Criteria:
- 5 doors
- space for 3 year old in car seat and (tall, wriggling, claustrophobic, impatient) 8 year old in back
- big enough to cope with motorway journeys
- max age 2006 / 60k miles
- annual mileage is under 10k and often short journeys so diesel not needed
- average real world mpg >30
- not an Audi
- not overtly Mumsy or suffering from "I've lost all hope and I'm driving a Zafira" syndrome

Golf was the obvious choice. Except teh internetz has so many horror stories about mk5 Golf engines (petrol and diesel) I'm not sure.

I'd like a 1 Series but the lack of space is an issue. 3 Series Touring liked but again space is not great for the size of car.

Focus disliked due to poor quality experiences in the past.

Are there any obvios amazing evo choices I'm overlooking?

I'm going to proceed on the basis that your Mrs is a woman.

1. Make sure it's a colour she likes.
2. Make sure she chooses it herself.

HTH.

5 door fiesta? Great fun to drive with really good 1.25 petrol engine!

You can get some decent ones for 5-7 k on autotrader

[link]http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201211164261751/sort/default/usedcars/transmission/manual/quantity-of-doors/5/price-from/5000/price-to/7000/model/fiesta/make/ford/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/page/70/radius/1500/postcode/hx61nu?logcode=p[link]

Updated December 30, 2012 at 9:35 AM

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Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.

Having examined this very sector recently:

Audi A3 - dull, can go expensively wrong

BMW 1er - too small to truly be a family car if you need a pram, might be ok with slightly older kids as long as they're not tall

Ford Focus - dull and cheap interior

Seat Leon - dull and cheap interior, plus VAG reliability/expense concerns

Vauxhall Astra - Looks good but very poor driving experience and cheap interior

Skoda Octavia - Your Mrs will complain it's "too big" and won't like the badge

Honda Civic - We hated our one, the interior just didn't wear well with kids and it was expensive to keep using the main dealer and had lots of annoying issues

Toyota Auris - zzzzzzzzzz

Mazda 3 - dull looking but a nice steer and decent interior, IMHO

Hyundai i30/Kia Cee'd - worthy but dull

Anything French - is French

It's a particularly dull and boring sector when you think about it.

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Mazda 6 MPS?

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edfiasco said...

Mazda 6 MPS?

Same engine and 4wd but in a bigger child swallowing CX-7?

Peterlplp said...

edfiasco said...

Mazda 6 MPS?

Same engine and 4wd but in a bigger child swallowing CX-7?

Evonomics in action, excellent! I do like them though.

Thanks to JL and Rev... you seem to have forgotten about the Bravo and 147?

__CA__ said...

Peterlplp said...

edfiasco said...

Mazda 6 MPS?

Same engine and 4wd but in a bigger child swallowing CX-7?

Evonomics in action, excellent! I do like them though.

Thanks to JL and Rev... you seem to have forgotten about the Bravo and 147?

There's a difference between forgot and ignored. 147GTA would be acceptable.

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Passat estate is easily big enough to swallow kids & their gubbins.

Although ours has just had a knackered electronic handbrake, needs a whole new caliper @ £200-ish for the sake of a seized gear in the unnecessary extra mechanism. Bunch of arse.

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I think my neighbour misunderstood when I said 'I can't wait for the next 911'

Have a go in the Octavia vRS, we never considered a Skoda until I had an 11 plate 1.4TSi as a rental for about 2 months and although it was a fairly base spec car it was enough for me to not totally ignore Skoda when it came to buying.

Carl.

Slight bit of evonomics but what about this

Updated December 30, 2012 at 2:47 PM

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Petrol E90 3 Series

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Dr Carlos said...

Have a go in the Octavia vRS, we never considered a Skoda until I had an 11 plate 1.4TSi as a rental for about 2 months and although it was a fairly base spec car it was enough for me to not totally ignore Skoda when it came to buying.

Carl.

Every time I have a ride in an Octavia diesel taxi I am impressed with the ride quality. Every women i have talked to about Skodas has a real issue with the brand.

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mattcambs said...

Dr Carlos said...

Have a go in the Octavia vRS, we never considered a Skoda until I had an 11 plate 1.4TSi as a rental for about 2 months and although it was a fairly base spec car it was enough for me to not totally ignore Skoda when it came to buying.

Carl.

Every time I have a ride in an Octavia diesel taxi I am impressed with the ride quality. Every women i have talked to about Skodas has a real issue with the brand.

Suggested a Fabia Monte Carlo to Mrs A and got "I'm not driving a fvcking Skoda - you can get one if you like but I'm not!" Skoda ain't made a sh1te car for decades I just don't get it! I thought this looked a decent motor !

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__CA__ said...

Peterlplp said...

edfiasco said...

Mazda 6 MPS?

Same engine and 4wd but in a bigger child swallowing CX-7?

Evonomics in action, excellent! I do like them though.

Thanks to JL and Rev... you seem to have forgotten about the Bravo and 147?

Having recently looked at CX-7s they seem to start at £7k and £8 for a 40k miler. That one in the ad is overpriced.

You don't really say what size of car you are after, Golf sized is implied??

Spend £6 on something with a big rear seat area (Signum maybe?) and the rest on getting a DVD and PS3 fitted which will make any journey a joy. The Signum is not exciting but the petrol 2.0 Turbo or 2.2i are reliable and fast enough, the rear is enormous and I managed 90k in 2 years with no major disasters.

Or get the CX7 and a tablet!

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What would Daddy Pig do?

JL said...

I'm going to proceed on the basis that your Mrs is a woman.

1. Make sure it's a colour she likes.
2. Make sure she chooses it herself.

HTH.

1. Grey
2. Toyota Auris 1.6 V-Matic TR 5 door manual

Looks like a pudding on wheels but is a head over heart purchase... I wanted a SR180 with 295 lb ft but it doesn't make any sense for the type of driving she does, it would never warm up properly.

I had an Auris as a courtesy car and it was horrific, the dash was light years behind and the engine had no discernibe power.

My wife got outdragged in a transit tipper.

She came back and said "we are never getting something that slow, it is useless!" Gradually upping the power from her 1.1 Uno has worked.

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What would Daddy Pig do?

__CA__ said...

JL said...

I'm going to proceed on the basis that your Mrs is a woman.

1. Make sure it's a colour she likes.
2. Make sure she chooses it herself.

HTH.

1. Grey
2. Toyota Auris 1.6 V-Matic TR 5 door manual

Looks like a pudding on wheels but is a head over heart purchase... I wanted a SR180 with 295 lb ft but it doesn't make any sense for the type of driving she does, it would never warm up properly.

The 2.2 180 engine is nice for a Derv and stacks of power too, made the Corolla Verso T180 a fun drive, but the D-CAT has a DPF and short journeys wouldn't do it any favours.

Petrol is the right choice.

Carl.

With the £5k to £7k budget there is alot of nice stuff out there.

If it was my money i would find best of this

Only in 280 in UK
180ps
0-60mph in 6'ss
147mph
Good Build Quaility

Not a Golf, Not Mini & Not a Renault

It is a Mitsubishi Colt though.

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