Safe Speed Forums

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum...

My wife and I are expecting our 1st baby this September, and she has ordered me to ditch my car and get something family-suitable.

Can anyone recommend a good safe family machine (or sites that can help?). I'm thinking along the lines of a Galaxy or something.

Cheers,

Chris

Try this link

http://www.euroncap.com/content/safety_ratings/introduction.php

look for the Child Protection Rating.

I think this should give you everything you need.

_________________
Speed camera policy Kills

Hi Chris, welcome. This is certainly a suitable forum.

I'm a huge believer in 'primary safety' (the ability to avoid a crash) before 'secondary safety' (the ability to survive a crash). I value vehicle dynamic ability highly, but I value driver ability (attitudes, skills and responsibilities) more highly still.

So if you're feeling the weight of family responsibility, the first and most important response is to make sure that your standard of driver training is as good as it can be. You could do the IAM thing or go much further. After that, the safety of every car you'll ever drive will be upgraded.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

And how true that is.

A lot of the secondary safety that manufacturers and testers bang on about these days has its penalty, some of which compromises primary safety.

One example springs immediately to mind. To get strong passenger compartments, to survive, eg, a roll or a heavy front impact, they have had to make the windscreen pillars so thick that they exacerbate the blind spot quite badly.

As Paul says, the standard of driving is of more weight that the secondary safety of the vehicle.

To be honest, I don't think there's really a lot to choose between modern European and Japanese cars in terms of secondary safety - the manufacturers' claims highlight relatively marginal differences.

Personally I would advise a "conventional" saloon or estate in preference to a people-carrier of the Galaxy type because the handling in extremis will be a little bit better, it will be more fun to drive and other drivers will find it easier to see through or over it.

Mazda 6 estate might be a good bet if you need lots of carrying capacity.

What is your budget, btw?

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Thanks to all those who have replied: your help is much appreciated.

The wife wants a Galaxy (but to be honest, I think that is a case of 'keeping up with the Joneses'!). I want a car that- should a collision occur- would provide maximum protection. I currently drive a Punto, which would be squashed flat should I crash.

We heard great things about the Renault Espace, but I think that is out of our price range (we are looking at a MAXIMUM of 5K)- so maybe a 2nd hand Galaxy will be what we go for.

I know some cars are better than others, re. side-impact collisons and so on, but don't know which ones they are yet! The baby's car seat will go in the back, so we aren't worried about passenger air bags.

(BTW- totally not the forum, but parents out there who can recommend a good 1st stage car seat??)

Many Thanks,

Chris

For £5k you might get an early example of the current-shape Mondeo estate or hatchback - which is a big solid car that will be more economical and better to drive than an MPV.

Any differences in crash protection amongst cars of that size are really likely to be marginal compared with the difference made by how it is driven.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Would tend to go with Peter's advice. Have estate version Jag because of my large litter of kittens

Look closely at the specs for people carriers as there is a very nasty tendency (per all the reports we/ve read) of chassis snapping in two on a hard impact.

Your next concern thereafter is the baby seat - there is a huge variance and "dearest" is not always the best one. Seek advice and start shopping aound about 8 weeks or so before the due date. There is a knack to fitting them as well - and each vary according to manufacturer and type of car. The bad news is that you have to replace as the baby grows as well - we are now on our second seat for our youngest (almost 5 months) was like a dainty little doll at birth but growing fast!

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

This is purely opinion based on my own - limited - research...

As regards child seats I'd say "anything by Britax", but ideally ISOFIX. Having struggled with all manner of car seats that fit into the car's belts I think the idea of having a seat that locks into a fixed point in the car can't be valued highly enough. Not sure what you'll find in your price range that has this feature though - possibly VW might be your best bet as I think they were amongst the first to fit them.

I too am a great believer in "primary" safety as being more important that secondary, so I've always tended to favour a reasonable sized family saloon / estate with good handling, brakes etc. In the price bracket you are looking at I think I'd probably be buying a Passat Estate.

As an interesting point on the MPV issue, a good friend of mine has had a Galaxy for a couple of years now. He is a well experienced and extremely expert rally driver and he says that whilst he is generally very pleased with it it does "flatter to deceive" with it's handling. His synopsis was that it drove very nicely and in the first stages appeared to handle well, but he felt you could very easily get into trouble with it as you had to plan everything so much further in advance than you would in a family saloon. It would happily tackle a corner at a similar speed to that which you'd tackle it in a car, but the difference was that the car would have a lot more capability "in reserve" due to the differences in inertia and C of G. And it's this "reserve capacity" that can be so crucial in avoiding accidents.

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Galaxys are like vans in a cross wind, and not particularly economical (the petrol version in any case).

Like John says, they give you confidence perhaps beyond the capability of the vehicle. Our job vehicle 2.8 V6 has uprated suspension, but I would never corner at more than 75% of what the vehicle suggests it would tolerate, because of the higher centre of gravity.

I think though that once the 'better half' has an MPV on her shopping list, that's what it's going to be! I'm in the market for a Touran later this year once the price of second hand gets down to something reasonable .

However they do offer a little more height and view which is a good thing for the little ones. I dealt with a fatal accident 4 years ago on M6 where a 3 year old boy was thrown from the car on impact with a tree. He wasn't secured in his car seat. He wouldn't stay in it because the seat was so low he could not see well out of the windows.

That single incident led me to purchase Britax Renaissance car seats for my two girls (now almost 3 and 5). They have a recline facility, they are comfortable and allow the child to sit up high enough to get a good view. They might however be stage 2 (9kg (months) to 4 years)

If stage one is birth to 9kgs then I'd recommend buying one of the 3 in one prams, a travel system which Graco do very well, which incorporates a car seat which you simply lift off the pram into the car. All these seats are rear facing and are all generally very good.

_________________
Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

Both my two had this type of rearward facing car seat. Pay very close attention to how well they interact with the seat belts in whichever car you end up with as they vary a lot. Go and park outside mothercare and get them to allow you to try two or three different ones in your car to see which one ends up with the straightest "leads" for the seat belts etc.

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I remember doing that John, I was advised by Mothercare to bring the car to the shop. It was a Polo at the time and it was important to ensure the pram actually fitted the boot as much as ensuring the car seat was suitable for the car.

On a slightly different note, I am always shocked by the number of really badly fitted car seats out there, and the number of kids who are allowed to roam in the back seat unprotected!

I will always ticket these drivers. There really is no excuse.

_________________
Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

The Galaxy has been a consistant low performer in customer satisfaction surveys. It was last in Top Gears. Unless your wife is giving birth to a calf a Focus sized car is going to be able to cart you, her and several nippers about for a while yet. My Civic carries 5 adults when the need arises.