car advice

[daytripper65]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some advice on cars. We drive a toyota picnic now, which I love, and is a perfect size for our family of 5, including one carseat. We will soon be adding another carseat, however, which will make things a bit tight, especially when we have an extra passenger. The back storage is also quite limited as it's very narrow. So we are considering getting something larger, but don't want anything too bulky or difficult to maneuver in all the tight parking garages.

Any suggestions/experiences would be much appreciated, particulary with regard to: most functional use of space (this is what I love most about the picnic); bench seats vs. bucket seats with two car seats; large enough back to fit either two strollers or a double stroller; gas consumption.

Thanks so much!!

[mrswkn]

My family was hunting for a car few months back and I made a list of what I want

1.if the car is big, it must have air-cond in the middle row and preferable air-duct in the last row
2. 6 air-bags
3. real spare tyre and not repair kit
4. 7 speed
5.low fuel consumption
6. comfortable for long travel
7. no sun roof
8. easy to adjust seats
9. warranty
10. fuss free maintenance
11. safe
12. reverse camera/ 6 sensors
13. manufactured this year (not 2009 and 2010 stock)
14. higher resale value (Japanese cars)
15. front seat air-bag lock / isofix

The car we finally chose (Toyota) does not have all the features I want and some features are useless. I never even look at the reverse camera as I have always used my own eyes to see and still do the same. The overhead DVD by Toyota is too user unfriendly. I once used the overhead player on Honda Odyssey and it was of very good quality but the one from Toyota is waste of money.

Odyssey should be big enough for you but fuel consumption wont be low. I love that it has a button you can press and the last row seats will fold automatically. Don't like the retractable sun roof though...

[daytripper65]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Making a list is a good idea. Specifically I'm concerned about the bench seat for two carseats and how easily the other kids can move in and out from the back seat behind. It seems with the bench one carseat will always be gliding back and forth, which may be okay... not sure.

We are going to start looking at estimas, but they are expensive, so we might be in the market for a 2004/2005. Does anybody know what, if any trade in value exists with a 10 year old car here? I never see anything older than 7-8 years, and even a 2004 is in the 50K range, but I don't want to get saddled with an even bigger loan if it will lose most of its value in a couple more years.

Thanks!