PH-approved mother & baby transport ?

[AlexR]

She used to be a bit of a petrolhead, my sister. Hired an Elise as a birthday present to herself a couple of years back, that sort of thing. Last year, though, the first offspring arrived and it seems to have all gone horribly wrong on the car front ever since. Had a chat with her today and the conversation turned to cars. Seems she's thinking of p/xing her 3-door Fiat Bravo for a Renault Scenic RX4 - the 4x4 with the vast expanses of rubber bumper. The one in that advert where they do horrible things to Space Oddity.
I can see where 5 doors might be an advantage, but not being similarly encumbered with small child plus associated equipment, I can't quite see the need for the massive 4x4.
What are the alternatives? Budget is probably going to be up to £13k, preferably nearly new. Something able to withstand a bit of rough treatment, not too mechanically complex, and with enough of the PH factor to keep her away from the idea of MPVs for good.
Go on, help me keep the "school mum in 4x4" population down....

Alex

(Still, could've been worse. Could've been a Xsara Picasso. aka Giant egg on wheels...)

[moleamol]

A nice evo V

[sybaseian]

Alternative is to get a live in nanny and keep the kids in doors until they are old enough to get a job.

It's worked for years with the "landed gentry", although there are a few side effects on them in later life.........

[adeewuff]

2000 Subaru WRX is the ultimate kid carrier, tell her the bucket seats are to keep the baby secure in an urban street environment. The 4 wheel drive is obviously there to maintain traction in the event of an outside school incident involving stopping for the lolly-pop woman in wet conditions. The power is there to be able to nip into spaces outside the school to drop off the kids before other mothers do.

All in all an ideal purchase, considering how little a mileage it would be doing and the fact that the fuel economy in any other car would be crap as well I think you could get away with it!

[Bruce Fielding]

... and it comes in estate car variant, so lots of room for the pram etc...

[davidy]

Unless you want your child to have neck muscles like Mike Tyson, I would not bother with the Subaru. I sold my Impreza Turbo a few months after my daughter was born for the following reasons:-

1) It was made out of cheap Japanese Tin and every Impreza accident I know of, whether the drivers fault or not has resulted in a significant deformation of the car.

2) The cornering forces can be quite high and the child tends to get thrown about in the baby seat. Result you drive slower.

3) The car generally leads you to drive like a nutter, when you remember you start driving slower

Result -you drive slowly everywhere (in relation to your past performance) - so just buy a slower car.

Also a/c is a must with young children, not standard on Impreza

I would recommend looking at a s/h Saab 9-5, brilliant seating, loads of room even in saloon, great ventilaltion/air con system, very safe - safest NCAP car until recent Laguna. Big cars are always better in smacks than little cars.

Not that I'm biased, but I have a 9-5 Estate.

I would also recommend the Recaro Start seat when they are about 15+ months, this is brilliant and expands right up to 10 years old. It may be expensive but if it lasts many years then its good buy.

davidy

[mondeoman]

Mondeo ST200........ nuff said...

[Bonce]

I hear the new Vectra has an interactive driving system, how about that?!

[lrussell5]

rather pull my toenails out. slowly.
There's a reason why you see loads of V70 estates around....if I had a child it wouldnt be anything else

[yertis]

Audis are strong too, especially the previous generation (80, coupe,100/A6), if you cant face the stigma of a Volvo. How about an S2 estate? 0-60 in six seconds, 150+mph, 4WD and built like a tank. Get a nice one on your budget.

[yum]

I would go the Volvo V70 Estate AWD route - 200bhp and 4wd, rather than the T5 (250bhp, fwd and loads of tyre shredding torque steer).

My wife has a 850 estate which is great as long as you don't expect it to go like a chimaera.

R

[davidy]

Another thing to remember, is always take your baby seat with you when purchasing a new car and try it out.

We found that some estate cars (and some front passenger seats) the seat belt upper point is in the door pillar, now if a forward facing seat is secured into this seat and the back of the seat is behind the door pillar, then the seat will move twice the difference before the inertia reel locks in.

Also Volvos seem to have traditional short seat belts (probably in a bid to make you buy a hideously priced Volvo child seat) so some child seats will not fit as the belt will bot extend far enough.

Also I would recommend taking any toddler with you, it is much better to buy something they also like, less future hassle. One of the reasons we also bought a Land Rover Defender was that my 3 yr old daughter absolutely loved it and every trip in it since has been a great adventure.

AND make sure the Stereo has a fader on it so that you can pipe music to the back, then the Tweenies for 300 miles can almost be bearable.

davidy

[Richard92c2]

quote:
I sold my Impreza Turbo a few months after my daughter was born for the following reasons:-

It does read a little funny though you have to admit?

[mhibbins]

We bought a v6 ghia-x mondeo estate for family transport and it works very well. It's reasonably quick(ish), very cheap to service and very comfy. Also the ford radio takes up as much room as two normal radios so you can take it out and wire up one radio for the back through which you can happily pipe bob the builder (can he fix it etc) and through the front you can continue pumping out the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion... everyone's happy.

[mhibbins]

quote:Also I would recommend taking any toddler with you, it is much better to buy something they also like, less future hassle. One of the reasons we also bought a Land Rover Defender was that my 3 yr old daughter absolutely loved it and every trip in it since has been a great adventure.

Instead of "are we nearly there yet?" you get "is the AA nearly here yet?"

[adeewuff]

quote:
Mondeo ST200........ nuff said...

I would advise you to get a 6 month old ST200, that way you can get it for half price!

[JSG]

quote:
Instead of "are we nearly there yet?" you get "is the AA nearly here yet?"

You've been listening to too many old wives tales again Mark, our TD5 Defender is v reliable and the kids love it. It also has big windows for the TVRCC and PistonHeads stickers.

[mhibbins]

quote:I would advise you to get a 6 month old ST200, that way you can get it for half price!

We bought our R-reg Ghia-x from a dealer over 2 years ago for 9k. It was 2 years old and had 40K miles on it. The guy who traded it in did so against exactly the same car (but new, obviously) which cost him about 25k I think. So it cost him nearly 20k to change his car for an identical one... bonkers.

[mhibbins]

quote:You've been listening to too many old wives tales again Mark, our TD5 Defender is v reliable and the kids love it. It also has big windows for the TVRCC and PistonHeads stickers.

Oops, misread defender as discovery. The defenders are great, I had a lightweight landrover until recently and would love to get a defender at some point.

>> Edited by mhibbins on Friday 5th July 12:06

[AlexR]

Thanks chaps, some top suggestions there (and the Vectra...I think not. Saw a poster today advertising its low tyre pressure warning facility FFS....)
Seriously though, I reckon I could persuade Sis of the merits of the Saab or Volvo, probably worth trying a few of the others too. I can see some intensive road testing occurring (any excuse!) when I go up to visit in September. When we achieve Plan A and get a place in the country up north with a bit of land, the Defender will be top of the list for us - but might be a bit too capable for my sister. She doesn't even have to go up a kerb to get into her drive....
Thanks for all the info about child seats etc too, just the ticket.

Cheers,
Alex.