What’s a great car for empty nesters?

People literally spend decades driving around in small, mid-size or large passenger cars or SUVs that deliver family-friendly practicality.

And buying these same family-friendly cars becomes habitual for some, long after rear seat cup holders and ISOFIX anchorage points ceased to be a purchasing prerequisite.

You don’t need a Hyundai Palisade or a Volkswagen Multivan if all your kids have grown and either left home or drive a car of their own.

In practical terms, you can opt for the full mid-life crisis syndrome – but do bring your partner along to share the change of lifestyle. So let’s start with that…

Hopefully, in between the last of the kids leaving home and arthritis setting in, you can enjoy the thrill of a two-door car, maybe a convertible – and possibly two seats only.

If you anticipate your kids will have their own progeny, and that you will need to pick up the newest members of the family from school or take them to an occasional play date, a Mazda MX-5 is probably not the right car for you.

On the other hand, as a second car that’s only dragged out for weekend drives it will be more than adequate.

And if the grandkids are pretty small, they could probably fit in the back of a Ford Mustang. Taller kids will probably cope with a Mustang convertible if you only drive them places with the top down.

In Australia, there are essentially two eras of Mustang to consider: pre-1970 and post-2005. Don’t worry too much about the stuff in between, and especially not the Mustang II from 1974. The very early and very recent Mustangs are – how should one say it? – not cheap. You’ll be looking at a minimum of $30,000 either way.

The MX-5 is an altogether more affordable option, but the cheapies will be high-kilometre examples. That said, if this purchase is a tinkerer’s project car as much as an actual means of enjoying the drive, the much-travelled MX-5 could be a viable option.

You may have been a white-collar office slave for your entire working life, where putting the kids through school and paying off the mortgage has limited you to a mid-spec Toyota Camry, Mazda6 or Hyundai Sonata.

So now it’s time to lash out; go visit all those places you’d only previously seen in nature documentaries.

The obvious choice is a dual-cab ute – the preferred type is usually a 4x4.

Currently, the favourite are carsales’ best 4x4 dual-cab ute for 2021, the Ford Ranger, but others to consider include the Mitsubishi Triton and the Isuzu D-MAX.

These are all models that come with diesel power to tow a van, sometimes an off-road type, to a location where you can set up camp, cook a nice dinner and enjoy the views as the sun sets over a rugged escarpment with a stream flowing past its base.

Of course, if there’s just yourself and your partner travelling around the country, you don’t necessarily need a dual-cab ute. An extended-cab utility (with jump seats for grandchildren) could suffice, or you could even opt for a single-cab ute that could carry a couple of trailbikes as well as tow a van.

In the event you’re not a hard-core adventurer, a 4x2 utility or a soft-road SUV could meet your needs also.

Some travellers will prefer motorhomes or campervans. In the case of the latter, these are commercial vans that have been modified with accommodation fixtures fitted.

Motorhomes are larger vehicles that are based on a light truck cab-chassis, with bespoke body work fitted to accommodate sleeping berths, kitchen/dining and ablutions.

Many motorhomes are designed to be driven on a standard licence but the biggest will require a Heavy Rigid endorsement at least.

Campervans are usually fine for just two people travelling around the country. If the driver is accustomed to driving a van, the campervan will present no problems for ease of use. But they are a little limited.

Motorhomes provide much more room to move for sleeping more than two or inviting fellow campers in for a meal. They’re a lot more luxurious, but also larger to manoeuvre in urban settings.

It’s rare for motorhomes to be 4x4s, so some owners flat-tow a small four-wheel drive behind the motorhome for visiting more remote locations.

Some of these small four-wheel drives are older SUVs such as the previous-generation Suzuki Vitara, which can be hooked up to the motorhome with a special A-frame that steers the wheels of the towed vehicle – thus obviating the need for a car trailer. By necessity, these vehicles are manuals.

Campervans can be affordable but even older ones won’t give you much change out of $10,000. For motorhomes, you can substantially increase the starting price. Our colleagues at caravancampingsales can give you more information.

Let’s say for the sake of the argument that you’re not a motoring enthusiast, and nor is your partner.

Now, after decades of living in the outer suburbs, driving a people-mover, transporting not only the kids but also their friends, and perhaps grandparents on occasion, you’re not only free of parental responsibilities and duties, you’re also in a position to sell the outer-urban McMansion and move into a townhouse with a pleasant aspect overlooking inner-city parkland.

You’re working from home and you’re a stone’s throw from bohemian cafes, cinemas and live music venues with a licence to serve alcohol (post-lockdown, of course!).

All you want to do is downsize. You don’t even need a car, really…

Realistically, you will need something compact to negotiate alleyways and supermarket car parks for the occasional shopping excursion. And as small as that vehicle may be, it still needs to be sensible for the odd trip into the outer suburbs and comfortable in the country for an annual holiday.

Most light cars are suited to this role, but you may also consider small SUVs.

What you want for practical purposes could even be something very much like the carsales Best Small SUV for 2021, the Hyundai Kona, or the Kia Stonic or Toyota Yaris Cross – three very similar vehicles that are a little bit SUV, a little bit light hatch.

With the kids off your hands, you should be able to scrape together a budget of $30,000 (plus a bit more for on-road costs) to get into a better example of these three SUVs.

Perhaps the budget extends further and you can afford something with a prestige badge, like the Audi A1 or a MINI Cooper. A little bit flash, but both still usefully practical.

Your kids take long showers; they leave doors wide open on chilly days when the gas heating is already working overtime; they don’t recycle; their rooms look like landfill; and they’ll run the clothes dryer continuously rather than hang clothes out on the line – assuming they wash their own clothes in the first place.

Yet you’ll buy an eco-friendly small car out of concern for the future of those same kids – and their kids too. What do you choose?

It depends on budget and how far you’ll travel in a typical week.

If you reckon that anything under 6.0L/100km is contributing at least your fair share to climate change action (and in the current ‘climate’ that’s probably right), then a conventional petrol-electric hybrid from Toyota is probably the go.

Known name, reliability and low cost of ownership, plus reasonable comfort and safety.

A Toyota Corolla Hybrid will practically pay for its modest hybrid versus conventional price premium within 12 months, depending how far you’ll drive in that period.

If you don’t want to give up your off-road weekends just because you want to do better by the planet, Toyota will sell you hybrid SUVs like the RAV4, Kluger and (eventually) the 300 Series LandCruiser.

If you’re a darker shade of green, you might consider a plug-in hybrid. Want some prestige to go with that too? How about a Mercedes-Benz C 350, a GLC equivalent or a BMW 330e?

If those are too expensive, the Hyundai IONIQ plug-in hybrid or a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is potentially your cup of tea.

Finally, there’s the battery-electric choice.

The MG ZS EV is relatively affordable but if you do need extra range, the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro Sport are better choices. And for not a huge price premium over the Koreans, you can have your electric SUV with a prestige badge, in the case of the Mercedes-Benz EQA 250.

Perhaps you prefer an EV that’s a passenger car, rather than an SUV. That brings up the Hyundai IONIQ again, plus the Nissan LEAF. The latter is available as a longer range LEAF e+, with battery capacity in the same ballpark as the Kona and the Niro.

Finally, there’s the ultimate electric passenger car for under $70,000 – the Tesla Model 3, which has won carsales’ Best Electric Car for 2021 and starts with the Standard Range Plus variant for less than $60K.

All it takes to enjoy motoring in the post-parental period is a bit of blue-sky thinking…

How will you use your car now that the kids have left home?
• Are you working to a set budget for the purchase of a car?
• Will the car sit in the garage during the week, or will it be a commuter?
• Do you already own more than one car?
• Can you afford a sports car or GT for weekend touring or track days?
• Do you want a diesel dual-cab ute to tow a caravan to remote holiday locations?
• Will a light or small passenger car or SUV suit your purposes better?
• How about a low-emissions or zero-emissions car for environmental reasons?