I wanna: car to seat up to 7

optique

The Fiat Doblo seven-seater would definitely win out on the price and practicality stakes over the MPVs mentioned... loses out on luxury & looks... worth investigating though.

funky-footprints

rdwarr wrote:

Remember you may need to seat seven plus luggage! That plows the Galaxy family out of the window and really leaves only a few MPVs in the frame. These are:
Renault Grand Espace
Chrysler Grand Voyager
Toyota Previa
Toyota Estima (Import)
Mitusibishi Delica (Import)

Of the above I'd dismiss the Renault on the grounds of reliability and the Chrysler on the grounds of safety (only car ever to get 0% in a crash test :eek:).

I believe the chrysler failed the road safety test because of the condition of the the other vehicle? however i know that the newer model has come a lot higher in recent tests.

The new Chrysler Grand Voyager won the Best Large MPV category at the prestigious What Car? Car of the Year Awards. (2005)

You say you are girly ..me too ..that how i ended up choosing ... seeing as i have to drive it 24/7. ..have you sat in any of the other options .. I did just that and that was why i picked the chrysler ........ the seats in the renault were itchy and a horrible material and the ford galaxy gave the impression that the handle was going to come of the door when i closed it. The quality of the interior on the chrylser won hands down. (Im a sucker for the power doors too !!! lol !!)

good luck hunting it took me 8 months to decide after realising my estate wasnt big enough !

just defending my car thats all !!! lol !!

Rachie_B

anyone got any comments on the Renault Grand Scenic or VW Touran ?

we are looking to purchase a 7 seater sometime in the early part of next year,
I am registering as a childminder and also need something to pull a caravan

most 7 seaters ive seen are ugly lol my fave from looks only is the grand scenic at the moment,hubby likes the grand voyager bit its mahooooosive !!!!!
i quite liked the verso but hub hates it !

we havent test driven any just yet,but would appreciate your comments good or bad lol

Also stupid Q alert lol - I currently drive an Audi A4,whats it like going from that size car to a 7 seater ? hubby reckons its easy as you are just higher up but not too much more in length ?!!

tanith

Hubby is right about the upgrade to a bigger car Rachie, I keep telling my daughter the same thing.. she drives a corsa and I have a zafira and being in higher driving position makes your all round vision much better and I found going from a corsa (it was mine to start with) to the zafira was very stressfree and I hardly noticed the difference...
Sorry can't answer your other questions....

Rachie_B

tanith wrote:

Hubby is right about the upgrade to a bigger car Rachie, I keep telling my daughter the same thing.. she drives a corsa and I have a zafira and being in higher driving position makes your all round vision much better and I found going from a corsa (it was mine to start with) to the zafira was very stressfree and I hardly noticed the difference...
Sorry can't answer your other questions....

:beer: tanith

i learned to drive in a corsa so was a big leap to the A4,took a lil while to get used to it but im sure i will be fine she says lol

funky-footprints

Rachie B. I learned in a Golf, then on passing Dh bought me a Merc A class. with number 2 on the way he bought a chrysler Grand voyager hoping we would swap ..but it terrified me. no way !!!!!!!

So I changed my Merc for an Audi A4 Avant (is that your model ? ?) .. which i adored !!!! (it was the estate) and he sold his chrysler and bought an Audi cabroliet !! lol !!! but after after 4 weeks of school term and me ferrying kids to football, swimming and gym, and now with number 3 on the way .... I crumbled and swapped my A4 for a chrysler voyager ...the grand still scares me a bit, but parking sensors soooo help !!! its lovely being high up again ...the merc A class is high up. your dh is right ! it took a while to adapt to driving the A4, but I soon managed and its about the same length as the voyager. I think it was honestly all in my head !!! just dont ask me to reverse park ..lol !!!

I did test drive the renault grand scenic, but after after driving an Audi it doesnt come close in quality. cant comment on the touran. sit in the chyrsler and you will fall in love !!

My neighbour had a brand new zafira for 06 plate and she hates it ..she has 2 teenage children, and one younger in primary, and there is no space in the back for them ...the kids continually squabble over lack of space.

good luck !!

tanith

Thats strange about the Zafira as I have a 54 plate and often carry my grown up grands in it and they love it especially the cubby holes for drinks and arm rests, they have plenty of space....most of them take up the space of an adult....

StockportGerbil

Hi!
My Mrs had her car (an aged Vectra) written off a month or so ago. The insurance company provided her a brand new Zafira until the claim is settled and now (horror of horrors) my Mrs wants a Zafira.

I notice the things keep their value something chronic. My Mrs also only has an automatic licence. The budget realistically is £4500 at most and for that I'd expect the car to keep going for 5+ years.

I've found an 03 Zafira 1.8 petrol auto for £4500 but it has 100000 miles on the clock. The implication is it's been doing 30000 miles per year so far - will the engine / gear box be worn out? How long do they realistically last?

Is there anything else we could / should look at for the price? Thanks

Kevin

BernadetteN

We have a VW Touran and sometimes I feel like I am a spokesperson for VW as we love this car. We are a family of 2 adults and 4 children aged 10,8,4 and 1. I am also a registered childminder so the car is often full of 7 bodies.

We chose the Touran 1.9D 90BHP (base model diesel) because :

1 it only cost 11.5k new through an internet car broker so was the cheapest small MPV bought new that we could find, beating the Zafira, Corollo Verso and Grand Scenic and now the Mazda 5 and S-Max too
2 it is THE safest of all classes of MPVs in NCAP ratings for passengers (5 star) and pedestrians (3 star) and contains loads of air bags and EBD as standard
3 it does 60 mpg as a 1.9l diesel - it makes fuel cheap and I never really understand why anyone goes for the large engines above 2 litres unless they are going to pull a caravan regularly as our car can easily get over 80mph with 7 bodies inside so why would we need a bigger engine?
4 it is a lower insurance group than all the large MPVs and 4*4s and costs us £250 a year fully comp with legal protection and business use
5 it has a very good predicted resale vaule and low depreciation compared to its competitors - I can only really see the S-Max as a challenger on that
6 it is a compact MPV - this is important to us as a family that we get a car that gets us from A to B with the least environmental impact, as well as in comfort and safety - the large MPVs would get us there too at a higher environmental cost and only a tiny bit more comfort. We still manage to fit all 6 of us in the car with 2 large holdalls in the space where the unused seat is and an umbrella fold buggy in the boot. If space really was an issue, for the odd occasion where we need to take with us a kitchen sink, we would use our roof box - a lesser environmental cost for the few times it is used in this way against having a large MPV with loads of unused space for the rest of the time.
7 for lesser reasons like having 7 individual seats which makes access to the rear seats easier than on the Zafira. Also there is the air conditioning that comes as standard and cruise control too.

At the time we bought our car in March 2005, we found only 1 car which challenged the 11.5k price tag of the Touran and that was the Fiat Doblo diesel 7 seater. It unfortunately had less safety features in the base model and also the back 2 seats do not divide into 2 individual seats - this was crucial to us as it meant we would never be able to fit our luggage in the car and all 6 of us and would always have to use the roof box, whereas on the Touran, so far we have managed to always fit our luggage in the empty seat space. We really liked the Fiat Doblo and think really savvy buyers go for this car.

mrs_T

Opinions please of new citroen c4 picasso? How will it compare price wise with touran/zafira?