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They're a special shade of beige but Renault Kadjar / Nissan Quashquai fit what you're describing pretty well. My wife has one and we use it for long motorway cruises and it's pretty comfortable. Our 1.6l diesel auto costs us £20 P/A in VED. The height of the car means that there is a lot of storage plus it's easy to get the kids in and out of plus get them belted up. Plus there is plenty of storage for children stuff.
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the amount of baby shit you need drops massively as they get bigger. i went through all the "i need a fucking massive transit van for all this shit..." stage, but stuck with the golf and got by. we do several trips to the in-laws in wilts and were packed to the gunwhales to start with, but now he's two it's a bag each for the weekend and his bike. we'd get a travel cot in now, or enough for a week away, easy.
tl;dr - don't get hung up on needing a lorry - you'll be fine after 9 months
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Bobbo
BRM
@ASTTer
I'm starting to think about sorting the family vehicles out now sprog number one has arrived and it's clear the current cars aren't up to standard for travelling with her.
My proclivities for lairy Japanese hatches were curtailed by a job that came with a company car a couple of year back, so currently I have a BMW 330e M-Sport which has a year or so left on the lease. My wife has a beaten up 10 year old 3 door Micra that leaks and she can't get baby in and out of. As my office location has changed I now commute via bike and train and she uses the BMW. The Micra gets used 2-3 times a month when both of us need a car.
The BMW is fine day to day, but with the batteries under the boot restricting space it's full to bursting when we do longer trips and holidays, a situation that can only get worse as we accumulate more baby stuff.
The BIK on the BMW is roughly £170 per month and I get £120 a month added to the pay packet for having a car from a pay grade below mine.
Work now offer the i3 at a hilarious £26 per month BIK, so when the 330 goes back I'm inclined to get one of those to use as my wife's daily driver. I'd still get the extra £120 and could use this and the BIK saving to fund a boring but practical estate/large hatch for long runs with the baby.
What recommendations would people have for something large and reliable with enough toys to make motorway runs as comfortable as possible? I'd be looking at something at £250-£300 a month - my deposit would be fairly low as I'm incapable of saving, and I'm fine with second hand. Decent fuel economy would be a plus. I find diesels horribly laggy around town but this would pretty much never be used for that so I guess I could be open to one. I'm in Reading so have no ULEZ concerns.