Which family hauler?

[88LG]

So the wife wants to downsize her XC60 to something a little bit smaller. Which would mean me upgrading my E91 335i to something a bit bigger, and also sensible/economical/comfier for myself.

The current family car has the below configuration when there’s 4 of us in the car.


If there’s 5 of us, we take out a child seat and pop a booster seat in which will go in outside/middle depending on the child on it.

I’ve been looking at a budget of around 10-12k. Not sure what my 335i touring is worth due to its mileage and the scarcity of the the 335i.

The choice of cars I’ve been looking at are,
520d (ideally a 6 cylinder) F11
E Class s212 with the 3rd row of seats
XF Sportbrake
A6 Avant
S-Max Titanium X Sport
X5 E70 with 7 seats
First Gen XC90

The last 3 cars in the list aren’t ideal, as I much prefer an estate, and mon-fri it’s mostly going to be me in the car so a lot of extra weight. But they do offer that 7 seat option.

Any help would be great, and views on rear space with child seats would be great.

Cheers

[robbieduncan]

I’d go with the BMW. Our E61 525d was an excellent family car. I can only imagine the F11 would be that bit better, although 4 cylinder

[ZX10R NIN]

I'd say the E Class is the pick out of your list.

[88LG]

robbieduncan said:

I’d go with the BMW. Our E61 525d was an excellent family car. I can only imagine the F11 would be that bit better, although 4 cylinder

I still like the E61 think it’s design has aged well. I’ve not really looked at the 4 cylinders in detail. Just watched a video on the review of them and the host stated road tax is £30 a year, I’m currently paying £30 a month on my 335i.

ZX10R NIN said:

I'd say the E Class is the pick out of your list.

I do like them, and I believe that I’d have to get a pre facelift model as the later ones had the ad blue tank which meant sacrificing the option of 7 seats.