I’m in Europe, looking for family car and have no idea what to look for, as cars are far from my thing.
I’ll start with a bit of info. We don’t drive that much, most often just short rides in town (like groceries, kids to school, etc.) or short drives to nearby towns (10-15km). Longer distances about once a month (50+ km). Slughtly bigger car is a preference as we usually have stuff to carry in boot. Currently we have old Ford Mondeo turnier from 2003 and due to its engine problems it needs to be replaced. I have around 15k € budget, so will be looking at used market cars.
Because of intended use I scratched out all diesel offerings. Right? Leaving me with either gasoline or hybrid options. Full EV are probably no go due to price. I’ve picked a few possible cars from local/nearby sellers and would really appreciate your input on them (or alternatives I should be looking at).
Ford Focus wagon from 2019. Has 1.0 ecoboost engine (92 kW / 125 hp), has some nice equipment options like auto AC, heated seats, steering wheel and front screen. It has a mileage of just about 90k km (60k miles). It’s priced slightly under 13k €.
Toyota Auris sports wagon hybrid, from 2018. It’s typical Toyota prius-like hybrid with 1.8 liter engine and electric motor. Not plug-in hybrid. Mileage of around 150k km (100k miles). It’s slightly less equipped than the Focus (and it doesn’t support android auto or carplay) and is priced around 15k €.
2019 Kia Cee’d wagon. It is probably the simplest car in this list - it has 1.4 liter engine without direct injection and without turbo (73 kW) - does it mean less things to break? Other equipment is pretty good though (parking camera, heated seats and wheel, …) and it should still be in factory warranty till 2026. Priced at 12.5k €.
There’s also VW Passat variant 2016 plug-in hybrid. It’s decent condition, although it has over 210k km (like 140k miles). I don’t have option to recharge at home (flat), but there are 2 or 3 public stations in walk distance. Priced at roughly 16k € it’s slightly over my intended budget, but it’s a bigger more comfortable car and has plenty of optional features (like parking camera, driving assistants, full led lights, etc.).
And there’s about another gazzillion of cars and my brain hurts… Would you please help me decide?
Since you personally don’t care about cars and you don’t drive much the logical choice would be the Kia. I personally had good experiences with NA engines. What you have to know about them is that they don’t have much power at low rpm so you have to shift more than with a turbo. Also they’re usually louder because the engine noise gets straight to the exhaust pipe without getting muffled by the turbo. If it has an automatic gearbox shifting wouldn’t be a concern for you.
Another car that you might want to look into is the Skoda Fabia. It’s probably the most cookie cutter car in Europe right now so you will probably find a used car in your price range and still get pretty much exactly the extras you want.
Have you looked into minivans yet? With your needs it might be worthwhile to look into something smaller like the Honda Jazz. Give it a try and check if the space it provides is sufficient for you.
I wanted to add, that I was a little surprised by seeing an engine without direct injection from 2019 but I’m not too deep into cars. What I think is noteworthy is that the engine in that car is at the end of its product life cycle. And what do you get when you get a product at the end of its life cycle? A product with all the kinks worked out. I’d suggest to do your own research but I bet that car is a tank if it has stuff in it that has been worked on for years.