For that sort of age and money,have you considered a Mk3 Mondeo estate? (up to 2006) Loads of space,and if you stick to a petrol engine with a manual gearbox,very little to go wrong.

Assuming the next gen is also reliable in petrol/manual form (Autotrader owner reviews score the car 4.5 out of 5 for 84 reviews, so seems pretty positive), you could get into a mk4. You wouldn't get into an estate at that money unless high miles, but the boot in the hatchback is surely big enough for most folks requirements. And of course the newer car will have better allround safety. Here is an example of one currently on Autotrader,

www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20180612743...1

Regarding isofix, i looked into the pros and cons a while ago regarding another thread, and the only real problem with non isofix child seats is that the majority are not fitted correctly. If fitted correctly there is no real advantage and in some cases, depending on the particular seat, isofix can actually be less safe. The reason being that the isofix points hold the seat so rigidly, more of the force can be transfered onto the seat. In a properly fitted belted child seat, there is a little more give, especially in side impacts, which lessen the force being transfered to the child. Some isofix seats are available which are designed to offer a little more 'give', but i don't think they all are. This is a link to a Which article on it.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/child-car-seats/article/is...r

When a car crashes it stops suddenly, but the child car seat and its passenger carry on moving. A child car seat is designed to protect your child by holding him or her in place, absorbing some of the forces of the crash, and actively controlling how their body moves to reduce injury to their internal organs, and delicate areas such as the head, neck and abdomen. When a seat is installed using a seat belt, there is some give in the belt. This means the seat moves slightly more in a crash, but the forces transmitted to the seat, and hence the child, can be slightly lower, because of the energy absorbed as the belt flexes. With Isofix mounts the connection between the seat and the car is more rigid, and more of the crash force is transferred between them. In a sideways impact the car seat is often held more firmly on the seat, so there can be less sideways movement, and more force is transferred to the seat. However, some Isofix car seats now have connectors which allow for a bit of sideways movement, to compensate for this. Our testing shows that car seats with Isofix connectors can sometimes get a worse overall safety score than the same seat installed using the adult seat belt. In a car crash the car rapidly decelerates, but the car seat and child in it carry on moving. Often the actual difference in safety of the seat will be negligible. Some Isofix versions of car seats do better overall than their belted versions. The key thing to remember is that Isofix was introduced to make fitting a baby car seat or child car seat much easier, and to lower the risk of getting it wrong. If a seat is installed incorrectly, it won’t give as much protection as it’s designed to, which could lead to a higher risk of serious injury. If a seat can be belted in as well as connected using Isofix, we'll always tell you how it performed in our crash tests in both modes.

(Duplicate para removed.)

Edited by Avant on 17/07/2018 at 01:13