Thanks v much for he reply.

Yes, bulletproof is very much the key here!

Was also considering a Meriva....don't know how bulletproof they are? have seen one with 33K on the clock, at £4,500

i would 2nd the estate idea. I have a 4 and 7 year old. and sold my puma to buy a family car when the 7 year old was still a "bump" . Bought a volvo v40 and still have it...

(the v40 is a small focus size estate, v70 is the mondeo sized one)

as mentioned above,,,,,with prams/travel systems, nappies,,,more nappies and even more nappies....food,bottles, bottle warmers...(mums milk is easier haha) wipes, change of clothes for baby,,,,and you.....projectile vomit........etc etc etc......did i say nappies....and change of clothes.........

thats before you go to the supermarket and try and get a weeks shopping in there...and of course the first month, you'll have every friend and relative come over to see baby and expect tea/coffee.biscuits.......on line shopping helps....

good luck with the new addition....don't worry your home and money situation might start to recover in approx 30 years when they move out......hahahahahah

oh children are great at cleaning alloy wheels they can get there hands into the spokes really well.....the offset is it takes 3 times as long to wash the car,,,and you get soaked hahahaha..............

the estates great when you start buying cots/ etc etc....and also its easy to carry out a nappy change in an estate boot......

airbags....try and find a car, in which you can turn off the front passenger airbag. mums usually like to have baby in the front so they can see each other and in the first few months you will have a rear facing baby seat.... so having a working airbag is not recommended.....

paul.....dad......

Estate, estate, estate.

Most MPV actually have a failry small loading area, and often a little higher off the ground (thus you need to lift loads higher to get them in). hatchbacks have boot lower than loading cill, meaning you need to lift the botom item (pram) up before you can lift out. I've had Escort and Xsara estates in past, and now have a 57' Megane and love it. The load area is huge. Rear seat passengers get decent leg room (and x3 proper seat belts without it coming from the roof) and loads of toys such as cruise control and air con etc. real nifty is the "auto-window-up" function when you remote lock it. 60mpg on a run and 50+ around town for the 1.9CDi. £130 tax and £300pa insurance and I have 3 points and one accident. Thinking of getting the next generation as it turns 3 next month, so I know its priced at 4500-5000 with 60k, FSH etc. No problems at all, and 18000 between servicing, great value. Another possible would be Clio Estate, but not many older one's around.

when we had the first of our 2 boys (now 4+7) the mid-wife put us in touch with other mums within a 10mile radius, 12 mums used to meet up once a week at each others houses to moan about lack of sleep and nappies....when i returned home early one day and found all these cars parked near/on the drive at home......the list of cars....

2x volvo estates V40, 1X volvo estate v70, Astra estate, mondeo estate, astra hatch, focus hatch, zafira...etc....

i had a saloon for a while, only issue was if the 2 part pram (travel system) was put in before all the other bags.....getting it out first was impossible...with an estate no problems.. i would agree with the last poster. than a focus or astra estate might well have had a company car background. but theres dozens of manufacturers who make estates that arn't generally on the fleet car market... and estates are easier to park than a saloon.....ie in an estate you have an almost vertical back window, and the bumper sticks out 3inches or so on top of that....a saloon.....hmm about 3 feet hahahaha owned a mk2 escort and s40 saloon in my years.....reversing sensors can be bought for as little as £30 (stick on and don't need holes drilling....only 1 wire to connect, thats on to the reversing light...thats how the unit/sensor gets its power)

paul....

waffle almost over........

still got our v40, 11 years old in march, never spent more than £240 in any year on garage servcing,,and that was for a service and cambelt change...even swapped my impreza non-turbo estate for another old v40. this time a 2004 reg. so have 2 now......mine the almost 11 year old one, does 50mile round trips to work, and family trips to Devon with a dog guard to enable family junk to be safely stacked to the roof lining.....hahahaha

Have you looked at the Renault Grand scenic ? or Vauxhall Zafira ?

Loads of space, very practical interior with the added possibility of 7 seats, very comfortable in the case of the Renault, and easy to manouvre as the visibility is so good, they are also available quite cheaply.

The greatest benefit is the higher seating position, when gettting baby in and out this puts a huge strain on the back, in normal cars as you have to bend right down, these type of higher cars are much better in this regard.

No. 1 advice it avoid 3 doors. It is backbreaking loading an infant into a rear facing car seat sitting on the back seat of a 3-door car. Not to mention getting them out again (once asleep) without waking them up!!

When my first was born we had a 1999 Megane. Sufficient space, but loading child into seat, lifting child onto knee when seated in back seat for comforting, nappy change etc. was very difficult. Since switched to 2004 Scenic. This is much better in these respects. Always been cautious of the large D platform estates (Mondeo, Passat, Octavia etc) because they are very long cars and do not necessarily give that much more usable space.

My recommendation would be to but a compact MPV based on B or C platform (i.e. Modus or Scenic). Basically, short but tall. Not to big about town, plenty of space for the day to day, lots of headroom, lots of storage space. When you need to take heaps of "equipment" on holiday, get yourself a roofbox.