First car for a family

R

rbmfc1985

Guest
My partner has just passed her driving test and neither of us have drove before. I've never had an interest in driving and would have been happy to stick with buses, taxis and trains, but she needed to learn to open up more options for jobs and to make it easier to get back to see her family.

As neither us know anything about cars we looked on Google for good first cars but that didn't really help. We don't really want to go into a car dealership without knowing what we want as neither of us know what we're talking about and will probably get ripped off.

We started looking yesterday and set ourselves an upper limit of £11,000 between us for a car and aimed for a car that cost no more than £1,500 a year to insure. After talking to someone in the family she said we should be looking at no more than £4000/£5000 and look for a car with less than 10000 miles per year since it was made. But I'm concerned about her ending up with a car that looks OK but is actually falling apart and will be dangerous or cost us a fortune in repairs.

If we didn't have a child in the car to think about I'd be less concerned, but after some of the horror stories I've heard about cheap second hand cars, I'd rather spend a bit more to make sure that doesn't happen to us.

So...since I'm pretty sure there'll be some experts on cars on here. What would be a good first car which is safe, has good boot space and won't be too expensive. Where would be a trustworthy place to buy one from. And what sort of price range should we be looking at?
 
You need to define what you want from a car. You say you have one child, if you are planning to add to the family or the child then you need a car with a big enough boot to carry all the gubbins that go with moving a young sprog about. I think VWs are over priced/valued for what you get. You are paying a lot for the cachet of the badge. In your place I would look at something like a Nissan Qashqai or if you find that a bit big (as a newly passed driver your partner may prefer something smaller) look at the Honda Jazz.

Both are well built safe cars. You'll easily get a good one for around £5k look for a full Nissan/Honda service history the Honda in particular is a favourite of people who will religiously return the car to the dealer year on year even if they do only a few hundred miles a year.
 
Thank you everyone, that's gave me a few starting points.
You need to define what you want from a car. You say you have one child, if you are planning to add to the family or the child then you need a car with a big enough boot to carry all the gubbins that go with moving a young sprog about. I think VWs are over priced/valued for what you get. You are paying a lot for the cachet of the badge. In your place I would look at something like a Nissan Qashqai or if you find that a bit big (as a newly passed driver your partner may prefer something smaller) look at the Honda Jazz.

Both are well built safe cars. You'll easily get a good one for around £5k look for a full Nissan/Honda service history the Honda in particular is a favourite of people who will religiously return the car to the dealer year on year even if they do only a few hundred miles a year.
That's really helpful, thank you. We initially looked at the Skoda Octavia, we do want a fairly big boot as she often goes to Doncaster to see her family with about 2 massive suitcases and other bags. Usually a nightmare when changing trains at Darlington/York.

We did look at the Skoda Octavia first as taxi drivers usually use the we know there's a lot of room and we assumed they'd be good on fuel. But someone did say they were probably too big and suggested a Skoda Fabia. We'll have a look at the Nissan and Honda. If we can get a reliable and safe one for £5000 then that is a lot better than either of us expected.
 
Thank you everyone, that's gave me a few starting points.

That's really helpful, thank you. We initially looked at the Skoda Octavia, we do want a fairly big boot as she often goes to Doncaster to see her family with about 2 massive suitcases and other bags. Usually a nightmare when changing trains at Darlington/York.

We did look at the Skoda Octavia first as taxi drivers usually use the we know there's a lot of room and we assumed they'd be good on fuel. But someone did say they were probably too big and suggested a Skoda Fabia. We'll have a look at the Nissan and Honda. If we can get a reliable and safe one for £5000 then that is a lot better than either of us expected.
I had a Toyota Auris estate, huge boot space for a mid size car, safe and very reliable, the diesel engine is also very economical too
 
I have to agree with the family member you asked for advice. With both of you not that interested other than the practical advantage of owning first car and seeing how you can use it then I would stick to no more than £6k and a 7yr old or 15 reg plate car should be a fine start point. When you say cheap second hand car stories, to me that means say plus 14yr old and/or more than 100k on the clock and less than £2k privately bought, so you are well away from that end of the market. You just want to look at this first 18 months ownership as a learning experience. Looking on autotrader you can get 5 door family hatchback Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 with less that 60k on clock for under 6k from dealers. Also very similar is a Kia Rio same spec . Get some ideas from looking at those online.
 
How old is the child? If it’s a baby/toddler and they will need a car seat, then that needs taking into account, as it will eat up the legroom in the front seat (whichever one the baby seat is placed behind)

I echo the positive words about VWs and Golfs in particular, although having a 2009 Golf, I’d say you’d really struggle to get two massive suitcases and other bags in the boot without putting one of the backseats down. I’ve hammered my Golf over the past few years and, touch wood, found it very reliable. I don’t look after it as well as I should but its been a very good car.

This forum is great for questions like this, so I’m sure youll get lots of helpful advice to help you make a decision 👍
 
I would say there are far better cheaper options than VW golfs and I've had a golf it's a nice drivers car but it's not that cheap. Kia or Toyotas tend to be more reliable and better bang for you buck
 
VW good, Skoda same car but cheaper.
Don't fret though cars made after 2008 are pretty reliable,those horror stories are probably from before,when most cars where mostly Shiite.The internet now means you can work out a dodgy dealership pretty easily.reviews etc.
Perhaps avoid private sale if you are concerned.Go and visit a big car supermarket,FOW are good if you are near north west,put your spending limit into their search and you'll see what you can get.Try to enjoy the experience it's a big outlay.
PS second hand cars shot up over Covid, starting to come down now.
Example.
 
Thank you everyone, that's gave me a few starting points.

That's really helpful, thank you. We initially looked at the Skoda Octavia, we do want a fairly big boot as she often goes to Doncaster to see her family with about 2 massive suitcases and other bags. Usually a nightmare when changing trains at Darlington/York.

We did look at the Skoda Octavia first as taxi drivers usually use the we know there's a lot of room and we assumed they'd be good on fuel. But someone did say they were probably too big and suggested a Skoda Fabia. We'll have a look at the Nissan and Honda. If we can get a reliable and safe one for £5000 then that is a lot better than either of us expected.
An Octavia is pretty much a VW. I got one new one last year after driving an Audi A4 for 8 years. I'm really happy with the Octavia and surprised how good it is.
 
How old is the child? If it’s a baby/toddler and they will need a car seat, then that needs taking into account, as it will eat up the legroom in the front seat (whichever one the baby seat is placed behind)

I echo the positive words about VWs and Golfs in particular, although having a 2009 Golf, I’d say you’d really struggle to get two massive suitcases and other bags in the boot without putting one of the backseats down. I’ve hammered my Golf over the past few years and, touch wood, found it very reliable. I don’t look after it as well as I should but its been a very good car.

This forum is great for questions like this, so I’m sure youll get lots of helpful advice to help you make a decision 👍
He's 8 and really tall for his age...and continuing to grow! So leg room in all seats is important but no need for baby seats.

Really happy with the advice and glad to hear that £5000 wouldn't be a bad price for a safe family car. That's a lot less than we were expecting to spend.
 
He's 8 and really tall for his age...and continuing to grow! So leg room in all seats is important but no need for baby seats.

Really happy with the advice and glad to hear that £5000 wouldn't be a bad price for a safe family car. That's a lot less than we were expecting to spend.
At £5000 your looking at cars with 100k on the clock, make sure it has service history, cam belt has been changed, and should have had consumables changed also battery,exhaust etc ....if not you'll be doing soon....if you can stretch to 11 k you are likely should get one with more life in it.....unless it's a high mileage.

Mind you this looks sound.
 
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if things do go wrong you cant get much cheaper than a ford for parts. Focus a good bet for a tall lad in the back.
Seat is also VW/Audi Group. 1.4L polo/golf equivalents are significantly cheaper than a VW badged job. Less likely to have been ragged as they are not desirable to the ute.

I bought a 2011 Ibiza with 25K on it just before lockdown for 5 grand. 1 owner old lady shopping trolley. Exhaust went last week. clutch will be next but I've doubled the mileage and it's still a little gem runabout.
 
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Every time I have to buy a car I am in a quandary. I have bought 2 new ones with no problems at all but the depreciation is eye watering, especially if you can’t afford to replace them frequently. I have recently bought my 2 daughters cars. I had a budget of £5k each but they liked a clio with 40k miles on and a peugeot 107 with 42k miles on. Both on 60plates. Both cost around £2k each. They are spot on. Just because you have that budget dies not mean you should necessarily max it out. Good luck
 
We got a Renault Captur recently and without the spare wheel it'd definitely fit a pram in with space for extra stuff.

Ours is an 18 plate and would be well within your budget. It brought our insurance down a princely £3 per month, but that's with a few more years driving for lower premiums anyway.
 
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