When you first started driving, you might have only been interested in driving small hatchback cars for low costs and practicality, or sports cars for performance and fun.
But when you have a family in tow (or you are about to start a family with your significant other soon), your focus will have to turn towards buying a suitable family car.
So how do you know what constitutes a “good” family car for your needs? Well, if this is your first time buying a family car, here are 6 useful tips to help you buy the car you need – not the car a salesperson wants you to buy!
Image Credit: qgil
Table of Contents
Safety
One of the most important aspects of buying a family car from places such as imperialcarsupermarkets.co.uk, or indeed any other car dealership, is its safety.
Most, if not all, cars that are sold in the United Kingdom these days undergo independent safety testing to ensure that they are safe for adult and child passengers, as well as pedestrians, both during normal driving and in simulated car accident environments.
Euro NCAP (short for “European New Car Assessment Programme) is the independent organisation that car manufacturers use for such car safety testing.
Established back in 1997 by a number of European governments (including the British government), their safety tests are well-regarded by carmakers and the motor industry as a whole, and the results of their tests are often used by car manufacturers to improve upon and develop safety systems in each new model that they produce.
Cabin space
Another important factor that influences buying decisions apart from cost is how much space there is for the driver and passengers inside of the cabin. Regardless of whether you and your family are going on a short or long journey, the cabin has to be spacious and comfortable for all those who sit within it.
That means if you are planning a trip from London to Edinburgh in your Fiat 500 with your partner and two small children along with baby paraphernalia like a pram and bags with various useful things in them, you should seriously consider upgrading to a bigger car to lose that sardine-in-tin feeling!
Boot space
Following on from cabin space, you should also make sure that the boot of your next family car is big enough for carrying around any cargo that you may need to transport with you (like the baby paraphernalia I just mentioned a moment ago)!
People carriers tend to have high roof lines which means that even if the boot isn’t particularly deep, you can still stack your cargo upwards. Estate cars such as the Ford Mondeo estate tend to have extremely spacious boots (and cabins for that matter), but because estates are derived from hatchback or saloon cars, the roof line is going to be very high.
Cup holders
This might sound like a really trivial thing to think about, but trust me, you are going to need a car with cupholders for all passengers to use! Anyone travelling on a long journey somewhere will tell you how important it is to have cup holders so that you aren’t spilling your drinks every time you go around corners or hit bumps in the road!
