Had a test drive today

[sirwiggum]

ihave 8 kids
well 7 as one didnt make it

so a 7 seater for us will be cheaper than running 2 cars,

Crumbs! Good size family, fair play to you.
Sorry to hear too.

Maybe something like a 9 seater Caravelle would do you then!

[lozz]

ihave 8 kids
well 7 as one didnt make it

so a 7 seater for us will be cheaper than running 2 cars,

Crumbs! Good size family, fair play to you.
Sorry to hear too.

Maybe something like a 9 seater Caravelle would do you then!

caravelle is big money iwouid have one in ashot if ihad plenty of cash,
ihired one about 2 years ago ididnt want to take it back totaly awesome machine it was,

[FarmerPug]

My granny and grampa had 11 childeren between them (perhaps why i talk about uncles all the time), my dad said back then being in the car was like being packed in a suitcase, and my grampa only had a small car, the first estate car only came about the place in the early 80s it was a 305 he had it for 12 years.

[sirwiggum]

Back in the day though it wasn't as strict.

Even with RUC checkpoints everywhere they didn't really care if there was 2 adults and 6 kids in a Ford Cortina.

Probably safer now though, just a bit of a pain for large families.

[FarmerPug]

I recall hearing my grampa saying he had 17 siblings, the horse and cart had no seating issues, because there was no seats, but this must have been way back in the 40s

[lozz]

Lukily all my kids dont live with me,
4 live with the ex wife for now,

so ionly have 3 at home its abit of a pain driving and picking up kids and the others moan coz they carnt come with me as no room but the 406 as got me by,

its just acase of feeling like a taxi driver im glad its deisel if it was petrol it be expensive.

wife no 2 doesnt get along with wife no 1 so ihave to do all the running about on my own so its pointless having 2 cars me thinks,

[wasp]

Why does everyone pop out a kid and suddenly buy a van people carrier or a huge urban assault SUV?

Ha Ha Ha ... So true! pop out two kids and go for a 52 seater...
I guess its all school run fashion...

[waue1978]

[quote="sirwiggum"

A couple of years ago we had to do a trip to Ireland with a load of baby stuff for the sister-in-law so we hired a Vauxhall Vivaro 12 seat minibus & the hire company took the last 2 rows out which left us with 6 seats & a huge boot. If it wasn't limited to 65mph it would have been perfect. Pulled away like a rocket & wasn't too bad on fuel, plus it still managed to fit in a normal car parking space. If they'd been a bit cheaper, I'd have bought one.

Would have been an Opel then

Those vans seem to have ridiculous acceleration, the quickest thing on the roads [/quote]

Nope, it was definitely a Vauxhall - we hired it over here to drive over.

they are the ones that share the body with the renault i drove a 6 speed renault one it felt more than 115bhp.
the kia cedona, them things are hateful.

They share bodies (also with the Nissan Primastar), but not engines. Renault & Nissan have a DCi & Vauxhall/Opel CDTi.

[FarmerPug]

I can understand the appeal of the jeep is the high driving position, but mostly they are being operated by people who before having a child drove a corsa so their parking isnt great.

[lozz]

I Think jeeps are best left for Farmers there a Tool,
ive Had rangerovers etc its Expensive to run them like a car 14mpg tops

isold mine after 4 mths idont know how people can afford to run them and insurance costs are out of this world,
also ithink there noisey and theyre not as big as they look inside,

if youve got an horse box then big lumps like this are the way to go but for something to use for shopping and school runs owning one is just false economy ,

[sirwiggum]

My da has one of them Nissan Navara 4x4s as a work van with a workshop box on the back.

Engine blew up on him.
Apparantly a whole batch of Navaras with known fault which causes the conrods to break.

Watchdog reported on the issue
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/200 ... oblem.html

[waue1978]

Our supervisor at the time had one of the first of the new Navaras (a 2005 2.5DCi) with a massive discount thanks to his wife working for Nissan & them giving extra discount as a marketing ploy (they wanted to get as many visible on the road as possible to raise awareness that there were other alternatives to an L200 as these were so popular). Very nice although he chose a sh*te colour (Storm Grey, but looked more like grey primer with a bit of a shine), but it spent 6 months in the workshop with no back axle due to a fault which couldn't be repaired as the parts were on back order with Japan.

[sirwiggum]

He never had much luck with it. Prematurely worn injectors and the conrod blowing the engine.

Its a good big sturdy vehicle though, workshop with power and welding outlets in the back, sink and everything.

4x4 was handy when he was going to building sites.

[FarmerPug]

The hilux of ours replaced a smiley transit so it's more economical than the transit but still a guzzer even worse when it's pulling a trailer. It's a nice big yoke to drive up high with a mountain of torque but really the old 305 estate did more work in it's day. I don't know how normal people can run big jeeps especially the tax

[STALLED]

Had a Sharan cab in London - 1.9 TDI Auto. Was bloody slow and given it was on a 57 Reg - felt a million years old!

My money would be on a Toyota Previa