How Affordable Is That Family Car?

*Collaborative post

Your family car is just as much a member of your family as the rest of them, and because of that, you take good care of it. You keep it clean and tidy, you get it serviced whenever that’s necessary, and you’ve always got the tank filled to the top to ferry the kids back and forth from school five times a week. It’s a big expense in your life, and you’ve got to do quite a lot of budgeting to accommodate it!

And because of that, the idea of a family car might not be quite so affordable. Of course, you need a car, and you get plenty of use out of it, but is owning one a little too much for you right now?

What would you consider to be a good family car? 

You’ll Need a Lot of Space

And that means you need a car that has both the boot and legroom to accommodate all four or five of you, as well as the buggy you’re pushing the baby around in and the bag filled to the brim with baby food and snacks to keep everyone sitting in the back quietly. You’ll need a spacious boot to keep all your daily items in, and to have some blankets and a first aid kit always on hand as well. But the bigger cars that suit these purposes have big engines, and those can be very expensive to try and run.

And not only that, but the best of the best bigger engine cars on the market also tend to have more expensive insurance policies to cover them. That’s another considerable expense to factor into your budget, which makes the idea of one day buying a new car (or paying off your current one) a bit of a pipe dream.

How Much is the Insurance?

Insurance is something that can get very pricey, and it seems the rates of each policy you’ve ever had to your name where subject to random whim. Of course, insurance companies can never change the prices you have to pay without notifying you first, but you’ve had a few of those letters through the post before.

Premiums can go up and down all the time, and you’re never sure if it’d be right to change to another company like One Sure Insurance, or if it’d be best to stay put and bear it. You need the car you have to stay in operation, but at an average rate of almost £500 a year for a small to average-sized car, accommodating your vehicle can get very pricey.

You can cut and slash your insurance policies according to your needs, sure, but that doesn’t change the shocking base rates out there. There’s a lot of factors that go into determining these, but that doesn’t change the fact that a lot of families can’t afford these prices.

Your family car might cost more money than it’s worth, so make sure you’re aware of the common money issues.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.