What new car suggestions... not easy!

[SirTainleyBarking]

Thank you for the advice on the T4, I to have been looking at them but couldn't cope with anything too asthmatic on the steep stuff, especially when wanting to keep up with traffic. I will rule them out of my list... Thanks!

Later diesel T4s had bigger engines - a 2.4 then 2.5 litre which presumably are less sluggish! But all VW vans seem expensive for what they are.

Scene tax: See also 70's Fords. The 'Dub campers aren't bad vehicles, but there are a bunch of owners out there that like the Surfer/Hippy appeal without realising that it's an old vehicle that needs looking after. They get upset when they try to sell on a rusted to hell box with a baggy engine for top money.

Starting to see the same with Landrovers. 90's, 110's and the series vehicles are also starting to rise in price now production has stopped. And by god I've seen some baggy ones out there not wearing their miles well

[JPB]

by god I've seen some baggy ones out there

Me too, the baggier the better. As long as they've not just lambed!

Sorry, but..

New car? Nope, don't know what that means..

[rich.]

New car? Nope, don't know what that means..

you do! remember that smart thingy you had in the garage being repaired on a regular basis

[kawasaki kid]

Don't rule out a Bongo / Freda have a good look around I owned a Freda freetop 4x4 auto diesel for 9.5 years and had no issues with it - the biggest issue with them is overheating but as long as it is looked after and you know what to keep an eye on they are great vans. As for the rust issue the oldest vans are now 20 years old and if they have been wax oiled inside the inner panels the rust issue is limited a lot of the vans are owned by people who love/cherish them as for the prices I paid £5000 in 2005 and put it in px last year for a Mondeo estate last year and got £3500 for it.

[52classic]

For me there'd be no contest..... Volvo 245 (plus a small caravan or trailer tent). Iconic design, plenty of room, easy to maintain and get reliable enough for a long jaunt. Still a few available for reasonable prices and all the classic cred you could want, to the extent that you can surely sell for a profit in a couple of years if you look after it.
A GLE or T, preferably with a Webasto roof, is a very nice place to be for whiling away a few hours on the road. Apparently even the CEO of IKEA has one for a daily driver!

[JPB]

...Apparently even the CEO of IKEA has one for a daily driver!

Doesn't surprise me, have you ever wondered how Ikea's mattresses and bed frames are so oddly proportioned and of a size for which it's impossible to buy fitted bedding? No? Take a tape measure to the load bay of a 145 or 245, perfect fit you see.
However, and much as I like the Volvo idea, Peter Agnefjall is, apparently, driven about in something by Elon Musk, the famous South African-born Canadian-American car manufacturing geezer. Centuries earlier, someone made electricity using connected lemons, nowadays, that latter day purveyor of invisible suits for reigning monarchs makes "connected" lemons using electricity.

Buy the earliest 245 you can find, better yet buy a 145. Later 240 series cars have incontinent gearboxes because Toyota thought that it would be amusing to supply their AW71 to Volvo with a very hard rear oil seal that would machine a groove in the nose of the propshaft. Chicago Rawhide will supply their Speedi-sleeve as a solution that will typically last a couple of years, but earlier cars used a Borg Warner gearbox and that doesn’t leak from there, though my 244GLE did dribble fluid from the converter, the sump gasket, the base of the dipstick tube via a porous weld and not forgetting the crack where the mount was attached to the tailshaft end of the 'box. I love the things - having owned more 140 and 240 series than I can count on my fingers - and would have another now, but scene tax has taken over from common sense and decent ones are stupidly expensive unless you channel your inner Mike Brewer and get up early on Ad Mag/Loot/Gazette/E&M/Autotrader day with phone in one hand, greasy roll & bacon in the other.

They really do get under your skin though, I'd challenge even the hardest hearted of human beings to drive one for any great distance without starting a conversation with the car...
What? Just me then? Oh bugger!

[GHT]

Sorry, but..
New car? Nope, don't know what that means..

Oh dear John, new car doesn't have to be boring, after all, the E-Type was new once. Just for you mate, how about this?

[JPB]

No, indeed new doesn't automatically come in boring or dull flavours, but the depreciation is evil and makes a split new car one of few things that haemorrhage money more quickly than the next quickest money haemorrhaging thing.

I called Swap Shop once and asked to swap a Hardy Marquis fly reel for a new head for my bearded Action Man as his original suffered badly when I cooked it to see what would happen. In the end, nobody responded and a light fingered friend obtained a head for the toy somehow, I never asked how exactly, best I don't I reckon.
Noel Edmonds eh, what a twunt!

[Grumpy Northener]

I get to collect / deliver a lot my clients vehicles hence by default I drive a very diverse / wide type of cars & light commercials - anything from supercars / vans / exec cars to the most basic runabout - given that the OP wants a something safe, reliable - something large enough for the family and given the budget - well the most surprising motor driven over the last 12 months was sound / appeared well built / sizable & went well enough - given the price of them I was amazed at just what value for money these offer - given that £5k will not get you too much in the form of a less than 5 year old / 50k miles family car (if you are lucky) off a dealers forecourt - and the vehicle was ? 'Dacia Sandero Stepway' £5k buys you a 2 - 3 year old Sandero with 20k miles - but can you live with the badge ?

[GHT]

well the most surprising motor driven over the last 12 months was sound / appeared well built / sizable & went well enough - given the price of them I was amazed at just what value for money these offer - given that £5k will not get you too much in the form of a less than 5 year old / 50k miles family car (if you are lucky) off a dealers forecourt - and the vehicle was ? 'Dacia Sandero Stepway' £5k buys you a 2 - 3 year old Sandero with 20k miles - but can you live with the badge ?

Following the fall of the communist regime, I spent a month in Romania. Back then the Dacia, pronounced Da-cha, was the only car they had. It was a Renault 14 clone. I wonder if there's any Renault connection these days? My missus likes the Nissan squashkey or is it Qashqai? I bet the divorce courts have never come across that before.