Boring Family Wagon - what've you got?

[mercedade]

Morning all,

In order to save my Vitesse from a life of urban decay, I need to find my other half a replacement for her 206. She's (understandably) become fed up with the 3 door configuration when carting our 4 month-old boy around, so we're looking for something to replace it, so she won't keep using mine to drive 3-4 miles a day around town.

We've got around £1k to play with and have been looking at the expected crop of 5 door Focusesssess (Focii?) and the like, but I just thought I'd cast the net and see if anyone here has something which fits the bill that they were umm-ing and ahh-ing over selling - if you were, speak up!

I need:

1.6ish
MOT (6 months)
5 doors (or 4 doors and an accessible boot)

Other than that, I'm not too picky. I'd quite like a Streetwise to be honest, but I'm keeping my eyes open for one of those...

[traineefarmer]

Volvo V40. They're cheap as chips and screwed together far better than any focus/astra/whatever.

[RU58ALL]

Being brand patriotic .. Rover 75 Tourer / MG ZTT Diesel, Rover 25 / MGZR

[mercedade]

Cheers chaps

A number of Rovers are under consideration - the Streetwise (if I can find a decent one) and a 45.

Hadn't considered a V40 - my dad used to run a Mitsubishi-engined one which was decent, but seemed to attract a premium price for parts etc for what felt like not a great deal of return. Might keep my eyes open though.

To be honest, at this end of the market there's much less point in holding out for a specific car than there is in just waiting to see what people have to sell. I've found my head turned unexpectedly by a Kia this morning, for example. I suppose I really just wanted to tease any reluctant sellers who might be lurking on this forum out of the woodwork - I'd always prefer to travel to a 'known' car than snap up the unknown heap around the corner.

[traineefarmer]

A 200/25 or 400/45 diesel would be a damn good work horse.

Beware of older cheap korean cars. They may be a paragon of reliability when new, but I've found older ones don't age well and parts back-up for older (10 years or more) models is iffy.

[midnite]

older golf tdi pd 1.9 hatch or estate, passat tdi 1.9 pd or skoda octavia tdi 1.9 pd.

[SJG]

We have a 75 diesel tourer, this is my wife's car and I have a 214 8 valve 200 bubble that it's my everyday car.

[CHR15E]

I have a new found respect for Astras.

My Mrs has a MK5 now but they're over budget I would think? The MK4s aren't bad at all. Typically we sold the MK4 we had a couple of months back for £550. Good car just no longer needed. The boot is good on the MK4 less so on the MK5 due to the lights reducing the access.

Decent amount of space in the car without actually being large. I would bet a Focus is similar?

[mercedade]

After all that, done the deal on an 04 C-Max.

As a 1.8 it's a bit larger than we planned on, but for under a grand it was cheap enough that if it doesn't work out, we should be able to sell it on without too much fuss. Needs some love in places (tyre, brake rattle), but seems a solid enough bus.

For some reason, I've never been able to convince myself to be a Vauxhall man - despite owning a Chevette and an Omega, both of which I absolutely loved and would recommend a heartbeat - so never really looked at Astras. Yours would have been perfect Chris.

Might start a thread on the C-Max, might not - it'll depend how I feel about the gamble in the cold light of day..

[CHR15E]

Probably no thirstier tbh?

Power to weight etc.

My other half's 1.8 16v is basically the same as the old 1.6 8v but goes a lot better.

I say better to have more and not use it than be ragging it. Fair size car by all accounts so I reckon its the right choice for what its worth.

I've never been a big Vauxhall person either but she wanted a MK5 Astra, what was I going to say? No?

She had the MK4 to get some experience in it, only passed Feb last year.

Tbh I think most newer cars are far better than they use to be? Spec wise and longevity.

[edenrob]

older golf tdi pd 1.9 hatch or estate, passat tdi 1.9 pd or skoda octavia tdi 1.9 pd.

I run an Octavia 1.9 Tdi as a cab and can vouch for it's bullet proof qualities. General rural runaround MPG is about 40. And the boot is massive.