I'm in Europe, looking for family car and have no idea what to look for, as cars are far from my thing.
I'll start with a bit of info. We don't drive that much, most often just short rides in town (like groceries, kids to school, etc.) or short drives to nearby towns (10-15km). Longer distances about once a month (50+ km). Slughtly bigger car is a preference as we usually have stuff to carry in boot. Currently we have old Ford Mondeo turnier from 2003 and due to its engine problems it needs to be replaced. I have around 15k € budget, so will be looking at used market cars.
Because of intended use I scratched out all diesel offerings. Right? Leaving me with either gasoline or hybrid options. Full EV are probably no go due to price. I've picked a few possible cars from local/nearby sellers and would really appreciate your input on them (or alternatives I should be looking at).
Ford Focus wagon from 2019. Has 1.0 ecoboost engine (92 kW / 125 hp), has some nice equipment options like auto AC, heated seats, steering wheel and front screen. It has a mileage of just about 90k km (60k miles). It's priced slightly under 13k €.
Toyota Auris sports wagon hybrid, from 2018. It's typical Toyota prius-like hybrid with 1.8 liter engine and electric motor. Not plug-in hybrid. Mileage of around 150k km (100k miles). It's slightly less equipped than the Focus (and it doesn't support android auto or carplay) and is priced around 15k €.
2019 Kia Cee'd wagon. It is probably the simplest car in this list - it has 1.4 liter engine without direct injection and without turbo (73 kW) - does it mean less things to break? Other equipment is pretty good though (parking camera, heated seats and wheel, ...), it has mileage if just 40k km (25k miles) and it should still be in factory warranty till 2026. Priced at 12.5k €.
There's also VW Passat variant 2016 plug-in hybrid. It's decent condition, although it has over 210k km (like 140k miles). I don't have option to recharge at home (flat), but there are 2 or 3 public stations in walk distance. Priced at roughly 16k € it's slightly over my intended budget, but it's a bigger more comfortable car and has plenty of optional features (like parking camera, driving assistants, full led lights, etc.).
And there's about another gazzillion of cars and my brain hurts... Would you please help me decide?
If you can't charge at home, don't get a phev.
For our family, we once had a Citroën grand c4 Picasso and loved it - just got rid of it to switch to a BEV, but other than that had no issues with it.
For a family that doesn't drive much but needs space if it does, what about high roof station wagons? Citroën Berlingo, VW Caddy, stuff like that?
Not necessarily. Depends on how big your family is and how much space you need in your car. For your budget, you could get a used electric VW golf, Kia soul or Nissan leaf, which are all compact cars but might still be okay for a family of three or four. I even just found an electric Renault kangoo with 5 seats for about 10k at https://m.mobile.de/auto-inserat/renault-kangoo-z-e-maxi-lang-5-sitzer-inkl-batterie-garbsen-bei-hannover/367923883.html?searchId=039c99f4-0879-cacf-50e7-d320b4ad6cc9&ref=srp&type=ad . Electric cars might offer you better durability for those short trips, which obviously are no problem for them, while even gas cars tend to need a longer trip every now and then (and diesel obviously even more). You won't get much range for that budget though - for what your said you'd need, it'd work though.
If you're in Europe, consider European brands a little more. Parts can be an issue for oversea brands. Usual spare parts are mostly available, but if something fancy needs to be ordered from Korea or the US, it might take some time. Every European brand offers station wagons and vans, there's too much to list them all, and honestly, established brands don't build objectively bad cars anymore... You might always have bad luck or better luck, but in the end you should be fine with any of them. Just don't buy diesel or phev with your profile.
Isn't uncharged PHEV basically just a regular HEV, like what Toyota does? With a bit more weight to it, sure. But as I said, there are chargers nearby enough (I'm saying that knowing I'll probably still be to lazy to get there often enough).
My brother has exactly C4 Grand Picasso. It's nice (apart from terrible driver user experience - I really dislike everything crammed to the middle), spacious, but given his experience... well, maybe he just had a bad luck. His car needs a service way more often than it should.
Exactly Barlingo or Caddy was my initial thought, but when I presented this idea to my wife I ... let's just say it's not an option anymore 🤣 No idea why, but she really hates this design for some reason.
Will check the "cheap EV" options.