2nd hand family car

tosspot

Hi. Expecting our first child this year and looking for advice on buying a second hand car. Currently driving an 07 A3 but it has no isofix so looking to upgrade to something a a bit newer.

Commute to work is roughly 40km and regularly drive 200km at the weekend back home. Currently renting a house so not sure what the deal would be with installing a charging point but happy to look into all options. Budget roughly 15-20k. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Buddy Bubs

You're probably not going to get anything with a plug for your budget anyway.

You drive an audi now, how about an a4 or a6 avant as a family car as a starting off point for discussion. You'd get somewhere in the region of 2014 to 2016 cars for that budget. A very well specced low mileage a6 2014 to maybe a more basic spec a4 2016 with a few more miles would be available for towards the higher half of your budget.

rn

The problem with saloons is the saloon boot opening. Even if the boot itself is enormous, the opening is gonna restrict you for buggies, shopping and various toys and stuff that people tend to bring with babies. Saloons are for people with grown up kids or people who don’t have kids.

a lot of people favouring suv type yokes, but they are expensive to buy, expensive to run and tend to have a small boot, even if the opening is practical. Basically not much better than the A3, but higher up. Estates are the obvious improvement, but anecdotally the missuses seem not to like them.

That leaves the compromise; some form of lift back. If you are badge/brand loyal, then you could look at an A5 I guess. If you’re not, then I highly recommend the Skoda Octavia or, to a lesser extent, the superb. I really love the Octavia practicality, fuel efficiency and it’s tidy enough in the town. Going Skoda over Audi would allow you to come up a few years.

AMKC

I will second the Skoda Octavia. Great cars with a huge boot and just as good if not even better than a Golf or an A3 as you can get higher spec and a newer car for less money. The parents had two of them and would have stayed with Skoda except for Pat Keogh Skoďa in Ballybrittis Co Laois was an asshole and refused to do any deals or take the car because they had not bought there first two Octavias there. I really do not know how that business is still going. Imagine turning away a potential Customer? So he went and bought a horrible basic Mondeo instead. The Octavia was in a totally different class to the Mondeo. The Mondeo was rubbish. It drove like a slow cumbersum tank.

FrankC21

I drive a renault fluence saloon with enormous boot, I have a toddler since she was a new born baby we had the fluence. So far the fluence is doing its job but it is a challenge to put the toddler in the car seat cause of the roof height have to bend down and support the head to get her in sitting down, and below 1 year old ld the buggy is the travel system buggy so its massive and you have to seperate the base fold it and the basket to fit in the boot which is a hassle each time we goes out, but now that she is a toddler we bought a compact buggy which is foldable no need to seperate the base and basket, which is handy. Looking back I really should have bought an mpv, the likes of cmax smax but have a look at honda jazz the door opening seems wider than the saloon.

One thing I also like about the fluence is that the door opens all the way which is handy but the height of the roof really put me off when putting my daughter in the car seat.

EDIT: but again I really like the look of a saloon than suv or mpv.

fits

Congratulations !

estates are my preferred car for a young family. Octavia estate is fantastic.

if you are borrowing do look at likes of mg5 which is electric Savings on fuel might make it a better prospect than you’d think.

PJD

In the meantime it may be possible to retrofit isofix. A few years ago I had to do this to a 2004 vw passat. Genuine part from vw and simply remove seats and install using a torque wrench. Google/youtube shows how it's fitted. Quick search indicates that a few audi owners have had the same issue.

garv123

If you decide to go the route of the crossover cars, have a look at the boot sizes. The travel system wheels fold up tidy enough but if you're bringing a bassinet to use instead of using the car seat on the wheels things get tight. The bigger 3 wheel buggies also take up a fair amount of boot space.

We have an i40 Estate and the lower height never once bothered myself or the wife, and loads of boot space.

kravmaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058245288/2nd-hand-family-car

Hi OP,

I would absolutely recommend a Skoda Octavia as the boot space is massive, I can fit in a set of golf clubs and a large suitcase plus more.

They have a turbo charged 1ltr petrol version at 115bhp or a Diesel option.

Take a test drive in your local Skoda dealership to see for yourself.

Best of luck .

If your currently in an Audi I'd be looking at getting a A4 Avant. I've a 2013 and it's one of the nicest cars I've ever driven and the boot is massive. There's plenty of ISO fix on the back seats to work with also.

galwaybuddy

Hi OP. I am currently getting my 2016 Octavia ready for selling. Only reason for sellIng is just pure change really. Great car, boot is a serious plus. Nearly have to climb into it to get items in the back. And rest of the car is really roomy.

If interested PM me and can talk to you more.