I'm a big petrolhead and currently have a Skoda Octavia vRS TDi and Subaru Impreza WRX STI. I bought the car in 2014 as had a long distance commute, which my wife has recently inherited and I bought the Scooby as a toy for this summer.

We're expecting a baby, so time has come to cut costs - Scooby will go up for sale next week and the vRS ends its PCP next October. Thoughts have turned to our next car as we move to a one car family, and frankly I'm thoroughly depressed.

My dad has a Rapid Sport which is pleasant enough - pays £179 deposit and £179 a month, yet now when I check the Skoda site PCP rates have shot up. My current green Octy loaded with goodies is £300/month with a minimal three figure deposit.

The Octavia is well over mileage allowance (41k, should be circa 25), so considering an early trade-in. I had hoped to get a similar deal to my dad, but that seems unlikely.

Do I:

A) refinance the Octavia, despite it being a diesel (annual mileage will be circa 6-7k a year now as work in London)

get something else... What else is out there that can raise a smile on a budget and fit a family?

I did have designs on a vRS 230, but with price increases it'd be a bit tight, and if I'm heading down that route, I'd be tempted to push the budget for a Civic Type R....

Are people accepting Skoda as a quality marque pushing rates up?!

PCH is cheaper @ 7,000 pa. even on the VRS TSI

Which let's face it, is what you really want

I wouldn't think it's the "quality" more the poor residuals especially as VAG keep getting a kicking in the press.

As previously suggested I would suspect pch may well be an option if you can get rid of the vRS. Certainly the tdi should be find as long as you're not doing short journeys.

Dunno about the car choice, but congrats on the baby. Would liked to have kids meself but not to be.

Civic Type R seems impractical to me, get a Leon Cupra Estate.

I think there's still some pretty good deals on the golf r estate about on lease, although I'd prefer the S3 sportback as there's less of them about.

This thread makes me think of this

Edited 12 August, 20169 yr by gullyg

If you are happy with the Octy for the long hall, maybe refinance.

With that annual mileage, it's still got years of service left in it.

If you want a bit more oomph, DTUK can help you get that 230 feeling for a few hundred quid....

What ... can raise a smile on a budget and fit a family?

The usual answer to that question is an Octavia vRS...

just stick with octavia i would say - key reason i got mine is wanted something that looks half good has good performance and big enough to lug a family about and it fits the bill perfectly well

Leon st 290 estate from £205 per mth from a few places

I think there's still some pretty good deals on the golf r estate about on lease, although I'd prefer the S3 sportback as there's less of them about.

This thread makes me think of this

 

+1 Golf R Estate - I've always purchased my cars outright; however, even the wife has had her head turned by some of the Golf R PCH deals at the moment.  When I was checking earlier in the week they were not too good in comparison to what has been available previously.  I have generally noticed that when VW have a very good 'PCP deal' on the Golf R (lasting only for a week or two at most), all of the the other PCH deals available elsewhere appear to be amazing.

With a wife and two young daughters, I've decided my next car will be an Abarth 124 Spider. Just have to pay off the O3 first.

Dont go civic. I know a family man who did that and regretted, and went straight to something else ( well Lexus, Civic, Vauxhall in no space at all!) so you be better with the existing or new skoda if you carry people.

Being in London I would imagine a petrol would be better, if they haven't started loading that yet on emissions like other places, I'm sure they will soon

 

Plus the petrol economy is pretty reasonable even with the vRS or even better on smaller engines. You'd have to prise the vRS keys from my cold dead fingers before I opt for any smaller/less powerful engine though lol

Go 2nd hand?  Lease costs only make sense if you're the sort of person to chop your car every 18-24mths - keep a car >3 years and the depreciation curve works in your favour to buy, esp. if you buy 2nd / 3rd hand.  And if you're nervous about repairs, some 2nd hand warranty schemes are very good (anything underwritten by Mondial for certain, e.g. VW and BMW official schemes)

 

If you like the Octy, look at a 2-3 y.o. vRS220 maybe?  Alternatively, as 6-7k a year is petrol territory all day long, and arguably an uneconomic petrol will be cheaper to buy as less popular so won't cost any more to run, then maybe a 550i / older S4 Avant / early C63 Estate?!?

 

Failing that, how about a Legacy Spec B?  Not as many toys as the vRS or the Germans, but a lovely flat-6, plenty of space, and Subaru build quality/reliability.

BMW 330/335d? Lots of room and wicked performance for such a big car especially the touring version, for baby buggies etc

You'd have to prise the vRS keys from my cold dead fingers before I opt for any smaller/less powerful engine though lol

I thought I would be saying the same 6 years ago when I stopped using my Audi RS4 as a daily drive in favour of a Citroen C1, but much to my (very pleasant) surprise I found that I enjoyed driving the C1 almost as much. How so? Unlike the RS4 which could go insanely fast in almost any situation the C1 needed to be "driven" (by which I mean you have to anticipate the correct gear, you try not to lose speed for corners, etc.).

 

I sold the RS4 last month and now drive a 1.4TSI Octavia estate, and am again surprised how much I enjoy "driving" it, it's nice to have 2 cars which both need me to be really involved as a driver.

 

I never thought I would say that when I first bought the RS4 in 2006!!!

 the C1 needed to be "driven" 

 

I did 60k miles in my 1,4 tdi fiesta over two years and in some ways it was more fun to drive because of the effort required. With the VRS you just need to aim for a corner and stand on the correct pedal. My Sylva Stylus was a different kettle of fish in the it felt fast no matter what speed you were doing.

 

I'm a big petrolhead and currently have a Skoda Octavia vRS TDi and Subaru Impreza WRX STI. I bought the car in 2014 as had a long distance commute, which my wife has recently inherited and I bought the Scooby as a toy for this summer.

 

I bought my Octavia when my wife and I were expecting. I fits the large pram/buggy in the boot no problem and if you're good at origami there's loads of space for weekend bags.

My only grumble is that there isn't enough room for two adults in the back when the baby's car seat is installed. There's space but it's not enough for a long journey.

 

As others have said you could look at the Golf R estate - they're going for less on PCH that I'm paying for my Octavia on PCP.

When we has our first we had a Fabia. Far too small with the size of kids stuff these days. Fine for short trips but not for long ones, going away at weekends etc. I don't think a rapid is bigger enough - we looked at it and decided to go for the octy. Now got 2 kids so I'm glad we did.

I bought my Octavia when my wife and I were expecting. I fits the large pram/buggy in the boot no problem and if you're good at origami there's loads of space for weekend bags.

My only grumble is that there isn't enough room for two adults in the back when the baby's car seat is installed. There's space but it's not enough for a long journey.

 

That applies to all of the MQB platform cars - you need either a people carrier or D-segment car to get that sort of width with modern Gp-0 / Gp-1 child seats - they've been made a lot safer, sure, but they're now wider than a 90th percentile adult in most cases.  Ball ache for a lot of parents who don't want a tank or a bus just because they start a family...

That applies to all of the MQB platform cars - you need either a people carrier or D-segment car to get that sort of width with modern Gp-0 / Gp-1 child seats - they've been made a lot safer, sure, but they're now wider than a 90th percentile adult in most cases.  Ball ache for a lot of parents who don't want a tank or a bus just because they start a family...

Yeah we'd be looking at a scenic sized car or possibly a 7 seat xtrail. You can't seem to get something big and powerful without going to q7, x5, x90 prices.

Give a thought to SWMBO who is squeezed between 2 child seats in the Octavia VRS Estate.

 

She says we need to get a Kodiaq next.

That applies to all of the MQB platform cars - you need either a people carrier or D-segment car to get that sort of width with modern Gp-0 / Gp-1 child seats - they've been made a lot safer, sure, but they're now wider than a 90th percentile adult in most cases.  Ball ache for a lot of parents who don't want a tank or a bus just because they start a family...

It doesn't help that the middle seat is so narrow. It's narrower than that in my Mk1 Focus, despite the Octavia being much wider.

We're expecting a baby, so time has come to cut costs 

Ignore this if you've already got kids or close family with children. Neither my wife nor I have prior experience so would have found this useful:

 

Moving slightly away from cars here, our son (currently 6 months old) has cost us relatively little and we could have managed just as well on a tighter budget.

 

I bought a tumble drier (12 months 0% at Fenwicks) which turned out to be very useful and had the 1970's consumer unit updated to the latest one with RCDs etc. for safety in future (eg fingers in sockets.)

 

We spent ~£1000 on decorating his room including the furniture (also 12 months 0% at Fenwicks) new carpet (bought underlay separately saving £6/sqm), a plasterer mate skimming the walls and ceiling, new skirting (DIY), increasing the number of sockets from 1 to 8 (future proofing, DIY but checked by electrician as part of the new consumer unit certification) and repainting (DIY) - this could all have been done cheaper by buying 2nd hand furniture, or delaying until he was older as he's only just started sleeping in his nursery.

 

The only gadgets we bought were a digital thermometer and a bottle prep machine. Didn't bother with a baby monitor as we live in a 2 bed semi. We can hear him scream from anywhere in the house, even over the washing machine. I bought a cheap IP camera so I can check in on him without disturbing him.

 

Child benefit is ~£80/month which would more than cover the costs of formula (1 box, £10/week) nappies (~£20/month - Far too many to count but they're always on offer somewhere) and clothes although we've decided to divert it into a child savings account giving 6% interest.

 

You can pay as much or as little a you want for a car seat and a pram. They really go for the guilt trip when they advertise car seat/isofix base system for £300 when a £50 still has to pass UK (or EU?) safety tests. It's one of the only things I wouldn't buy 2nd hand, not knowing the history. Whether they've been in a crash or dropped it for example.

 

Childcare is where you'll get stung if you're not in a position to have relatives look after the young'un when you go back to work. We're looking at £800/month for full time nursery once my paternity leave ends.

 

Back to cars. If you're planning on buying a pushchair with big pram attachment then I'd steer clear of anything with a boot much smaller than the Octavia. Ours fits alright if you don't want loads of other stuff in the boot but if I was off to Ikea or B&Q I'd have to leave everything at home.

 

As I and others have mentioned the problem with modern child seats is that they're really wide and make it difficult to seat two adults in the back. This may not be an issue but as an example it means that we need to take two cars if we want my parents to join us on a day out. Cars like a Renault (Grand?) Scenic have three separate seats in the rear but they don't make them with powerful engines and they have horribly comfortable suspension with the accompanying body roll and lack of grip.

 

I hope you find some of this useful and remember that you don't necessarily have to choose a sensible car. If the Subaru is paid for already you could keep that and let the Octavia go at the end of the PCP

They really go for the guilt trip when they advertise car seat/isofix base system for £300 when a £50 still has to pass UK (or EU?) safety tests.

Kinda O/T but...

It has to pass a BASIC safety test. We bought one of the safest extended rear facing seat there is, at £350. Not that we needed to scrimp for it but if we did I'd rather not eat well for a few weeks so my wee girl is as safe as possible

Kinda O/T but...

It has to pass a BASIC safety test. We bought one of the safest extended rear facing seat there is, at £350. Not that we needed to scrimp for it but if we did I'd rather not eat well for a few weeks so my wee girl is as safe as possible

I completely agree - we went for the Maxi Cossi Pebble plus and the two way fix base as we drive around quite a lot - just making the point that not everything needs to cost the earth where babies are concerned

 

I know there are arguments against for/against isofix and seat bases but after using a non-isofix seat for 6 weeks on holiday I realised how nice it is just to be able to drop the seat into place and have 3 a light tell you it's ready to go.