With COVID-19 ravaging the world and people opting to stay within their home country for their holidays, it’s worth looking into what the best family cars are when it comes to the safety and comfort of road trips. Some family cars can be pricy due to their size, but there are affordable alternatives such as car leasing that can push your monthly outgoings down. Many brands like SEAT and Skoda are cheaper compared to others too. With money being an issue for many during the pandemic, cheaper but safe cars are always worth looking into. Here are our 5 top family cars for road trips and longer journeys:
SEAT Tarraco
The SEAT Tarraco is a refined large size SUV with plenty of space inside. Featuring all the latest safety features such as a reversing camera for easy manoeuvring, lane assist to keep you from drifting and tyre pressure monitoring systems. When it comes to the best family cars for road trips, there is a huge amount of space within the interior and the boot can fit several cases of luggage which means you’ll never have an issue fitting all your holiday luggage in.
What makes the car even better is how responsive and agile it feels to drive. This is always a worry with an SUV as they can feel a bit heavy when steering but the Tarraco is impressively stable. Much to the happiness of your passengers who would prefer not to be knocked around on longer journeys! It’s moderately priced too which also helps to make it one best family cars for road trips.
Skoda Kodiaq
Skoda has always been a cheaper option brand on the car market, however, just because they are cheaper doesn’t mean they aren’t high-quality cars. The Skoda Kodiaq is a modern SUV with a more basic interior when it comes to build materials. It doesn’t skimp out on safety features though and contains all the usual SUV functions such as cruise control, sat nav, Bluetooth and enhanced child locks.
If you want extras such as the reversing camera, lane assistance, blind-spot detection and parking assist, you’ll have to shell out extra for the higher-spec models. But thankfully the bog-standard models are safe and affordable for families. Being an SUV there is plenty of space inside and like the SEAT Tarraco you have lots of boot space which helps it make the grade as being one of the best family cars for road trips
Volkswagen Golf 8 Hatchback
The Volkswagen Golf range has been providing families with affordable, versatile and practical transport since their inception. The Golf 8 which was recently released in 2020 is a highly afford hatchback with plenty of space within the interior given its overall size. Unlike the previous two cars we’ve mentioned, the Golf 8 isn’t an SUV and this has less space. But don’t be put off by that. It has an earnest 380-litres of space which is enough to fit a couple of luggage cases and the seats are highly comfortable, so it still hits the mark as one of the best family cars for road trips.
The Golf 8 is packed with hi-tech gizmos such as a sat-nav, rear view camera, a 10.25” touchscreen and heated windows and isn’t an expensive car to purchase. The cabin is built with high-quality materials and wind noise when travelling on the motorway at 70mph is extremely quiet. Easy enough for the kids to sleep in the back when they get up for those early morning trips!
Audi A3 Sportback
Anyone that sees the Audi badge instantly thinks of an expensive premium car. And they’re right about it being premium, but times have changed and some Audi models are very affordable now. The A3 Sportback is a hatchback that is slightly larger than the VW Golf 8, yet comes at the same price point. Audi cars are very hi-tech and are laden with safety and security features.
The A3 Sportback comes with front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, lane departure warning systems, and a voice-controlled sat nav. What’s even better is that is the Audi comes with a Pre-Sense system, which is a 360-degree camera system that can detect pedestrians and cyclists walking around the car, automatically stopping the car if it thinks it will hit them. The A3 Sportback isn’t expensive either. You’d be looking to pay anything from £150 per month to a maximum of £250 with the aforementioned car leasing deals method so definitely worth considering when sizing up family cars for road trips.
SEAT Ateca
Another cheap but fantastic SUV. The SEAT Ateca is a great family car and is raised high off the ground to give you (and the kids!) a better view of the road. It comes with all the usual safety tech such as a sat-nav, cruise control (great for long motorway journeys), a self-parking functionality, pedestrian protection and emergency braking assist. The Ateca comes with rear USB sockets so that your passengers can charge up and use their devices on the go.
A cool feature of the SEAT Ateca is the ‘Tiredness Recognition System’ which can detect if you’re nodding off or are unable to stay in your lane due to fatigue. It will then warn you to stop the car where possible and take a break periodically. As the Ateca is an SUV there is a lot of boot space and the seats are made out of a very comfortable material. Meaning the longer journeys have less impact on your back and legs. You also have lumbar support in the driver’s seat to keep the driver in an upright position instead of slouching.
We hope you found this list of family cars for road trips useful. If there any others you would add to this list, please do let us know in a comment below.
