I need a large family car but want to go against the flock and not buy another SUV. A 1970s classic car for large families could be just the ticket – you get a car that should be resistant to depreciation, easy and cheap to fix, but most importantly, very interesting.

Here you’ll find a motley list of eight cars covering everything from four-wheel drive people carriers, to boxy estates and off-roaders. These are the best 1970s classics for large families. 

Volkswagen T2 Syncro

If you need a ‘70s classic that’s good for large families, look no further than the Volkswagen T2 Syncro, a car dripping in off-road, hippy cool. Being the transport of choice for the Flower Power Movement of the ‘60-’70s gives the T2 cool that few cars can even dream of, and slapping on chunky tyres and a four-wheel drive system only makes it cooler. The Syncro is stunningly capable off-road with permanent four-wheel drive and an approach angle that makes a Land Rover 110 look like a Lamborghini, though the VW’s motor can bog down on hills and doesn’t live heavy loads – not great for a car built to carry more than seven people.

Volvo 240 estate

The 240 estate is everything an old Volvo load lugger should be – boxy in shape, bank vault safe and with mule-like resistance to move quickly. It’s wonderful. Unlike some of the cars on this list, there’s an abundance of Volvo 240s to choose from, which tells you all you need to know about how well they’re built. Doors close with a satisfying thud, and every one of the car’s controls feels indestructible. Okay, so it’s not exactly a Porsche in the cool stakes, but owning a Volvo does say at least one thing – “yes, I’m middle-aged, but I embrace it.”

Perhaps that’s why you would be unbothered by the Volvo’s stodgy handling and the fact that, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe the boot-mounted rear seats – which essentially turn your children into crumple zones – aren’t the safest.

Land Rover Series 3

The Land Rover Series 3 makes a great case for itself as a cool classic you can have for the price of something new and boring. Sure, you’ll have to put up with a car that drives like a tank, drinks fuel like a parched fish, and counts opening windows as a luxury. But, hey, who needs any of those things?

As at home on the farm as it is in front of a palace, the Series 3 Land Rover takes a back-to-basics approach to being unstoppable off-road, trading the off-road modes and low-profile tyres of modern SUVs for knobbly rubber and surprisingly low weight. There isn’t much that will stop this mountain goat of a car.

Ford LTD Country Squire

Back when we were messing about in estates like the Mini Clubman, over in the USA you could buy a car like the LTD Country Squire – a vehicle that loses just 2cm in length to a modern Rolls Royce Phantom. Vast doesn’t cover it, but needless to say the Squire had plenty of room for a row of rear-facing seats on the boot and boasted a ‘Magic Doorgate’, a tailgate that opened from the top, bottom or sideways.

The Country Squire packed a 350cu V8 engine, which you could upgrade to a 390 or 429 V8 with power peaking at 365PS (268kW), although new emissions legislations seen the Squire’s claws clipped back to a far less impressive 212PS (156kW).

Matra Rancho

We’ve not seen a car like the Matra Rancho since it went out of production in 1974. Maybe the Dacia Jogger best matches its back-to-basics approach, voluptuous cabin, and quasi-off-roader looks, but the Dacia is nowhere near the Rancho’s cool factor. The Rancho was built to take the rough, with some models boasting a winch, roof-mounted spare wheel and a limited-slip differential.

It’s easy to imagine the Rancho marauding the Sahara, but it should also be pretty good on the school run, thanks to having up to seven seats and loads of space. You get the raised ride demanded by the crossover set with a 1.4-litre engine that should be relatively cheap to run. But above all else, it’s just a very cool family car.

Ford Transit Supervan

Needing to make its practical van more sexy, Ford did what any self-respecting car manufacturer would do – strapping the underpinnings of its fastest model to the body of one of its slowest. So, in the case of the Supervan, under the unassuming body of an MK1 Ford Transit lurks the engine and drivetrain of a Ford GT40. The combination wasn’t just quick – Ford reckoned on 0-100mph in 21.6 seconds – it also looked cool with steamroller-sized slicks barely contained by the Supervan’s wheel arches.

Sadly, the Supervan wasn’t very practical with a V8 where you’d expect to find a load compartment, although you at least got three seats up front. Performance was another area of compromise with the Transit’s aerodynamics (or lack thereof), tagging the van to an estimated top speed of 168mph (the GT40 could do 200), although no one dared attempt it.

Mercedes W123 Estate

The Mercedes-Benz W123 estate was another car that wanted to turn your children into crumple zones thanks to a pair of rearward-facing seats in the boot. Not that your kids would have complained: what could be cooler than sitting backwards in a Mercedes estate?

There’s not much to complain about in the driver’s seat of the Mercedes, either. It has the feel of a car that could keep going for centuries, with high-tech gizmos and chintzy materials swapped for a delightfully simple dashboard that feels like it’s been chiselled from a slab of something very hard. The straight-six motor works best with the W123, with silky power that matches the car’s unflappable ride quality.