Used car recommendations - family car up to about £10k absolute tops!!
- Thread starter Time Waster
- Start date
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This is what I'm looking for. The facelift version in SR spec preferably. Haven't seen one locally in a few years but still keeping an eye out.
I've a 2010 1.8 mk8 hatch with 145k on it and still hasn't given me a whiff of bother engine wise. Dearest thing to ever fix has been a few hundred £ - probably the rear axle replacement. They are very big inside. I've managed our family of 4, a weeks worth of bags, a bike trailer, 2 bikes on the roof (one of them a tandem), one bike under the rear seat and a standard poodle (in the middle seat not under
). I'd hedge my bets that there isn't another family hatch that could do that - or infact the majority of standard estates.
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Jody
Stubborn git
Ocatvia hatch by a mile with a load capacity at nearly 600 litres.
How do you get a bike under the rear seat??
Electric_Andy
Heavy Metal Fan
- Location
- Plymouth
Nothing knowlegable to add, apart from our personal preferences. I have a Passat 2L diesel, my partner has a Renault Captur 1.5L diesel. My engine is much nicer to drive, loads of torque, gets 46mpg around town and nearly 60 on a run. The DPF issue can be worked around by doing a longer run every week or so, or when the DPF light comes on. Sometimes it clears with 15 mins of motorway driving. A minor inconvenience and a bit of wasted fuel if you weren't making a trip anyway, but worth it IMHO. But the passat is quite low down to drive. On the other hand, the Captur is higher up, a much better city car, is a hatchback so lots of room with seats down, and is mildly better MPG but very slow compared to the 2.0 D. But once you get used to any car, I find you are not normally comparing performance to other cars that you don't own.
We're looking at part ex-ing both of ours and getting 1 slightly newer car. We like the "crossover" cars like the Pug 3008 and VW T-Roc but the newer ones are out of our price range at the moment. They look roomy and higher up but not as long as an estate. Plus my partner is 5'11" and we have 6" boys and there always seems more headroom in one of these compared to a motorway saloon.
Petrols are ok but the few I've driven in recent years were small cars, so were asking to be revved, and I was changing gears a lot more
We're looking at part ex-ing both of ours and getting 1 slightly newer car. We like the "crossover" cars like the Pug 3008 and VW T-Roc but the newer ones are out of our price range at the moment. They look roomy and higher up but not as long as an estate. Plus my partner is 5'11" and we have 6" boys and there always seems more headroom in one of these compared to a motorway saloon.
Petrols are ok but the few I've driven in recent years were small cars, so were asking to be revved, and I was changing gears a lot more
vickster
Legendary Member
Civic's have 'floating' rear seats which means they can fold completely down or fold up. When they are in normal position, there is a wealth of space beneath. Taking the front wheel off my daughters 20" Carrera, means I can slide it under the rear seat, with a heap of other stuff and still use the 3 seats.
The fact that the Skoda's seats don't actually fully fold flat vastly reduces its practicality for me unfortunately.
Although, maybe they'd fit full sized adult bikes sitting upright with the front wheel off with a rear seat/s still available? I use this configuration quite a bit.
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Jody
Stubborn git
Not sure the couple of inches makes that much difference but the seats not laying completely flat isn't great.
The Mk1 seats drop flat but the Mk3 I've bought doesn't.
It should easily fit a bike laid down with the front wheel removed.
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vickster
Legendary Member
I would think so, my Fabia estate can take a 54cm roadbike like that (indeed I don't need to remove the wheel if just one bike in car)
Laid flat though means that the back seats can't be used for passengers? Setting the bikes upright without the front wheel means the smaller side of the 60/40 rear seat can be used for a passenger. My previous C4 coupe was also able to do this due to the raised rear window section which closed over the rear wheel - but that went to car heaven after a collision this time last year 
Time Waster
Veteran
So far we have ruled out cars but not got a shortlist. It seems easier to rule things out than rule them in!!
Ocatavia is out. Kia Ceed is out. Kia Soul is out. Surprisingly this isn't really a small car, at least not inside. I put the drivers seat fully back and lowered it like I do with any car or van seat. I had more headroom than my Vauxhall vivaro van!! I then realised the seat was too far back so before moving forward I checked out the space in the back seat. IMHO with my seat fully back my son (a tall 12yo) would easily have enough leg room. It looked like more room than the Skoda Yeti nwe also looked at and ruled out. The boot on the soul is small though and it is fugly so it is also out.
So it is looking like skoda brand is out completely. Kia soul, Kia ceed and vauxhalls of all kinds are also out. This is now starting to look a difficult feat to find a car. The Toyota Auris looks too small so is out despite my partner seeing a possible 2014 for £7k in a local garage that was her favourite so far. The Rav4 we saw was out as too old. There were a few more models I have ruled out too.
So now I am struggling.
I have not seen any but it is looking like the old standby of Ford Focus is still in the running. What else???
Revised criteria:
Cheap to buy and run (£10k absolute top price) and needs to be economical to run.
Large enough for me so midrange family car sized like a Ford Focus sort of size.
Enough boot space for a few people's luggage (ford focus should be big enough)
I want something nice enough to drive for a couple of hours in one go. Although most of its user would be local journeys for dad's taxi use with a car full of kids and my partner.
Plain and simple is my partners preference for as cheap as we dare but I want at least a moderate spec.
And finally a kooky requirement, an engine temperature gauge in the dash. Seriously my van is the first vehicle I have had that did not have one and the engine failed with an "engine failure, stop now" set of warning lights on. Twicer so far!! I think both was due to overheating without me realising. So I want to be able to monitor that. I have in the past had issues come up and have managed to spot it and limp home before serious damage happened so I think it is a must for me. That is if cars still do that sort of thing these days. Why on earth would you not have a temp gauge on a car?!!!
So any cars that are not among the ruled out list would you recommend for us?
Ocatavia is out. Kia Ceed is out. Kia Soul is out. Surprisingly this isn't really a small car, at least not inside. I put the drivers seat fully back and lowered it like I do with any car or van seat. I had more headroom than my Vauxhall vivaro van!! I then realised the seat was too far back so before moving forward I checked out the space in the back seat. IMHO with my seat fully back my son (a tall 12yo) would easily have enough leg room. It looked like more room than the Skoda Yeti nwe also looked at and ruled out. The boot on the soul is small though and it is fugly so it is also out.
So it is looking like skoda brand is out completely. Kia soul, Kia ceed and vauxhalls of all kinds are also out. This is now starting to look a difficult feat to find a car. The Toyota Auris looks too small so is out despite my partner seeing a possible 2014 for £7k in a local garage that was her favourite so far. The Rav4 we saw was out as too old. There were a few more models I have ruled out too.
So now I am struggling.
I have not seen any but it is looking like the old standby of Ford Focus is still in the running. What else???
Revised criteria:
Cheap to buy and run (£10k absolute top price) and needs to be economical to run.
Large enough for me so midrange family car sized like a Ford Focus sort of size.
Enough boot space for a few people's luggage (ford focus should be big enough)
I want something nice enough to drive for a couple of hours in one go. Although most of its user would be local journeys for dad's taxi use with a car full of kids and my partner.
Plain and simple is my partners preference for as cheap as we dare but I want at least a moderate spec.
And finally a kooky requirement, an engine temperature gauge in the dash. Seriously my van is the first vehicle I have had that did not have one and the engine failed with an "engine failure, stop now" set of warning lights on. Twicer so far!! I think both was due to overheating without me realising. So I want to be able to monitor that. I have in the past had issues come up and have managed to spot it and limp home before serious damage happened so I think it is a must for me. That is if cars still do that sort of thing these days. Why on earth would you not have a temp gauge on a car?!!!
So any cars that are not among the ruled out list would you recommend for us?
Time Waster
Veteran
I have been in a fabia and tbh that is out on size grounds.
So far out:
All Skodas
All Vauxhalls
Kia Soul,
Toyota Auris
Kia Ceed
Rav4
All BMWs, Audis and VW (my prejudice applies with this, they are all either dick drivers who own them or overpriced scene tax if VW)
So far out:
All Skodas
All Vauxhalls
Kia Soul,
Toyota Auris
Kia Ceed
Rav4
All BMWs, Audis and VW (my prejudice applies with this, they are all either dick drivers who own them or overpriced scene tax if VW)
