First baby is on the way.

SWMBO currently pilots a Ford KA - 3 door and titchy boot mean it will be no good come baby arrival time so I'll be looking for a new car in the next couple of months.

Bearing in mind an absolute top end of £3k a 15 minute think (or truthfully, a trawl through pistonheads) has produced the following - in preference order (preference based on various reasons e.g personal preference, decent car for the money, new car for the money, safety etc etc):

Smaller cars

Skoda Fabia

Fiat Panda (though read on Parkers it has a small boot)

Honda Civic

Ford Fiesta

Pug 206

Larger cars

Seat Leon

Renault Megane

Vauxhall Astra

Ford Focus

Pug 307

I'm currently have a Fabia in the lead but have never actually looked at one closely.

Any opinions? Have I missed any obvious cars? Any Fabia owners care to comment?

Thanks in advance

Nissan Almers Tino ?

Unloved, and a tad plasticy, but plenty of cubbyholes and reliable.

It being a Skoda site.........I would add the Skoda Octavia to the list, all the space you could want...and believe me kids take up an icredible amount of it

I managed to get a toddler and a baby in my Fabia along with Mum, pram, bags and shopping on a regular basis.. It's surprising how much stuff you can actually get into it.

Not to sure about the other small cars on your list but the Fabia has a 4 Star ncap rating as well.

Our two Fabias are fine as baby transport - having five doors is probably the most fundamental requirement. The parcel shelf has to come out to get the big 'travel system' in (used less and less now Ap0gee Jr is a bit older), but other than that, the only time we've lacked space is when we went on holiday, and the GBP250-odd we spent on a roof box and bars was far less than a bigger car would have set us back!!! Oh, and for some reason, the frame of the Silver Cross travel system of one of SWMBO's friends just wouldn't fit in the boot no matter what we tried???

Other than that, the front seats may need to be moved forward if you're tall and have rear-facing baby seats. Fine for me at 6' with one baby, as it could go on the passenger side and I could still fit, but could have been a problem with two babies as there wasn't much room for manoeuvre on the driver's side. Then again, without about 6" of extra rear legroom, I think ANY car would struggle on that front...

HTH

It being a Skoda site.........I would add the Skoda Octavia to the list, all the space you could want...and believe me kids take up an icredible amount of it

Forgot to mention she would rather not have a boot sticking out the back for parking reasons so that rules out the Octavia. And the Toledo, which is a shame.

Firstly you need to decide what you're going to be wanting to transport around as this will dictate how big a car you need. The Fabia was too small for us as each of our parents lived a hundred odd miles away and all the baby gear for a few days stopover amounted to a fair bit. You might also want to consider whether you'll manage to fit SWMBO's shopping in the car too!

We chose a Mk3 diesel Mondeo in the end as it was the best to drive by a long way, was Ghia X spec so electric/heated everything, and it did 60k miles in a couple of years very reliably.

I currently have a Fiat Panda which is fine for a toddler, but I'm not sure would be suitable for a new born as the boot isn't the biggest. Again, it will depend what you're carrying and how big the buggy is...

Chris

I've got an Octavia which will be used for any family days out/long journeys etc.

So realistically it will be a pottering around car, trips to see her friends, out to the shops etc etc. Haven't decided on the buggy system as yet but the few we've looked at have been fairly chunky

I might have a chat with her about the size of car / existence of a boot - opens up many more choices. She's a perfectly competent driver but has had the KA from new since 2000 so would just need to get used to something bigger.

Mothers around here use vehicles similar in size to this:-

Edited 9 January, 200917 yr by Allams Skoda
found a smaller photo.

Well we lived with a Fabia Estate and a baby for 3.5 years and it was great - big boot for the size for all the crap but still small enough for the wife. We only got an Ocatvia Estate when the second came along and I found I couldn;t get comfortable with a rear facing baby seat behind me (it used to go behind the passenger with the front passenger seat slightly forward). I reckon you'd definitely get a decent one on your budget and they are a good strong car (ours is 8 years old with 115,000 mls on the clock and has ahd a hard life commuting across the Pennines every day)

Also she moved from a Mitsubishi Colt to the Fabia Estate so it wasn't a huge jump in size which helped.

Octavia estate if she doesn't want a "bit sticking out the back"?

Does swmbo get a say in this?

I think the biggest factor in choosing the size of car will be whether she's a pack everything (badly) and the kitchen sink or she's happy to make do with as little baggage as possible.

Octavia estate if she doesn't want a "bit sticking out the back"?

Bad description on my part

Everything she has owned to date had ended at the back wheels if that makes sense - easy to park and easy to judge how far you can reverse without hitting something. Estates probably easier as the rear window glass dictates the end of the car, similar to her KA.

My VRS is particularly hated as not only is it difficult to judge the end of the car, the spoiler doesn't help things by clogging up what little you can actually see out the back.

Thanks for the replies - might take her to see a Fabia initially and see what the reactions are like.

I have recently just bought (with her money) a Nissan Micra for my step daughter in law, 2000 low mileage car in VGC for £700.

They have a pretty big boot which she needed to get her rather large mamas & pappas buggy into.

Does swmbo get a say in this?

I think the biggest factor in choosing the size of car will be whether she's a pack everything (badly) and the kitchen sink or she's happy to make do with as little baggage as possible.

Yes, for sure - she's the one who will be using it on a daily basis and she's not one of the "it's just a car" types so will get the final say so. She wants a Golf, but compared to something like a Leon for example, you're getting far less value for money.

Realistically a buggy is the only big thing to be carried and this leaves the passenger seat and one rear seat for anything else.

might take her to see a Fabia initially and see what the reactions are like.

Be prepared for a shock, when i went looking for a replacement for SHMBO we were amazed at how plasticy and cheap all the non vrs Fabia interiors were.

I currently have a Fiat Panda which is fine for a toddler, but I'm not sure would be suitable for a new born as the boot isn't the biggest. Again, it will depend what you're carrying and how big the buggy is...

Just to reply to my own post, if you already have a load lugger then all you'll need from SWMBO's car is something to carry a buggy and shopping and most small cars should be capable of that. Mothercare let us try buggies to see if they fitted in the car and you can get some quite compact ones for smaller cars (although make sure they're easy to unfold one handed!) and I'm sure other shops allow similar.

On the Panda (and quite a few other small cars), the rear seats can slide forwards to increase space in the boot, so this might be an option worth investigating to broaden the number of cars you can look at.

Chris

Be prepared for a shock, when i went looking for a replacement for SHMBO we were amazed at how plasticy and cheap all the non vrs Fabia interiors were.

Certainly most of the base Classics are but the earlier Comforts are far better in that respect.

Roomster if you can take the looks?

SWMBO drove a 53 punto active sport, and managed to ferry her sister and a newborn around.

Was very nippy, and did 43mpg around town. 1.2 engine, and cheap as f.....

Fabia Estate would be a good choice I would think.

Fabia Estate would be a good choice I would think.

I will sesond that, We have one at the moment, but soon to be replaced with possibly a Kia ceed. You cant beat the 7 year warranty, and they have isofix mounts for the baby seat

Roomster if you can take the looks?

Blows the 3k budget

but soon to be replaced with possibly a Kia ceed

Interestingly, the last company car I had at the job I just left was a Pro Ceed. I bought the VRS 5 weeks before leaving and was stuck with the company car so SWMBO has been driving around in it.

Not bad at all and very well equipped.

Balls, ive just typed a reply to this post but when I hit reply it didnt post and went to a completley different page by Colin???????

Anyway i'll start again but this time keep it short. I can comment from a fabia point of view which I hope is of some help.

Congratulations on the imminent arrival:)

We have just had our 1st child (3 months old) and went through the same thought process you guys are going through now. It sounds like you are very organised and practical so the final decision should be pretty easy to make.

As everyone has said theres a lot to consider before making the final decision. As it was our fisrt and we didnt have any hands on experience we made the best decision we could and i'm pleased to say up to now we havent had any problems at all.

My wife has a fabia (vrs) and I have an octavia (hatch vrs). Obviously the octavia is fantastic as a family car, the boot is just huge so we use my car for longer family trips when we need to lug a lot more load.

General day to day use theres only my wife and daughter and possibly one other passenger in the car so we only really needed to consider the baby (large car seat for new borns) and the pram/tavel system and the occasional shopping trip.

The fabia copes very well in all circumstances and I would suggest to work backwards from the pram/travel system. Some of the lower budget travel systems are large and pretty complicated or just not very easy to fold/unfold. Obviously you get what you apy for and the higher the budget the easier and more compact the pram/travel system.

I appreciate the whole pram shopping thing is akin to a nightmare. There is so much choice and range of budgets its difficult to make a decision. Of course every person/shop you speak to have conflicting advice so in the end go for something you "feel" is right and you can use easily.

FWIW we went with this tavel system ( Bebecar - pushchairs - Ip-op ) because it was the easiest to fold/unfold (you "can" manage with one hand if you have to) but mainly because it was designed to fit in a small car. Apparently it will even fit in a mini. One thing to keep in mind is that with a new born you need to keep the baby laying flat for the first 3-6 months and this obviously makes the pram a lot bigger. I highly recommend this pram/travel system its very well made and so easy to use. Downsides to it are it doesnt hjave susspension and due to its size you dont have a lot of room to carry things (except the baby of course), nappies, baby food, sparec lothes, shopping etc .

The travel system we have allows each of the attachments to connect to the frame very easily. So you can use the car seat in the car then just attache it to the pram frame within seconds.

In summary the fabia suits us just fine. It has isofix points fitted, I believe these are standard on all newer fabias/cars but not sure when this is from. The boot is large enough to cope with a pram even if you need to split the frame and the "seat". You still have space for the shopping especially if you leave the pram at home and just use the car seat. Its a great value for money car with low running/service cost when comparing to the competition. Dont forget the higher spec fabia estates also have parking sensors:thumbup:

Ultimately it will fall down to which one you like to drive once you have discounted certain cars on practicality issues. I recommend the fabia and it certainly works for a small family. As some have said I dont think it would work as well if you have more than one small child and you are a tall driver or if you have a large pram but then again I think thats the same for all small cars.

HTH

Edited 10 January, 200917 yr by octimark

Fantastic insight octimark, thanks - especially for typing it twice