Topic: Deciding on a new car/van - any advice?

[bennettsleg]

Having finally got myself a new job (I'm SO happy!) we can now chop both 10 year old+ cars in for a single vehicle. having never bought a new car before, we've not a clue where to start.

There are a couple of priorities:
1. Enough square footage to take the bread run (roughly 6No. stackable trays 1500W x 800D and if anyone can convert that to feet & inches...I take my hat off to you!) and the simultaneous sausage run on a Friday morning. Also needs to be big enough for me to get straw bales in the back when OH isn't looking...
2. Cheap to insure
3. Low emisions so we can get cheap tax
4. Efficiant mileage/fuel consumption
5. Has a bit of poke under the engine (as we're giving up the MX5...<sigh>)

We have thought about getting a little van and having it branded up for the shop but again, never had to do this before! It does also mean that we get a two-seat vehicle instead of the option of a 5-door hatchback.

Any advice or experiences would be gratefully received.

[Gillysdad]

We have a Fiat Doblo that has been adapted to transport my daughter whilst in her wheelchair. You would be amazed at what you can get in it when its not being used for its main purpose  ;).
Even the vehicles straight from the showroom have folding rear seats, giving  loads of room to the rear. Some say they look ugly, but they do the job for me. ;) :)

[honeybee]

We have just bought a peugeot 307 estate which will probably tick most of your boxes so might be worth a look.

[Leonnie]

You'd need to check but I'm pretty sure the Citroen Dispatch van can be bought as a car version, the rear bench seat can be removed so that it can be used as a van when needed. OH owns a dispatch for work and it's had no problems. Having said that I'm not sure how much I'd like that as our only family car. I drive a Renault Scenic (old shape) and I really like it, has loads of room in the boot, but more space can be made very easily by folding up the back seats. A bale of straw fits comfortably in the boot, I've done it numerous times! If you're buying new try looking at places like Trade Sales (they have a website), that's where we bought ours through and had no problems and saved a couple of thousand off the sale price plus got the european spec which is better than the UK spec. My car is an automatic but even with that it's not bad on fuel economy, and purchase price is fairly reasonable too.

[manicscousers]

just got a nissan note, there's all sorts of storage options, you can put down different seats, move them back and forth to give you bigger boot space, fuel efficient, as well as a lovely smooth ride..have a look on the web site  ;D