Baby On The Way? You Still Don't Have To Buy Something Boring

Somebody wrote in to Jalopnik with a problem I've watched a hundred guys go through. Wife's pregnant. She's getting the crossover. His manual Mazda3 is going away because she doesn't drive stick and both cars need to work for both people. Budget's thirty grand, it's got to be an automatic, and it's the car that'll do the long family hauls. Good news is he's keeping an old Miata for when he wants to have fun.

Their panel came back with an Audi A5 Sportback, a Kia Stinger GT, and an Acura TLX Type S. All defensible. Go read their picks here, opens in a new tab.

Now here's mine, because I've got opinions and nobody asked.

Rule one: keep the Miata

He already got this right, but I want to put a stake in it, because I've watched too many guys sell the fun car the week the kid shows up and then spend the next decade sore about it.

Don't do it. A cheap Miata sitting in the garage is the reason you'll stay sane. It's not the expensive part of having a baby. Not even close.

The pick: Kia Stinger GT

Their guy Collin called it and he's right. Twin-turbo V6, 368 horsepower, 376 lb-ft, rear-wheel drive, under five seconds to sixty. And it's a liftback, so the hatch swallows a stroller and a Pack 'n Play without you playing Tetris in a parking lot.

Rear-drive four-door with a real motor and a hatch, in your budget, that you can still get parts for without taking out a loan. That combination barely exists anymore. Kia stopped building them, which means the used ones are only going one direction on price.

Two more nobody mentioned

Genesis G70 3.3T. Same drivetrain as the Stinger, same bones, usually a few thousand cheaper because the badge doesn't have the same name recognition yet. Trunk instead of a hatch, so less room, but the interior is a step up and it drives tighter. If you don't need to haul much, this is the smarter buy.

Dodge Charger R/T. Blue-collar answer and I'm not apologizing for it. A used one with the 5.7 sits well under thirty grand, seats a family, has a trunk you could sleep in, and makes a noise your kid will remember. Parts are everywhere and every shop in America knows how to work on it. It's not as sharp as the Kia. It's a Hemi. Some days that's the whole argument.

What I'd skip

The used German luxury car at the top of your budget. Yes, the A5 is a good car. But a thirty-thousand-dollar Audi still has forty-thousand-dollar repair bills waiting on it, and you're about to have a lot less spare cash and a lot less spare time. When the money's tight, buy the car that's cheap to fix, not the one that's nice to own.

That's the whole trick to a family car. Not size. Not cupholders. What it costs you the day it breaks.

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