Hi again all, the time has come to replace our current family car that the friendly guys and gals here pointed me in the direction of.
The car that it will be replacing is a 1.33 2009 (59 plate) Yaris which has served us really well but with a second child in the family we really need something that bit bigger to be able to cart everything about.
I've not been given too many show-stoppers other than it can't be a diesel (mainly down to the scaremongering that is currently going on regarding them) but also because the car will mostly be used for short journeys and we don't feel we'd benefit from it. The only other thing is that needs to be no older than the current car (up to 5 years old ideally).
With those criteria in mind my first port of call was a facelift Civic (circa 2012 plate) mainly due to the huge boot space and clever underseat storage in the back. We initially looked at the Astra and Focus but unless you go for the estate the boot space is disappointing from what I have read. I'm a big fan of the Octavia, again the boot space is excellent and class-leading so they're the cars I've been looking at on the hatchback side of things.
Unfortunely due to the 'no-diesel' rule it does limit us with the choice of estates available to us (where a Focus or Astra would be a viable option) and the majority of Octavias. I'm not a huge fan of SUVs if I'm being honest but I've not ruled them out if there is something out there that fits, the same goes for MPVs.
The last couple of long trips we've done we've borrowed my dad's 2008 Vectra which really emphasised the boot space issue we currently have and as a result my wife hasn't ruled out the bigger hatchbacks (I like the look of the Insignia but not completely sold on the build quality/reliability)
We've got a budget of £5k - £8k for this car and would be looking to keep it for the forseeable future (no more children planned) so if there was a car we really liked the look of that was a bit over then we'd consider it.
Any personal experiences on the cars mentioned or any obvious ones that I've left out would be greatly received
Sorry for being a bit vague again, the mrs has given me pretty much free-reign which doesn't really help matters if I'm honest.
Andy