I wanna: car to seat up to 7

Spendless

We have a touran. The middle 3 seats are independant of each other so can be pushed back/forwards in any way you wish or taken out all together. We have taken the middle seat out of the middle row in order to put luggage there. The back 2 seats fold into the floor. We usually have car as 5 seater (we have 2 kids), but use as a 7 when my elderly nan travels with us. We also have a roof-box to give us extra luggage space as there isn't a great deal if you are using all 7 seats.

Frugal_Fox

Okay - looked at the Toyotas & Mitsubishi Delica, and sorry to anyone who drives them, but I won't be joining you!!!

Done some research and this is the current list of vehicles -
Mitsubishi Shogun,
Land Rover Discovery,
VW Sharan
Vauxhall Zafira
Peugeot 806
Mitsubishi Grandis
Ford Galaxy
Chrysler Grand Voyager
Citroen c8
Fiat Ulysse

We are not intending to buy brand new and would like to pay £7 - £13,000

Any views - good or bad on the above list, or others to suggest??

Thanks

paul_h

I'm not sure what the newer Citroen C8 / Fiat Ulysse / Peugeot 806 (they are all the same) are like, but I test drove a Citroen Synergie (the old model) years ago and although it was really nice, I found the seating position and legroom for the driver appalling - but I am quite tall. If they have corrected this problem, they would great, as they are an attractive MPV IMHO.

I have actually seen new Fiat Ulysses offered below £13000, but there are loads of nearly new C8s/Ulysses/807s/Galaxys/Alhambras in your price range. Sharans do tend to be a little dearer, for no reason I can see.

Check out https://www.autotrader.co.uk for some good new/nearly new deals - just do a search for cars 0-1 years old.

plane_boy2000

Anything 4X4 will cost you more to run, and generaly are a little less practicle than a true MPV. or what you are looking for I would dismiss the smaller MPVS like the zafira. Fiat Ulysse - its a fiat so dismiss that one. Chrysler grand voyager - friend has one but it drinks like oliver reed and is a little to big to be practical in car parks etc plus the last service has just cost them £700!!!!!. Peugeot 806 - is the same car as the citroen C8 only more expensive so by my reckoning that leaves us with sharan/galaxy/c8. I am biasd as I have a sharan, but a point to remember is that some Ford dealers are not to clever and the galaxy has VW mechanicals - I have been told of stories of people who take them in and ford cant fix them as they dont have the experience. In your budget I reckon if you shop around you could get a 1 year old example of any of these with balance of warranty

code-a-holic

I love my Sharan! Its a 2002 1.9tdi. And is so eceonmical! We live in the sticks and average 46.2 MPG. Last weekend on our trip to London (600 mile trip) it was 50.1MPG at one point!
We have a roof box for it which makes camping a breeze - still loads of room for kids to spreda out. We considered a Zafira but legroom in boot would be hopeless once kids are a bit bigger. The space in the sharan is fab - if you have little ones many (ours included) have built in child seats in the chairs which is a handy feature! We bought ours in Feb for £8K. Full marks for safety from me too....i cleverly locked the only set of keys and baby in the car and had to smash a window to get in.....hard to smash even the sledge hammer bounced off the glass! One expense i have found which i assume is the same for many MPV's is that thetyres are a bit pricer than normal - and i've had 2 blow outs since i've had it.....cant be my driving or the roads cos its never happened in any of my other cars!
Good luck with the hunt!

Spendless

We borrowed a zafira prior to buying the touran. The only thing I wasn't keen on in the zafira is that 2 of the middle seats are on the same frame so you have to move those 2 together, rather than independantly of each other.

On the subject on colour. Ours is a company car and we had enough money in the budget for either a 6 cd changer or metallic paint but not both. DH wanted the cd changer so choice of colour IIRC was white, black (dislike both), blue or red. He went for red. I'm used to it now but for a while it reminded me of the colour of Postmans pats van:o

Frugal_Fox

plane_boy2000 wrote:

... Fiat Ulysse - its a fiat so dismiss that one. ...

Whats wrong with Fiat??

I used to have a Punto - which I loved, and we currently have a Stilo Station Wagon - which again we love??

Whats wrong with Fiat?

Lagerlegs

we've had a kia sedona for the last 2 years and have been really pleased with it, theur 4 x 4's are great too

Cumbrian_Male

How about a Mercedes Vito Traveliner

BobToo

I think the Zafira is probably the one to go for as it's the most car-like. Big MPVs have more space but I'm not sure how useful it is. Only really big MPVs have any luggage space at all. I wouldn't be seen dead in a new shape Zafira though, that overhead storage the brats mention in the advert- it sticks out of the roof in a hideous Hoxton fin.

Things have certainly changed since I were a lad. I've seen 9 kids in a Renault 16, 8 in a Chrysler Alpine (that journey was also the first time I was in a car at over 100mph!) and something like 6 in a Mini van. People used to buy estate cars and hatchbacks specifically so they could carry kids in the boot.