Essential Guide on Buying the Best Family Car
Whether you’re looking to buy your first roomy car or need to purchase a bigger vehicle for your growing family, the huge range of choices currently available on the marketplace make shopping around a daunting task.
From helping you to decide what model will be most suitable, to the key safety features to look out for, the following guide gives you the top tips on finding the best family car for your needs.
Clarifying Your Requirements
Your first step when looking to buy a new family car is to keep your eyes open on the road for vehicles that appeal to you, plus be sure to get lots of opinions from your friends and family.
Next, you’ll have to decide which type of model will best suit your needs and preferences – such as whether you want a hatchback, people mover, station wagon, SUV, sedan or a sports car. My article titled ‘Easy Guide to Understanding Car Categories and Body Styles’ gives a clear and simple outline of what these terms mean.
Thirdly, it’s an important factor in streamlining your buying options to know your budget limitations.
Then, make sure you do your research online to investigate your feature preferences, such as comfort, fuel economy, storage and safety. Also look at the RRP (recommended retail price) of various models and bear in mind that the final selling price can be negotiable.
Important Car Features
Let’s look more closely at the features to look out for in a suitable and reliable family car:
Vehicle Size
When deciding how big your car needs to be, consider how many children you’re planning to have and over what time period. Most people generally tend to keep their cars for 5 years, so the size needs to accommodate your family for at least that long.
Another important factor is that you feel comfortable in the driver’s seat and have good visibility out of the front, side and rear windows. Also try reverse parking and parking it in a shopping centre car park – going from a small hatch to an SUV or station wagon can be a major change, which some people are not comfortable with on a daily basis.
Storage
Boot space is important for such family essential as transportation of a baby pram and luggage for holiday breaks.
Storage compartments are also key as there can never be too many places to pack things when children are involved. These would include drink holders, a place for spare nappies or wipes and pockets for your kid’s books and games.
Safety
The main safety features to consider in a family car are:
- Child Locks on all doors and windows.
- Seat Belts – make sure the number of seat belts in the car match your needs and that they are all 3 point seatbelts i.e. some vehicles still have a lap seatbelt in the centre rear seat, which is not ideal.
- Airbags – ideally you should have front, side, knee and curtain airbags.
- Anti Lock Braking System (ABS) – this helps a car to stop sooner and gives you some driving control under heavy braking conditions.
- Electronic Stability Program (ESP) – this senses when the car is “out of control” during heavy cornering and helps to correct its direction.
- Cargo Barrier or Net¬ – this helps to prevent items in the boot of a station wagon or SUV from dangerously flying forward while driving.
- Reverse Parking Sensors – these issue an audible sound when reversing if there is something behind the car.
- Reverse Parking Camera – mounted on the back of the car, these show you via a screen in your front dashboard what is behind the car.
Safety considerations can even impact the colour of the car that you choose – for example research has shown that your will be less likely to have an accident in a white car than other car colours, and the least safe colour to be driving around in black or other dark colours, since to the eye they blend with the road which decreases visibility.
Child Seat Anchor Points
Most family cars will have 3 child seat anchorage points, with some having up to 5. Check where these are located so that they match your preferences – some are placed towards the back of the boot resulting in the seat straps interfering with the car’s boot space.
Conclusion
Finding the best family car doesn’t have to be troublesome if you do your research on the available models that will suit your budget and lifestyle, plus keep a sharp eye out for the vehicle features that you find most important.
About the Author: Anthony Blascara is the owner of a car mechanic business and adviser on best family car features.
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