Best family car with space got camping kit up to £10,000 tops?

[vickster]

Did mention them too, superb is nice, not so great for town driving.

Be a 200k ex taxi for £10k though!
What‘s wrong with them for town driving? Thirsty?

 

[T4tomo]

If you have a vivaro then a belingo or similar will be spot on, loads of rooms.but still quite basic. An Octavia might be too comfortable for you

 

[bobzmyunkle]

If you're getting a towbar fitted, you can get a small trailer for the camping gear. Gives a wider choice of car. Depends how often and how far you're going with the camping gear to some extent.
We used to load up with 4 bikes and a trailer. just needs a bit more journey time and a bit of practice reversing the trailer.

 

[dicko]

My family of four camped using a 1.3 Vauxhall Astra estate with a tow bar for our camping trailer. Two bikes on the roof bars, two bikes on towball carrier, never had any problems.

 

[I like Skol]

My family of four camped using a 1.3 Vauxhall Astra estate with a tow bar for our camping trailer. Two bikes on the roof bars, two bikes on towball carrier, never had any problems.

Are you mad? We want to take EVERYTHING and more!....
TBH, I/we have coped perfectly well with a standard saloon car on more than one occasion (Audi A4).
4x bikes plus windbreak and camping chairs/folding table on the roof rack. Tent and luggage in the boot. 2 adults and 2 fast growing big teenage boys plus various bits and pieces in footwells and jammed between rear seat passengers. When searching for this car I really wanted the estate version, mostly for the roof rails, but spec and price pushed me to the saloon and this has actually worked out well.

Holidays are always an adventure. We have always had a good time in spite of the car's limitations. It's not about the car!

Have recently been considering a van based vehicle like the vivaro for more adventures even though the kids are now flying the nest but TBH think we will manage just fine with the good old dependable saloon car and a few minor compromises....


If I were you I would stick with the van.

 

[oldwheels]

I have a Peugeot Partner with a towbar and if it had to be replaced I would get another. Sliding rear doors either side and lifting tailgate. The rear seats can be easily removed if necessary.
Mine is the diesel 1600cc model but other versions are available.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I did wonder about car club type of thingbut they're not around this place.

OT but the problem with car club/Pay as You Go things like Zip (and rental, come to that) is they aren't very bike-carrier friendly. At least they weren't a few years ago when I looked into them. But not applicable in your case anyway.

 

[Jameshow]

Be a 200k ex taxi for £10k though!
What‘s wrong with them for town driving? Thirsty?

Superb is the largest Skoda estate, about Audi A6 size high makes them quite big for parking etc.
Nice car I remember it being the Volvo V70 in a few reviews.

 

[Drago]

What do you mean by "best"? What are your priorities, and in what order do you place them?

 

[Hacienda71]

Superb or Passat estate. Massively roomy, low if you put anything on the roof so easy to load.
My mate has a Superb and I have a Passat and they are both great options. I had an A4 estate before and it was always a touch on the small side for full camping kit for 4 without a big roof box for anything over a couple days.

 

[fossyant]

We're managing to fill a large saloon car with just the two of us, but it's a big tent, and we're taking a SUP. We get everything inside, bikes on top. 3-5 days camping shizzle though.

My car is getting on now (22) and we are looking at Rifter Long, or the bigger Traveller, or a bigger estate car (Jogger etc) - we really don't know so are going looking in abut 6 months time - managing with the saloon and my wife's Qashqai (no bikes on roof - too high).

Estate with roof box makes sense with four inside. Or keep the van for trips, and get a cheap city car if the van is a 'daily' currently - works out cheaper.

What ever we do, the vehicle we get won't be a daily driver - it will sit on the drive all week,

 

[Hicky]

Whatever you buy you’ll always need more space. We have a XC70 and a double height 1150brenderup trailer + roofbox. All full…before that we managed with a focus and roof box.
You just end up buying more stuff you probably don’t really need. 🤔🫣

 

[screenman]

Sorry, I used to buy at 5 years then keep for another 10 years or that's about 15 years old or perhaps even older. Depends on whether it starts to get expensive to keep on the road . If I buy a 9 years old because its within my price range will I only get 6 years out if it or is reliability improvements going to mean it'll run without expensive repairs for longer. Say my old cars became unreliable at 15 years will newer cars last until 19 years before becoming unreliable? That's my worry about buying a lot older cars than I used to.

I would say they do last longer, having been in business in the motor trade for over 52 years 48 with my own business, I do have little experience of cars.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

MK9 Honda Civic Tourer. Fairly rare but very reliable and huge internally for a fairly small car. Or a Mazda 6 Tourer, would avoid the 2.2 diesel from that era though, as apparently some had timing chain issues, Mazda petrols are very reliable though. Was thinking of both myself, but more inclined towards the Civic as the loadspace is totally flat for sleeping in it. In 1.8 i-vtec petrol form, good on fuel, very reliable. Not as good as the diesel 1.6 i-dtec on fuel. But being a normally aspirated port injection petrol car, timing chain driven, it has less to go wrong with it, also easier to work on from a DIY perspective.

 

[Gillstay]

Citroen Berlingo like cars we found easiest.

Mk 2 Berlingo was the best, with three or 4 of us and the camping gear and bikes inside.

We used to remove one seat rather than use something like a roof box.