what to do.....

So DH and I are in the process of thinking about "upgrading" our car.

Currently we have a fairmont ghia, which i cant say i love..... actually ill be honest i hate it ;)

We have one DD who is 18months and have no plans for any more kids, we are very content as a family of 3.

Now DH has to have a ute for work, he is a tradie, so he thinks i "need" a big family car..... for a family of 3 :wall: and wants something like a mazda CX9, BMW X5, VW thing, or a sportswagon :rolleyes:... you get the point..... his reasoning is if we go away we need to take all the stuff for DD, which now is really only a porta cot and stroller, plus our bags.

I want a small car.... think Mazda , Holden Cruse, Ford Focus type size. which is what i had prior to DD arriving.
If we go camping like he thinks we might, we will be going with friends who take a ute so they can take the porta cot.

If we travel overseas the parcel shelf can come out and you can easily stack 2 suitcases, which we did in my mazda 3.

im a bit confused as i can see his point, but at the end of the day i have to drive this car daily, all of 10 minutes from home to work.

have you got a small car with a child, and what does your DH drive?

have you got a big car with one child, is it a waste of space?

just looking to hear other peoples situations and ideas

When I was with my x, we had a mazda 2 with 2 kids (in seats). There was enough room in the boot for a double pram, portacot and a overnight bag.

When I was looking to upgrade my car, we looked at the focus, but the boot space was not very big to fit things in, there was no way we could have fitted the pram in there, let alone portacot. So I decided to keep my car.

What you need to do is work out the dimensions of all the things you need to carry with your DS, then start looking at the specifications of boot sizes.

We had a Subaru impreza sportswagon, was ok with 1 child but still not a huge amount of boot space for longer family trips & the dogs. The dogs would be in the boot & we would pack a trailer.

I recently had a loan car, a tiny little hatchback thing & there was little to no room.
I'm nearly 6ft tall so a bigger car feels more comfortable to me but YOU need to be comfortable in an every day car.
I'd look around, take your pram & nappy bag etc and see if they will fit.


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

We had a Mazda 3 up until Christmas. It did numerous "holiday" trips. I got the mountain buggy (wheels off), two suitcases, sterilizer, toys, and who knows what else in the boot. The esky too I think. I didn't have the hatch, I had the sedan.

If you want a small car with a big boot for luggage etc then get a toyota camry! The boot in those things are HUGE! DH has one as his work car and I borrowed it once when DS2 was a newborn and I could fit our big pram in the boot and all the shopping easier than I could in the commodore we had at the time!

Up until January this year I drove a Mazda 323 with 3 kids. We went on holidays in it and it carried everything. One of the reasons we upgraded to a bigger car was because the kids are now teenagers and the back seat was far too small for them when we went out as a family.

If your dh is hell bent on you not having a small car, have a look at something like the Mazda 6.

Are you planning on keeping this car for years to come? If so, what will have enough room to take your little one's friends around. Will any family possibly have close family of their own?

I'd LOVE a small car, but refuse to entertain the idea until we have no use for children's car seats at all and by the way it's going they'll probably be 18 before that happens. lol..

I have a HUGE car - A long wheel base fairlane and I absolutely love it. I've got 2 kids with no plans for anymore and it just means we are all comfortable and have plenty of room. I do drive 1 hour each way to town though... so I use it alot when I do use it.

I have the new Kia sportage and love it! I think it's a between size care. It is very easy to drive and quite good boot space

We have a nephew who is 12weeks younger than DD who may occasionally come in the car with us, and given we arn't going to school for another 3-4 years driving friends wont be a big issue.

I guess im used to having a small car, and thats why i want to go back to one.

Maybe its easier to give in and get a bigger car lol.....

I've been looking at the Mazda 5 lately, which is a new model. It's a small-ish car but has heaps of room inside. I currently have a Mazda 7 and we will likely get that one when we change in a year or so.

We have a hatch and a 4x4 twin cab ute.
I drive the hatch day to day with 2 children in the back.
DH uses the ute for work and when we go away we take the ute because we can use it to get onto beaches and so on.

We love our Mazda's and currently have a CX9 and a CX7. We recently sold my 3 as we upgraded to the 9. I personally think the 3 was a bit small with two kids but it was pretty good with just one. I had a sedan.

I drive the CX9 with two kids and think its perfect! It is big though and not necessary with just one child. We coped fine with the CX7 with only DD1 but the boot isn't huge. The CX5 is a very similar size, if not identical, to the 7 but its better on fuel. Our friends have just bought a CX5 as their family car and they have two young kids.

A Mazda 6 wagon would be another great option if you like Mazdas.

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If you want a small car with a big boot for luggage etc then get a toyota camry! The boot in those things are HUGE! DH has one as his work car and I borrowed it once when DS2 was a newborn and I could fit our big pram in the boot and all the shopping easier than I could in the commodore we had at the time!

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The camry's have a monster boot! We put three full golf bags in the boot of my old one after they wouldn't fit in my uncle's VX Commodore lol! They're a great car because they drive like a small car, fuel efficient, gutsy 4-cylinder and roomy inside.

Sopdet; your car doesn't count, because its the Tardis! Allbeit with a nose job! :thumbsup: lol

I would be looking towards, and mentioning these because you're drifting towards wagons, the mazda 6, mondeo, or vw passat wagon. Or even the new Hyundai wagons (i30 I think). A falcon or commodore wagon would be great to fit all the camping stuff in, but you have to be happy driving it Every. Other. Day. and they can be a bit hard to see out the back of. Yes, they may have reversing cameras and all that garb, but you need to be comfortable driving it. And they are very large, especially if you like small cars. Sometimes a roof-pod will suffice for the extra space you require only once or twice a year.

You need to remember the ongoing (elevated) costs of the x5 and similar, as they are all wheel drive.