What should you be looking for in a family car?

Your old motor is living through its last days and, try as you might, you can’t stop it from getting more and more expensive to own, drive, and maintain as it goes on. It’s time to buy a new family car, but when you have little ones to consider, how you think about choosing your car is going to change as well. You can’t afford to think quite as much about which cars you like better than the others or how they feel to take around the track at high speeds. You have more worldly concerns to think about, now.

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Here, we’re going to look at what you should be looking for in a family car, as well as how it will affect your life with your children.

Keeping you and yours safe

Your first consideration should be making sure that you and your loved ones are kept safe while you’re driving. The single best way to make sure of that is to buy cars that come loaded with safety features. The Euro NCAP safety scores are going to be where you want to look to see what the safest cars are on the market, at the moment, and take a good look at what features these cars tend to bring with them. You might be able to fit some of them onto other cars even if they don’t come as standard. Some of the safety features that you might want to keep an eye out for can include things like adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, and the like.

Making sure that you got the space you need

So, safety might be concern number one but, after that, you might want to think about just how much space you need. If you live in the city, you might not want to drive a car that’s overly large, but you need to make sure you have space for your sprogs, as well as any child seats they might need. Children with increase the amount of storage you need, as well, what with all their schoolbags, instruments, toys, and more you have to bring around with you. Ford cars are well known for offering great storage space for their size. They offer some of the better SUVs on the market when it comes to practicality.

How much it’s going to cost to drive

If you’re like any regular frugal family head, then you’re going to put plenty of effort into cutting the energy bills at home. It’s only natural that you would do the same for your car, right? You should look more closely at which are the most energy-efficient on the market. Right now, Kia-e electric cars offer some of the most cost-effective family cars on the market. For non-electric vehicles, you need to take a look at the miles per gallon, making sure that you’re looking at the relevant stat based on where you’re likely to drive it.

How long is it going to last you?

Family cars are likely to take a little more punishment than usual. From the daily commute to the school run to the countless lifts you’re going to have to give, you’re going to be driving it much more than the average owner. Japanese brands like Toyota tend to be best known for their reliability, that they have fewer faults and less expensive ones. You’re going to want to check the Reliability Index to see what makes which family cars the most reliable for the real skinny. Highly reliable cars are going to last you longer and perform better for the long run. However, they’re also going to decrease the cost of ownership since you’re not likely going to be paying for repairs quite as often.

Security you can rely on

While safety relates to how the car keeps you and your family safe from accidents, good security features are all about making sure that your car isn’t the target of any crimes, whether it’s vandalism, theft, or otherwise. There’s no such thing as a car that entirely prevents theft but there are a bunch of great security features you might be able to get as standard or at least added onto the car. This can include things like an immobiliser function you can activate from your smartphone, car tracking systems, and (of course) a good car alarm.

From the costs of driving to the practicality of your choices, you need to think carefully about the choice of family car you pick as you’re going to be relying on it for years.

We hope that you found these thoughts on buying a family car helpful. Do check out some of the articles we have on the site around driving and travel.

Thanks so much for coming to see us today, and we do hope that you will pop over and take a look at the articles we have on the site again soon.

Helen

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