Sorry for the 'what car shall I get thread?'.

I am getting sick and tired of my Ford Focus C-max 1.9TDCi. Upon starting the power assisted brakes sometimes fail, this goes away after 30 seconds, then its fine. Garage says it could be a number of things all costing a fortune. It looses power every so often and goes into limp home mode. But upon taking it to the garage it runs perfect with no faults. Now the missus just got into it and it flashed up 'power assist steering failure' it then proceeded to work perfectly. This is the car my missus drives our 1 year old son around in. It's starting to scare me.

I am thinking of moving it on. So I need a baby hauler, family car, similar sized to a focus Cmax which has isofix seats and I have around £2500 to spend. Any ideas?

[Edited on 11/12/14 by Irony]

Ford did a recall on Mondeo / S-MAX on a brake problem that sounds identical. Basically a valve needed replacing as when it was cold it could sieze up (or something). Was done free of charge at the main stealer. May be worth checking to see if you're covered.

Do not buy a Renault Scenic or Grand Scenic.

Your list of faults is tiny to what happened to ours over the years till we flogged it in disgust.

How about an early VW Touran?
( make sure its the seven seat model)
We have had a later 2006 1.9 TDI for the last five years and it has been an excellent family motor. Big boot with very versatile seating (can be totally removed if you want van like carrying capacity (the extra 2 seats fold away into the boot floor)
Good economy and reliability with lots of cubby holes and storage space. Air con, cruise control leccy windows etc.

I went for a 2006 kia sorento! It's been faultless so far other than a headlight bulb!
Very good all rounder and mpg not as bad as you may think.
I've just towed trailer and race car round Scottish highlands and averaged bang on 31mpg