Hi everyone,
We will soon be welcoming our first child in November this year.
We are looking at getting a family car with the purpose of fitting pram, basinet etc in the boot & for easier access.
The cars mentioned in the poll are ones we are considering and we were looking for any advice, experience or alternatives to the cars mentioned.
Our budget is around $45,000 and this will be our sole family car. For context, we currently do not have a car (we used to have a Honda Accord & never have had an SUV) and my wife is 5-foot.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE:
First off I wanted to apologise for not responding earlier to this thread and being a bit MIA. Thank you all for taking the time to share your suggestions, it has helped a lot and made us think of alternative options that we initially thought would not suit our situation (expected bub) + when factoring in that what we want may not be available right now.
I think that we initially got caught up in the "Keeping up with the Joneses" so to speak thinking we NEED a mid-SUV.
Yes, it is an exciting time for my wife and me. We recently went to the baby event that was held in Olympic Park, NSW and was tbh overwhelmed with all the different products being sold. So that will be another journey in itself.
We will definitely check the cars mentioned throughout the thread and thanks to those that have shared their experiences with the different cars and provided alternatives and other cars to consider. The next step is visiting the dealers to get timings on delivery etc
Which cars generally have the better fuel economy and lower service costs?
Some more cars that we are considering from your comments and advice that we are going to check out & maybe test-drive:
Mazda: 3 & 6 wagon
Subaru: XV, Forester, Outback, Liberty, Levorg
Toyota: Rav-4 (our favourite at the moment), Camry (hybrid)
Kia: Cerato (hatchback)
Hyundai: i30n (hatchback)
Honda: HR-V, CR-V (medium) HEV L
Skoda: Octavia, Superb, Fabia
VW: Passat
I would vote for RAV4 Hybrid, just buy GX/GXL Hybrid that's reasonably cheap without bazillion years of wait time (Cruiser) and fuel economy is really good (I averaged 5.5-5.8L/100km city driving and 5.0-5.5L/100km on highway, impressive for the size). It's reasonably roomy, we could fit a full size pram with enough luggage for 4 adults and 1 toddler on a 5 days road trip.