I used to enjoy shopping around for cars, seeing what different manufacturers could offer and seeing how well the cars drove, but since having issues with our Citroen Grand C4 Picasso I have been a lot more wary and have researched our car choices more thoroughly than I normally would.
Being a family of 6 our only option is to buy a 7 seater car, but there are a couple of issues:
- 7 seater cars are stupidly expensive and although we looked into leasing options we were concerned that we wouldn’t actually own the car at the end of the lease period.
- There is very little boot space when all the seats are in use
When we bought our Citroen I was advised to look at ex-mobilty vehicles as they are notoriously low mileage, replaced every three years and have regular maintenance checks. We bought an extended warranty with this car, but despite having it serviced regularly they refused to honour the warranty when the engine seized, blaming the issue on wear and tear.
I have since found out that this is a known engine fault with the 1.6 HDI engine that is used in Peugeot, Ford and Citroen cars, so was immediately put off buying cars with that engine in them.
Throughout all my issues the main theme of the conversation on social media was to buy Japanese or German cars. Of course these cars hold their value even more so we have had to go for a much older car than we would have liked, but we did barter to get a good deal and two years warranty at no extra cost. If I am honest I still don’t trust extended warranties, however the parking sensors went wrong within days of getting the car and they have fixed them at no cost to us, so fingers crossed we may be ok.
We chose a VW Touran which is perfect for us. It is not as attractive a car as my Citroen was but it is practical, comfortable for all the passengers and drives well. We looked into car finance to help us afford our new car but are thankful to the Bank of Mum & Dad for helping us out this time.
I still look wistfully at new cars but sadly that is not an option we can afford at the moment, I am just thankful that we are back on the road again.
What family car to you drive?
Don’t drive so sorry can’t advise you – but great you found one to fit your family!!
There is only 4 of us so we have have a vw golf.
We were tempted by a VW Touran when we were looking but the price put us off. We opted for a large 5 seater instead as we needed to fit three child car seats so a normal 5 seater wouldn’t do. We have a Ford C-Max and it is perfect for us