When you discovered you were going to be a parent for the first time there was a lot of high fiving, many tears and then the reality of how the future is going to shape up.  Financial pressure goes off the scale.  It’s time to buy more equipment than you realised existed.  You purchased the perfect pram and car seat and then boof, it hit you.  There is no way that your awesome ride is going to cope with the change.  Time to buy a sensible dad car.

Chances are you didn’t have a huge budget to spend on a car, there were so many other things to spend your pay cheque on.  So you went with a second hand estate to tie you over for the first few years.  It’s served you well too! Great job.

Now? You have increased your family size and the little ones appear to have a social life too.  After years of abuse you find yourself driving past we buy junk cars signs, realising it’s time to say goodbye to the workhorse and hello to something that works for your family, although just something that works would be good!

Car finance has really settled down over the last few years and there are some incredibly good deals out there if you get searching.  You don’t have to go direct to a car dealer to find the ultimate finance package.  You could also look at what rates your bank are offering on loans.  Sometimes this is a cheaper alternative.  However a very popular route into the new car market is hire purchase.  Where you offset some of the cost by opting to have a larger lump sum at the end.  When your credit agreement reaches its climax you can either return the car or, you can buy yourself out.  It’s useful because you aren’t paying extra interest on the lump sum and you will lower your monthly outgoings over a straight credit agreement.

We wrote an excellent guide on choosing the right family car, but a few tips for today are … If you have two children it’s worth considering a 7 seat vehicle.  There are loads of options on the market and many come with optional extra seating which folds neatly away until you need it.  This means that when your kids want to take mates on days out, you haven’t got to worry about taking to cars.  You can do it in one.  But when you are cruising on your own, you can put the seats down and make use of the extra space.

It’s also worth considering a 4×4 if you want a car that is going to be reliable all season.  Look at some of the Japanese options where you get tons of safety features and amazing technology as standard.

Upgrading your car as your family grows is an inevitable part of your journey as Dad.  So keep them as safe as you can and say goodbye to your faithful old runabout.  It’s done its job and is ready for retirement!