General requirements:

- fit 3 kids in the back, and either the large dog or luggage in the boot (estate or 4x4)
- comfortable to do 2000+ miles per month, on a+b roads in scotland
- won't get stuck in 2-6 inches of snow easily
- budget 7-16k, ideally around 10k, looking in the used market
- something that would be expected to last 2 years comfortably
- indifferent on running costs, prefer to keep them lower but also prepared to average out 25mpg if the car is say 11k or under.
- either a newer cheap estate (2010+) that feels new, as an example a 12 plate avensis is exactly the same as an 08 plate avensis and thus doesn't feel "new" (as in from this decade) and is hard to justify, an 11/12 plate mondeo 2.0 deisel estate does feel "new", as does a 13 plate avensis after they updated the interior and console etc.

or an older (2007+) small to mid 4x4 which has a feel of quality, thus far I really like the 2.3 petrol cx-7 (thirsty!) from around 08, the 10 plate rav-4 2.2 xtr deisel (top end of budget), and similar sized (sportage, tiguan etc)

If I had a huge budget I'd go straight for the 2013 Rav-4 which I've been driving for the past 3 months, and it suited perfectly.

I'm finding it really hard to find something, the newer cars feel less quality as obviously an 18-22k car from the past couple of years doesn't "feel" like a 40k car or 4x4 from the 5-6 years ago.

Any suggestions, do you have matching requirements to me and already have something that does you well? please advise.