Day of testdrives - The feedback (hope you are sitting comfortably !)

[am1w]

I think the waryness is caused by people having seen that when it snows even slightly, the roads (and ditches) are full of big BMW's and Mercedes... the combination of wide tyres, auto boxes and probably idiot drivers makes certainly me wary of owning something like that given that I have to be out in all weathers for work...

Its clearly not a "rear wheel drive" problem - I used to own RWD cars when nearly everything was RWD... but we didn't have fat tyres and auto boxes and huge supertanker sized cars...

Absolutely.

Lardy humans, lardy cars, lardy tyres, loony drivers. Great combination to be stuck in a ditch! 

As an aside: I was at my BMW dealership early this morning. There was a rather large couple getting really narked as the 5 Series did not have 4 cupholders, 2 on each side of the centre console: His and Hers. When asked politely by the salesman why they required so many, the rather massive woman piped up and said she needed one for her Mac milkshake (as did her even more massive husband) and one for a her coffee. You should have seen the salesman's face. Oh, she also complained that the front seats were too narrow and 'BMW should get their finger out and sort this basic design flaw!'

Time for a fat tax.

[drisser]

totally agree..

even when I had a TT TDi Quattro to be honest it didn't inspire a huge amount more confidence in the snow because I wasn't worry so much about me, more about what everyone else was driving like !

[JB GTI]

totally agree..

even when I had a TT TDi Quattro to be honest it didn't inspire a huge amount more confidence in the snow because I wasn't worry so much about me, more about what everyone else was driving like !

That's the real problem !!

[JBirchy]

Really interesting to read drisser, very well written and interesting that the most expensive car came bottom of the list for your needs!

I'm also considering changing my GTI for something more family friendly (mine's only a 3-door) and can't decide what to go for. We've got a nipper on the way in September and I could do with something a bit bigger... Possibly an S3 Sportback, maybe a 330d M-Sport Touring or I really really like the look of a Passat R-Line B-Turbo Estate with a few toys.

Looking at some numbers later in the week and will be talking to dealers about possible p/x. That said, I really love my GTI and don't really want to let go of it but had a trial run with baby seats and pram in the boot and with the new Isofix bases, the seat struggles to fit in between the back of the passenger seat and the B-Pillar... Hmm.

Sorry for sidetracking... Looking forward to hearing how you move forward!

[CraigW]

We've got a nipper on the way in September and I could do with something a bit bigger... Possibly an S3 Sportback, maybe a 330d M-Sport Touring or I really really like the look of a Passat R-Line B-Turbo Estate with a few toys.

Snap!! I peruaded the Missus to trade hers in though so i can still have my fun 

[Booth11]

We've got a nipper on the way in September and I could do with something a bit bigger... Possibly an S3 Sportback, maybe a 330d M-Sport Touring or I really really like the look of a Passat R-Line B-Turbo Estate with a few toys.

Snap!! I peruaded the Missus to trade hers in though so i can still have my fun 

5 door GTI/GTD/R  - perfect family car for small family and easily accomodates one teeny baby.  I can understand 3 doors being a PITA with access, but more door version ticks all the boxes.  I never felt the need to move to a bigger car with a child. 2 or 3 kids? maybe but otherwise Golf is fine.  Then again I always travelled light on the baby gear front whereas some think it's suddenly necessary to transport the entire content of Mothercare around to cover every baby related eventuality.  It's not. 

[fredgroves]

As I said before.... we used to have a Mini (a real one, not a Teutonic imposter - ours was made by communists in Birmingham) and it all worked just fine (well, in terms of fitting the baby and crap in, the car itself was made by communists in Birmingham and used to go wrong all the time lol!)

A Mk7 Golf is the same size as a Mk1 Ford Mondeo... nobody would have said a Mondeo was too small for baby transport!

[JBirchy]

We've got a nipper on the way in September and I could do with something a bit bigger... Possibly an S3 Sportback, maybe a 330d M-Sport Touring or I really really like the look of a Passat R-Line B-Turbo Estate with a few toys.

Snap!! I peruaded the Missus to trade hers in though so i can still have my fun 

Haha, I wish I could do that. The Missus has a BMW 1-Series 3-Door and she got it 3 months before we fell pregnant so there's no chance of her changing hers just yet.

The Golf is a fine size and we'll manage for a while but if I'm changing for more doors, I think I'd like a slightly bigger boot too to accommodate the gear that comes with my various hobbies. The R estate would do nicely but as much as I love the Golf, I'll fancy a change next time round.

[isleaiw]

As I said before.... we used to have a Mini (a real one, not a Teutonic imposter - ours was made by communists in Birmingham) and it all worked just fine (well, in terms of fitting the baby and crap in, the car itself was made by communists in Birmingham and used to go wrong all the time lol!)

A Mk7 Golf is the same size as a Mk1 Ford Mondeo... nobody would have said a Mondeo was too small for baby transport!

But life was simpler then....

They didnt have transportations systems (pram or pushchair just doesnt do them justice), isofix bases and  multifunctional seats, and the rest of the stuff they have to have now.

We managed with a 2 dr E30 BMW 3 series when my first was born. The golf is def bigger than that but couldnt get a friend and her baby and stuff for one night in comfortably the other day....

Ian

[fredgroves]

LOL maybe you are right.

We used to just sit baby on a cushion and tie her down with bale twine to make sure she didn't fall out.

The pushchair thing folded down to the size of a large golf umbrella.

Baby transporters these days have bigger wheels than my car ffs.