If you plan to get a car reluctantly and as an aid to mobility, IE not for the driving experience per se, I'd go as cheap as poss and get one of those Citroen, Peugeot, Toyota 1 litre 3 pot jobbies.
I'm 6'5", 20 stone, and not easily flexible/mobile at the hip as a normal person so I don't think that will fit the bill for me, although they are great little cars. I definitely view a car as a tool, white goods, and as long as its not an utter dog to drive I couldn't care less.
Needs to be a small estate - Labrador, Wife's wheelchair, and a brace of basses and a 4 x 12 cab make certain demands that a city hatch can't meet.
I prefer autos too, but it's my right hip that is nacked so a manual is fine really - dont like DSG or MMT boxes, so a manual or a proper slush it needs to be, and the latter needs a reasonably beefy engine to drive it or theyre hideous, and seeing as Im after a smallish car thats not likely to have a big mill itll probably be a manual.
Would not own a VW, what with me being Jewish and all, but other than that have no idealogical objections to other brands.
Don't want to spend much, say £10k. Any more is frivolous for someone that doesn't really like cars, much less brings its own potential issues.
The Skoda Labia estate would be exactly the type of thing, and estates that is small. Sadly its a VW group product. Looking about small SUVs seem more common than small estates and I guess do a similar job, although I'm not enamoured with lifestyle cars or SUV labels being slapped on slightly pumped up hatchbacks. Still, with the dearth of genuinely small estates (Google seems to think an Audi A4 Avant is a small estate) I would grudgingly expand my search to small SUVs, which if we are honest are largely small estates that have been ponced around a bit in the name of impressing the gullible.
And yes I have 2 ebikes but when I'm having a bad day I'm getting beyond even those now. NHS aren't keen to replace the hip until as late as possible as they do wear out and they try to avoid replacing them again later in life if possible, but I'm 55 tomorrow and in a lot of pain, it's affecting my mobility, and I am a carer so I'm hoping they'll relent and do it sooner.
