We're gettin' us a baybee! And now its time to buy a car, obviously
In Switzerland, life seems a bit difficult if you have a baby and don't have a car.

From your experience, which car seems to be good for carrying around babies (in the back seat babyseat of course) and all the baby related stuff.
Incidentally, the wife should fit in as well, so a coupé or a cabriolet won't do.

I'm seeing a lot of VW polo used cars being sold around here. But someone told me that there is not enough room if you have a family which includes a baby. Is this true?

Would love to know your opinions!

Cheers,
Nileblitz

you want a child in a child seat + your stuff + their stuff + a pram or pushchair. Polo might do it, be prepared to get a topbox too

Easy access to the rear seats
Great visability
Good ground clearance....

Congratulations!

Babies come with quite a bit of kit so you will need some space but a polo should be ok. It depends on what you will use the car for/how much you're going to take/any other passengers.
A trip to just about anywhere requires a minimum of a changebag and a pushchair - you will be able to find a pushchair that fits in the boot/trunk of a polo without much trouble just make sure you know the dimensions before you buy!
If you're going skiing/picnicing/away for the weekend, your luggage and babies luggage on top of this.

I think the polo is quite workable - if you don't have need for a car at present then it should just seem like a bonus whatever you get.

Good luck

Kate

I'll be in Geneva soon with my family (we've got 2 babies). So, I'm searching through web-sites of all possible car makers. I think that Chevrolet Nubira is the best one for such family as mine. Could you recommend something else?

We are expecting a second kiddo and gone in for a Honda jazz. It has a good sized boot and can seat upto five though with the car seats the fifth person is a squeeze.

I have a no. of friends with kids and coincidentally they all also mostly have honda jazz's. It is easy to drive , especially the automatic version.

Also not very big as parking can be a pain with bigger cars. Another car we were considering was VW golf rather than polo as the boot is bigger. They have good resale also. Hope that helps.

plenty of reviews from UK trusted source What Car .... get clicky

Oh & forgot .... congrats ..

Have always thought this one's good for babies

Other than that, we're looking at the Honda FR-V (6-seater) or a Citroën Mini-Van for our (larger) family of 5...

Congratulations!
We got our baby as well now and so far our 2001 Ford Focus Estate
works just fine, even the huge Teutonia Pram fits in the boot. There are a lot of good
used ones around which won't cost you much more than a used polo.

I would recommend a VW Touran, Opel Zafira or Ford Focus C-Max or something of that sort. Compact enough from the outside but roomy and flexible from inside.

It is amazing how much stuff you have to/end up carrying around with the baby. We always end up taking half of the furniture with us when going by car. For some strange reason without a car a backpack and Baby Björn carrier seem to be enough.

...or the new S-Max if you're in the money

[QUOTE For some strange reason without a car a backpack and Baby Björn carrier seem to be enough.[/QUOTE]


Congratulations! We have a two year old daughter and have managed very well without a car in England and now in Zurich. And yes, the less space you have the less you carry with you! Also think about investing in a really good baby carrier, like an Ergo. It's fantastic for just walking around and for getting on and off public transport. It's also great for hiking.

Cars, who needs them?!

Well what you actually need is a VW Touran. This is so that you can travel to Germany and buy your pampers at half price. You can then fill the nice little hidden under the carpet stow away spaces behind the front seat with the steak that you buy from the German butchers and make your trip very profitable. I think you can probably get around 4 Kg in them...

The most important thing to look at is the suspension I found out...the harder the better.

Don't get a Citroen...the suspension is so soft that the baby will think the car is not moving and therefore will not sleep and cry during the whole trip

Ford have quite hard suspensions. I only have to drive a few meters and little Cameron goes from screaming fit straight into deep sleep.

Maybe even he is bored by his parents car choice...

dave

good point!

Hmm.... never thought about a top box, but I guess a mobile version of a closet can come in handy . Thanks for the advice Lob Rockster.

He he, very funny Jekyll. The way my friends are scaring me with babies+cars stories, I might have to go for something like that (a hummer?)

Thanks Kate. I don't have and don't need a car right now, being in the center of Geneva that I am. Public transport is excellent, but the car thing came up due to the amount of stuff, that people keep telling me, I would need to carry around. I guess polo is a good choice, but I'm still thinking.

I have the Honda Jazz in my top 5 list. A basic new one costs around 18K. A used one, is around 14K. I am seriously considering this one after your excellent advice. VW Golf is another good one, but always costlier than a Polo in the used cars columns.

Thanks Polorise.

Thanks for the tips Pekka. I think the VW touran is quite expensive for me at this stage, I would like to limit my budget to 15K or max 20K at this point. I will think about the other options.

You are right, we have been managing without a car until now, but all my friends have scared me into buying one. Plus, I am changing jobs and planning to move to Lausanne (How does everything happen at the same time? ) so I guess a car would help a lot.

hehe Excellent advice. I'm a vegetarian so the steak would be a waste of space I guess. I need to fit in a few more pampers in there. But seriously as I mentioned above, a VW touran is probably above budget for me right now.

Thank you, all of you, again for some good tips and advice. This forum is cool

We traded our Polo in after having a baby for a Skoda Roomster. Absolutely love this car and the price puts the Touran to shame (24k with bells and whistles).

If the Touran feels too expensive, then go for Zafira or Focus C-Max. Especially Zafira's seem to be very affordable here. If you plan to keep the car long term, I would recommend getting a diesel with particle filter. You won't be hit that hard when the CO2 taxes start to kick in. The petrol/diesel prices will also propably look quite different next year since the demand is becoming bigger than the production capacity for good. Anyway, a car is always a bad investment.

Thanks SwissMs and Pekka. These are definitely good advices, but for some incomprehensible reason, me and the wife have decided to go and visit the Toyota garage for the new Toyota Auris. The reviews are good and seems to be roomier than the Corolla. Let's see how this goes, otherwise the Roomster seems to be a good one and I saw an offer for a used Zafira for 17K the other day.

Will keep this post updated with my choice (and its repercussions)