What to buy - clueless

SpatialPlanning

Hi All,

Need to buy a car at some point over the next 3/4 weeks. Im hoping to get some opinions on what to do and what not to do.

I have a baby who is nearly 1 so my priorities are;

-safety (more than a few crazy drivers out here)
-reliability (don't want to worry about it breaking down a couple of times a year)
-comfort (we'll have a baby seat in the back so it'd be nice to still have legroom in the front)
-most other things are a bonus but the missus wants parking sensors and decent boot space for a stroller and other bits.
-will be used as a family car for general use

We were looking at SUVs and wondering if this is the best route to go down?

So far, we are looking at spending approx. 40,000AED (9500euro) on a 2012/13/14 Sportage/Tuscon/Ecosport with 50-80000 km on the clock. Any opinions on those cars?

We also looked into buying a new Mitsubishi ASX/Hyundai Creta for closer to 60-65000 AED which is 50% more but they would come with free services and 4 or 5 year warranties. Smaller SUVs so maybe not suitable?

Also briefly looked at older 2009/2010 Land Rovers with 140k km on them but I read that they are expensive to maintain.

I don't know a huge amount about cars but would appreciate any opinions. Is an SUV the right option for our needs? And would you buy new or used? Assuming we are living here for five years, we thought if we bought new we would end up selling then and recouping some of what we spent. Or is the second hand option preferable? Are there other cars/SUVs that we should be looking at?

Any and all opinions appreciated!

bazz26

What country are you in as it sounds like you are out foreign somewhere going by the currency and some of the models you mention that are not available here Ireland?

A Land Rover sounds a bit overkill for carrying around only 1 child unless you live on the side of a mountain. A Ford Ecosport if it's the same one that is sold in Ireland is a bit smaller than the likes of a Hyundai Tuscon or Kia Sportage. Mitsubishi ASX looks and feels very geriatric these days compared to the competition and have no idea what a Hyundai Creta is as it's not sold in Ireland.

As for second hand v new, well that's only something you can answer depending on the price difference of each in your country, how much you have to spend and how long you plan on keeping the car.

biko

As a family car SUV are popular. They are not safer per se but often the extra height makes it easier to put the baby seat in and fastening the seatbelt etc
Must have 4 doors and isofix I suppose

I don't know the offerings in Arab Emirates but look on youtube reviews

Also look at MPVs (minivans)

Lantus

SUV market produces bigger cars but is not renowned for boot space so make sure you test any prospective car first with your stuff. As a family man a good saloon offers space comfort and safety.

SUV gives you a higher ride height and style at significant cost. Plus more than a few videos of them rolling over at even low speeds due to higher centre of gravity puts me off.

bazz26

If the OP is indeed in the Middle East then I'd imagine most SUVs over there are on the big side. I'd go with something like a Landcruiser or Pajero/Shogun in that case as those seem to be fairly standard in size over there.

colm_mcm

Not a an ecosport anyway. They're basically a tall Fiesta.

kerten

bazz26 wrote: »

If the OP is indeed in the Middle East then I'd imagine most SUVs over there are on the big side. I'd go with something like a Landcruiser or Pajero/Shogun in that case as those seem to be fairly standard in size over there.

This.

Buy a Japanese brand suv you can afford there as I had friends living there tried to fix german cars. They all ended up buying japanese cars at the end due to pain they had in process.