Our daughter
Our daughter

January 24th 2010.

The day my life changed forever. The day I became a Daddy. So, to celebrate the arrival of our baby girl, I thought I’d list some of my favourite family cars!

1. Mini Countryman/Traveller/Clubman Estate

The mighty Mini Traveller

The Mini may have brought family motoring to the masses, but since I’m a dog owner, I’d plump for the original Mini’s estate variants.I owned two long-wheel base Minis and loved them to bits. All the fun of the Mini saloon, but with an extra foot or so tucked behind the rear seats, there’s loads more room for Mum, Dad, kids and the dog. A cracking car and an ideal family car.

2. Citreon C3 Picasso

Funky and French-the C3

I’ve blogged before about my love of Citreon’s mini MPV, and not just because of the Ghostbusters TV ad that accompanied the cars launch. For one, the C3 Picasso looks great, and proves that smaller MPVs needn’t be frumpy. The HDi would be my choice,  as it offers superb mileage, which is always important when you’re running the kids around. Being a Citreon it’s cheap to buy too.

3. The MkI Ford Cortina

One of many great Ford family cars
One of many great Ford family cars

Ford have been responsible for loads of great family cars, the Sierra or current Focus, for example. The original (1962-1966) mkI Cortina, was, in my opinion, the first truly great Ford family car. Being a Ford, the ubiquitous hot variant wasn’t far away either with the superb Lotus Cortina winning rallies and becoming a saloon racing legend.

4. The Renault Espace

The Grandad of all MPVs
The Grandad of all MPVs

Vans have been around since there have been cars, but it was Renault who came up with the seemingly obvious idea of putting windows in the sides and seats in the load bay to create the original MPV-the Renault Espace. Sales were initially slow, as the idea took a while to catch on. Things picked up, and the French manufacturer never looked back and over twenty years later the Espace is still a staple of Renault’s range.

Family cars are becoming more exciting and varied all the time, with all most all the major players offering a car to fit every walk of life. No doubt as our daughter grows our needs will change and our MG will be too small. It will be interesting to see what we end up with!