Seeking baby motor

I'd go for the Subaru, it is better built, (much) more reliable and will hold it's value much better than the Fiat.
I speak from (some) experience having owned both Fiats and Subarus.
Are you looking to buy new or used?

Used. I gave up buying new cars years ago.

Volvo Estate,
bags of room, long lasting,do not lose there value to quickly, reliable,low'ish insurance etc. etc.
down side:- not exactly a sports car unless you go for the T5 versions.
oldie.

The Nagger has a Renault Scenic.

Reliable, safe ( NICAP 4 star, 5 if new ) and not expensive to run. Aircon and TWO sunroofs!

Good second hand buy.

Regards

Mike

On the Yellow Brick Road and Happy

quote:

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Originally posted by mike lacey:
The Nagger has a Renault Scenic.

Reliable, safe ( NICAP 4 star, 5 if new ) and not expensive to run. Aircon and TWO sunroofs!

Good second hand buy.

Regards

Mike

On the Yellow Brick Road and Happy

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We tried a Scenic. It was a 1.6 Auto and didn't appear to have enough power to drive the aircon. Do they get better ?

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We've been told that it's not just a matter of 5 doors, room for a baby seat and a back bit big enough to take a collapsed mountain buggy (wheels on).

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That is exactly all it is a matter of. Except you don't need 5 doors.

Paul

We hardly get one sun around here, never mind two ?
Fritz Von Allosunshine

quote:

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Originally posted by Minky:
[We tried a Scenic. It was a 1.6 Auto and didn't appear to have enough power to drive the aircon. Do they get better ?

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Hers is a 1.6, 16 valve job; second series if the current brand new one is the third; the aircon does take a while to kick in but is not toooo bad. Auto takes up a bit of power, I understand.

Regards

Mike

On the Yellow Brick Road and Happy

Something to be considered, which I didn't, is that once he/she starts to need entertaining in the back seat, either you or the missus will need to get back there to read, play, clean up sick and possible change nappies enroute. Bottom line is to check out that there's space in the in the back seat to do all of this without you puking, getting cramps, going mad etc.

Friends with kids have got a new X-trail diesel and bang on about the ease of inserting extracting and containing kids.

A4s, 3-series and the like have fairly pokey back seats whereas the relatively dull but very competent and realtively inexpensive passat and mondeos are like cathedrals in comparison. For boot space, the new Honda Accord Tourer is jaw dropping.

But with 20" rims:

James,

I think we can agree on that. The Forester isn't one of those road bully/pirate jobbies is it ?

Ludwig,

Is that a giant Hotdog ? OK in theory I guess, but would we need an extension ladder to get to the boot ?

Minkles,

That's indeed a giant hotdog, and Oscar Meyer is a major maker of them. Oh, think catapult for loading the trunk. C'mon- it's so you dude. Junior will love it.

(In all seriousness, get a Honda.)

Soon James, Soon. That's a pretty good criteria for a car VS a "bastard truck" BTW.

Ludwig,

That reminds me of the Turkey Winnebago in a Tom Robbins book I forget the name of. What's the Honda CRV like ? What's it like having a sense of humour AND living in America ? You must spend most of your time pissing yourself.

Minky,

Re: humor, it's confusing these days as I don't know whether to laugh or cry most of the time.

Re: CR-V, colleagues with young families have had them and they were happy. As a passenger, I was always surprised by the smart use of space inside. Do you have the Honda Element where you live?:



It seems like a good baby hauler- suicide doors, seats configurable about 125 ways, easily washed interior, stadium seating so junior has good forward views, more carlike handling than the CR-V, and "duuuude, surf's up, dump the baby at the sitter (huh huh huh)" looks.

[This message was edited by Ludwig on FRIDAY 30 January 2004 at 00:43.]

ive just bought a Mercedes A160 for our imminent ankle biter. yes its a town car and very versatile and the missus loves it. bigger than you think.

what were barn owls called before barns were invented?

Big is best, even bigger is better!

We've got two little-uns and after years of reading Car mag and hankering after something small and zoomy we're solidly in People carrier territory. We're on our 2nd MPV and to be honest I can't imagine not owning one for the next decade or two.

Even when we just had one small person the ability to simply chuck all the kiddie-crud in the back without a thought was invaluable (big push chair, carrycot or travel cot, bottle steriliser, bumper packs of nappies - these are all big things and even chums with estate cars regularly seem to stack stuff to the roof). The other thing is that when they get to 3 - 4 years old their kiddie seats are huge, a friend with an Escort couldn't even get the seat through the back door, let alone strap it in place - our's both have Schumacher style Recaro kiddie seats (honest!) which fit easily and they both think are fab.

The other benefits are the great view out (less bored kids and less puking), ability to take 2 kids and 2 grandparents in one car and still (if you remove the 7th seat) have plenty of crud-space - oh and despite being a regualar 90+ motorway driver haven't yet been pulled over, maybe the cops don't thing a bus can get along that quickly.

After the 1st one we thought about getting something smaller so tried a Fiat multipla for a week-end - great design, but it needs to be another 18" longer to do the 6 people AND luggage thing. We also tried a big Ford Scorpio estate which still felt too small and gloomy.

To be honest you wave goodbye to driving dynamics (but then you're hardly going to be hustling in whatever you drive unless you want baby-puke down the back of your neck), so I'd just go for the biggest and cheapest thing you can find, probably one of those big Kia Sedona things. I'd go for diesel, especially if you ever do holidays in France where Diesel is around 50p/litre. A couple of years old shouldn't cost you much more than £10k - £12k. Residuals for all of them seem to get down to the £10k level quite quicky and then stabalise.

HTH
Phil

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Originally posted by Minky:
That reminds me of the Turkey Winnebago in a Tom Robbins book I forget the name of.

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"Skinny Legs and All", or something to that effect.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

That's the one !

Anyone know what Vectra 2.2 Station Wagon's are like ? You can get a really new one really cheap here. Does Vectra 2.2 beat Marea 2.0 ?

Anyone owned a Forester ?

James,

A MuphensteinVargon would put me exactly one billion dollars over budget.

I don't think CM is very happy with me right now as I haven't done the '3 thing yet.

More cars please !

Minky

I've recently had drawn to my attention a great feature of scuby's vis junior scone-grabbers that exists in some other brands.

A particular type of seatbelt which allows easy and very secure installation of child carseats. One can fully extend the belt to put in the belt - and then on retraction to tension the seat into place, the belt will not extend again - it must be released at the buckle, and then fully retracted in order to reset. Apparrently very useful for side impacts.

My bro-in-law has a forrester - he is delighted with it after many years in new commodores and falcons. Should be a car well worth considering.

Don't let baby-wagons cut into your CDS3 budget though - I certainly didn't.

HTH

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

PS - have a moral dimema. Friend recently announced had aquired cafe tractor of the Jeep brand to cart sproglet. Other than the polite congratulations of new acquisition, should one mention the diabolical safety record of these vehicles and the incalculable number of lawsuits currently pending in the US, particularly as regards safety belts?