944 Convert

Our littl'un is now three and 15kg which means I can get a Z . . . we both work full time, my wife drops the boy at nursery, I pick him up . . . on those rare occassions when there are all three of us travelling together there's her Scoob or my £620 Ebay Punto (which is brilliant!). All I need now is the time to look properly for one . . .

It's to give me flexibility . . . my commute is a 20 mile (40 for six months this year) cross country 'A' road joy . . . nursery is about a mile from where we live . . if it's my turn to collect the boy and I run out of time to stick car in garage and collect bike or pushchair the ability to pop him in the car is useful. Fine in my Porsche (no airbag).

I have started looking for a 350 having decided to move up/down/sideways from my trusty 1987 944. Absolute budget is £10k, but I would really really really prefer to spend about £8k to leave something in the kitty for anything that crops up in major service, alloy refurbs, etc . Must have leather. Metallic blue or a solid colour favourite but can’t be too picky! P-r-e-s-u-m-a-b-l-y I am looking at a 276/296 bhp model in that budget? Any considerations regarding torque and power lower down the rev range? Specific question is car seats for a toddler – can passenger airbag be easily deactivated (the boy travels in the front of my 944 as child seats don’t fit in the back, and no airbag to worry about)?