I’m in Europe, looking for family car and have no idea what to look for, as cars are far from my thing.

I’ll start with a bit of info. We don’t drive that much, most often just short rides in town (like groceries, kids to school, etc.) or short drives to nearby towns (10-15km). Longer distances about once a month (50+ km). Slughtly bigger car is a preference as we usually have stuff to carry in boot. Currently we have old Ford Mondeo turnier from 2003 and due to its engine problems it needs to be replaced. I have around 15k € budget, so will be looking at used market cars.

Because of intended use I scratched out all diesel offerings. Right? Leaving me with either gasoline or hybrid options. Full EV are probably no go due to price. I’ve picked a few possible cars from local/nearby sellers and would really appreciate your input on them (or alternatives I should be looking at).

Ford Focus wagon from 2019. Has 1.0 ecoboost engine (92 kW / 125 hp), has some nice equipment options like auto AC, heated seats, steering wheel and front screen. It has a mileage of just about 90k km (60k miles). It’s priced slightly under 13k €.

Toyota Auris sports wagon hybrid, from 2018. It’s typical Toyota prius-like hybrid with 1.8 liter engine and electric motor. Not plug-in hybrid. Mileage of around 150k km (100k miles). It’s slightly less equipped than the Focus (and it doesn’t support android auto or carplay) and is priced around 15k €.

2019 Kia Cee’d wagon. It is probably the simplest car in this list - it has 1.4 liter engine without direct injection and without turbo (73 kW) - does it mean less things to break? Other equipment is pretty good though (parking camera, heated seats and wheel, …), it has mileage if just 40k km (25k miles) and it should still be in factory warranty till 2026. Priced at 12.5k €.

There’s also VW Passat variant 2016 plug-in hybrid. It’s decent condition, although it has over 210k km (like 140k miles). I don’t have option to recharge at home (flat), but there are 2 or 3 public stations in walk distance. Priced at roughly 16k € it’s slightly over my intended budget, but it’s a bigger more comfortable car and has plenty of optional features (like parking camera, driving assistants, full led lights, etc.).

And there’s about another gazzillion of cars and my brain hurts… Would you please help me decide?

  • Donger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Mazda makes the best family cars. I LOVED my Mazda 6 and their SUVs are really fancy for the price.

    They will not last as long as a Toyota. If you’re interested in reliability go for a Toyota.

    • kurcatovium@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Well, Mazda is IMO really overpriced here. They have great cars, but since there are not that usual in my country (thus feeling premium), people are asking too much for them.

  • AttackBunny@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    American here, so I can only help so much, but I can give my personal opinion, and you can take it with a grain of salt.

    Personally, I’d remove the VW from the list of the bat. I’ve never had good luck with them being super reliable. I also have seen a lot of friends spend a lot of money on problems with them (usually electrical/control system). Other people absolutely love/swear by them. I do not. Edit: I missed that the vw was a plugin hybrid the first time I read through. Personally. Run. Run far and fast from that car.

    The warranty makes the Kia appealing, but having had both a Kia and a Hyundai in the family now, they are cheap and fall a part much faster than a Mazda or Toyota in my experience. In fact, our Kia was sitting in the dealership parking lot for like 4-6 months waiting for Kia to figure out how to fix a problem they made by doing a recall. Every time we asked how much longer, we got a “Kia doesn’t know how to fix the issue yet, so we don’t know” that said husband loves driving his Hyundai.

    The Toyota. We don’t have that model here, but I’d imagine it’s like the rest of the Toyota line (at least the bulk of them). Cheap feeling, and boring to drive. Should be reliable, however, the batteries make it potentially very expensive to repair in a few years. How long do you plan to keep this vehicle?

    The ford would probably be my pick from your list, but I don’t know much about the 1ltr eco boost. Its bigger cousins are fun to drive for what they are. They seem to be relatively reliable and potent for their size and get ok mileage.

    Personally, if I were you, I’d look at Mazda. Both the 2 and 3 hatches might fit your requirements. For a while now they have been making much nicer feeling cars than you should be getting for the money. I’ve owned Mazdas (and some of the ones know to be the least reliable cars ever) and I have nothing but great things to say about the brand (minus one dealership) and driving experience. They seem to have really thought out what they are doing.