All-
I'm hoping you guys can give me a little help with regards to buying a 1-2 year old large car. Basically our current Focus cannot handle the double pushchair and the other klobber that comes with kids (!!).
Basically I'm after value (and value for money)- rather than a badge. From my initial looking it would seem the Vectra offers the best of price in this category with Autotrader noting you can pick up a "2004 04 Reg Vauxhall Vectra 1800 cc LS" for around £8k.
Does anyone have any ideas or advice
thanks
Devo.
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Have you considered a Citroen Berlingo Multispace? Lots of room - and great value.
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I dont think HJ will encourage peeps to purchase an old shape Vauxhall Vectra somehow!! But as an 04-reg new shape, it sounds good, but how bout the mondeo estate as well?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Far better off with a Skoda Octavia (hatch or estate) than a Vectra.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I (humbly) disagree. The Vectra (and Mondeo for that matter) are substantially bigger cars and if space is the priority then they will of course fare better.
Don't get me wrong, the Skoda is a fab car and will depreciate more slowly percentage-wise but the Vauxhall and Ford are fundamentally bigger. The Skoda is more comparable to a Focus / Astra hatchback. At that type of price as well it would be hard to agrgue the case against the Vauxhall.
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It's definitely worthwhile going round the dealers with the double pushchair etc. and trying out the luggage space. Sometimes external size and quoted volume can be misleading of the wheelarches intrude or the space is oddly shaped.
I think the Octavia is bigger inside than it looks: have a look at it and you may find everything fits. If so, you should get a newer one for your money.
A Mondeo is almost certainly bigger than either Octavia or Vectra - if you're after this size look at a VW Passat or Volvo V70 as well, or a Citroen C5 - heavy depreciation, so the second owner is on to a good thing with one of these. There are quite a few Citroen fans on this forum who obviously speak from experience.
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You could pick up a 5 year old BMW 520 for the same price, Lots of room in the boot, or even a merc e class 5 years old. Quality and room with all the deprecaition over with...Go for it
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You don't say whether you're after a hatch, saloon, or an estate.
Been on a very similar hunt myself (still not committed).
I reckon the Vectras are indeed about the best value in very-nearly-new, but I think you'll currently have to pay more than £8k for an estate. Mondeos tend to be priced a bit higher than Vectras, but the estates have been around for longer, so you could get one of these for that price.
If you only want a hatch and aren't too bothered about extreme performance, I've seen 2.0 8v Octavias for about £6k!
The Octavia is really only smaller than the Vectra or Mondeo in the rear legroom and a bit of seat width - I reckon the Octavia's boot is as big or bigger.
If your Focus's rear seat room is adequate, the Focus estate has a big boot for the size of the car.
The Berlingo is great, but I found that you can get similar Picassos for very little more money, and they have more trinkets and a better NCAP safety rating.
The C5 is certainly big, but always has that reliability niggle.
BMW 5s and Merc E class - the Merc saloon's boot didn't impress me, and the 5 estate's isn't all that big, probably due to the floor having to be higher to accomodate a differential.
Also, 5s and Es and Volvo V70s only tend to be found rather old and/or with high mileage at the prices you're looking at.
In addition to the Mondeo estate, I'd say have a serious look at the Passat Estate (though I can't see it being an 04 reg - and there's still argy-bargy on here over their reliability) and the Toyota Avensis estate (even the last of the old shape ones).
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The Berlingo is great, but I found that you can get similar Picassos for very little more money, and they have more trinkets and a better NCAP safety rating.
To the best of my knowledge, (& the euroncap web site seems to agree) the Berlingo has not yet been given an NCAP safety rating. (I suspect that it is also a bit more spacious than a Picasso)
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Sounds like an ideal customer for that brilliant cheaply obtainable
Signum. Makes a change for my stock reply of BMW anyway. Oooh ! a nice late 3 touring !
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I'd endorse the advice to take the pushchair round the dealers with you. Estate or van derived car (unless there are now hatches with "lipless" boots) would be the best bet.
Still got the BX estate we bought to meet the same requirement. The carrytot kid from the test drive is now 12.
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