removed from the drive/experience.

Touran felt vague for me.

For me, a safe car is one that you feel TOTALLY comfortable driving NO how big it looks.

If your partner is used to the Jazz, that for me would be the car.

I drive a Citroen C1 one with a 2yr old in the back. Am I an irresponsible nutter by your thinking?

The most fun car I owned was a MX5 tied with a Subaru Forester. One of the worse ones that I've driven is the Honda Civic (new shape). Terrible dead/electric steering.

The problem is the thing is a old Honda Jazz, so would not come off well in any accident!

The honda jazz was only introduced in 2002, so not really old, and it's NCAP rating is OK, so by no means unsafe. That said all of the cars you list do score higher on child safety, but lower on pedestrian safety.

I'd say the Honda Jazz is the perfect small ecomonical runabout for a mum with 1 child.

Anyway shouldn't you be encouraging her to be using the car less and cycling more with him? Then you'll suddenly be a bit more interested in the low pedestrian scores of all those stupid oversized softroader things.

Forgot the 😉

[i]Old Mercs or Volvo's are quite butch from what I have been told codebauer.[/i]

They may be 'built like tanks' but they are no match for todays supermini's...

There is a similar clip of a LR Discovery being crashed into a Renault Espace. The ladder frame of the Discovery just means the Espace rides up over the chassis and takes out most of the passenger compartment...not quite as indestructible as they appear.

Newshape Honda Jazz?

Interested in selling the old one? How long have you had it?

I reckon he's just getting things in place for the school run in a couple of years.
IMHO its a bit daft playing the game in the first place. No car is inherantly dangerous otherwise it wont have an MOT. I also think that a lot of the manufacturers feed the paranoia that your current car is unsafe. Most modern cars have reinforced doors, crumple zones, front and side airbags (our 12 YO Mazda 323 has all these). Modern cars are at a point now where you'd have to be in a pretty hefty smash to not walk away from it.
Yes the Jazz is a small car, but it doesnt mean it turns to tinfoil if you bounce it off a wall.

Ford C-max? What's your budget?

spooky_b329 - Member

Old Mercs or Volvo's are quite butch from what I have been told codebauer.

They may be 'built like tanks' but they are no match for todays supermini's...

Wow that is impresive, without watching the vid I would have put my money on the Volvo...

Did they also smash a smart car into a brick wall at 70mph and the doors still opened, ant the passanger cell was still in one piece, ocupunts would have still been mushed, but the doors opened! 😯

Found it 🙂

"Modern cars are at a point now where you'd have to be in a pretty hefty smash to not walk away from it."

Sort of a fair point. Your less likely to die on impact in a car accident these days, but your more likely to die slowly in pain in hospital as all your internal organs fail from deceleration injuries.

Back to the OP - If your wife isn't an experienced driver, why do you want to put her in a big car.

Oh and big cars are better at killing pedestrians than small normals cars.

Oh and your probably better making sure you have good quality tyres and a good car seat for the kid rather than making sure you have the biggest car possible.

Re: That Smart clip, I saw a Smart parked up on the A27 a couple of weeks ago, it had some minor front end damage (quite high up so suspect it ran into the back of a lorry) but it did leave me wondering (having seen the clip before) how hard it had actually hit the vehicle in front. For a normal car I'd say 15mph from the damage, but knowing how strong it is...30mph? Hard enough to either disable the car or the driver, anyways...

Okay, point taken.

We need a bigger boot for all the kiddie junk. But any other ideas for the research list.

Don't think a Caddy is big a car. But, anyway I hate looking at (reading about) cars. Just wanted some way to narrow down the list.

--pauL

Cars we've had since the kids were born:

[list][*]Ford Fiesta[/*]
[*]Renault Scenic[/*]
[*]Toyota Corrolla[/*][/list]

We're currently back with a 2002 Scenic. Decent NCAP, cheap, battered.

We need a bigger boot for all the kiddie junk. But any other ideas for the research list.

All Fords steer and drive ok. A Ford Focus wouldn't be a bad choice.

We bought one of these when Jnr FD came along.

[img] [/img]

which is great because it has a big boot and high rear seats for no bending down. However we still got one of these as boots are never big enough for kids stuff and dogs!

[img] [/img]

Liking the look of the Skoda Yeti at the moment- well maybe not the look but the space and practicality for a focus sized footprint.

Ford C-max?

+1

Everyone I've given lifts to remarks how easy it is getting in the back (especialy old people, I've not tired it on babies) as it's the back seats are quite high up and can be slid back making the effective doorway huge, and how much space there is in the front compared to normal saloons/estates, and assuming that the crumple zones do their job initialy and keep the interior intact, it's that extra space that saves you in a bigger crash as the dash/bulkhead are miles away from you, ditto the sides, plenty of room between shoulder/elbows and the doors.

It does share the 4x4 downside of having a child sized blindspot under the rear window though, although we're talking small child rather than a car which you could hide behind a lot of 4x4's.

On the plus side (as Mr Clarkson proved with the M5 estate) people don't asusme your a polar bear killing selfish prick when driving an estate rather than a similarly sized (or actualy smaller on boot space as bear in mind you have to give up a big chunk of room for the diff in 4x4's) 4x4. On the downside everyone assumes I must have sprogs on the way and be full of repreessed anger as I drive an 'MPV'.

We ended up with a Ford Mondeo estate, the main criteria being a huge boot for the little trbs stuff and decent MPG from the 2l TDi, so if you don't want to go that big a Focus would be a reasonable assumption.

nb, Some friends have a Jazz and a CR-V (work for Honda). They reckon the Jazz is better for hauling "stuff" as it has a more useable boot. Bigger on the outside doesn't always mean better on the inside....

yetis are not going to be easy to get hold of, are they? can't be many 2nd hand around i wouldn't have thought and probably fairly backlogged for new ones even?

we had a focus estate and considered a grand c-max afterwards, but the difference in capacity was actually surprisingly negligible.

+1 for the c-max. The high rear seats make getting our little one in quite easy, and the boot is just about big enough for a family holiday. It feels quite a lot bigger on the inside than a standard focus.

Regarding the reversing blind spot - it's pretty bad, so try and find one with parking sensors.

autotrader has 230 odd 2nd hand ones available around the uk which isn't huge in comparison to a focus etc but he only wants to buy one! Some are nearly new/daft money though.

true enough. i think a while back they were reporting year+ lead times for them, i'm probably a bit out of date now though!

Yeah the old Volvos are built like Tanks is myth is still gong strong, about 20 years ago then and Saabs were they safest. Now pretty much most cars less than 10 years old are very well built for accident damage. It use to be a case of an odd few walking out of a car crash unsaved now you're unlucky if you have serious injury. I could be out of a job if it continues.

Volvo.

/thread

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

don't renaults always do well in crash tests?
+1 for not buying a chelsea tractor, inexperienced driver, in a 3 ton tank, only a matter of time.....

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.

Old Cmax is just a taller Focus IMO.

Subaru Forester is awesome.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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

If you are 60yrs old+ yes.

"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.

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 😆

[img] [/img]

Range Rover Evoque?

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

And the luggage for a two week holiday?

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.

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.

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

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 😉

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.

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