Frugal 7 seater help

Madmel

I've had a Grand Scenic and you can fold the middle row of seats down or remove them altogether if you wish. The two seats in the boots which fold flat are really only suitable for children as has already been said. I used to get around 43 or 44 mpg out of the 1.9 DTi and did 84k miles in it.

In March I bought a brand new VW Touran. There were several reasons for swapping cars, including having to transport large musical instruments regularly and commuting 50+ miles each day. I decided to get the 1.9 Bluemotion diesel and I'm really pleased. On all driving, it has averaged 52 or 53 mpg and on a long motorway or dual carriageway trip, I can get 60+ from it. The instruments are easy to load and the seats are quite flexible. I took 6 sixth form pupils to visit a primary school and they all managed (but the smallest 2 sat in the third row). So far I've done 13.5k miles :eek: but I'm very happy with my choice.

bigjl

The only choice should be an old shape Galaxy Tdi, manual box as it is abit better on fuel, you will get 45mpg round town and 50+ on a run.

There is avery good reason why a lot of these are used for minicab/private hire work.

The only real issue is that you can't fold the third row of seats into the floor.

I know of several that have done 300k without any major problems.

But beware that you don't buy a clocked ex minicab/taxi.

I know of a company that had Renaults as company cars, a minicab co doing corporate account work in Central London.

They had Scenic, Espaces and a couple of Lagunas.

All diesel, and they kept them for just over a year, as they were expensive to service, expensive to repair and needed money spent on them at every service and also broke down a faitr few times, more than a few needed new turbos, one needed a new engine.

The 307 is well known in the trade for having electrical gremlins, though being a pug it will drive well and be comfy.

The Grand Scenic? Well the 1.5 dci engine is in my wifes Clio, and even in a more tuned version can't see it being a good idea for a 7 seater, you will have to drive it hard.

An Audi A6 with 7 seats, they hardly sold any so will be expensive and difficult to find.

Don't know your budget but you can get a half decent Galaxy from £2500 up.

The 115bhp engine is a PD engine, all that I have been in had a 6 speed gearbox, they are reliable and long lived, that would be my recommendation.

My sister had an Alhambra (Seat badged Galaxy basically) though with the 1.8T petrol lump as my brother in law couldn't resist, retired boy racer, they had it from new till the new one Galaxy came out and they got a diesel one of those, the only issue they had with the old one was fuel consumption and two of the coilpacks failed, as they do on all 1.8T VAG engines.

They have had the new Galaxy for best part of three years and it has never broken down or needed any repair work done.

One of my mates had a Galaxy TDi for 7 years, used it as a minicab, and to drive in from Kent every day when he got a management job at the minicab/courier co he worked at, he even rented it out to drivers when their cars broke down, he did god knows how many miles in it, the only major issue was a clutch and some driveshafts that he replaced due to the centre bearing wearing and causing some shuddering, but that was at almost 150k.
He only sold it as he finished his Black Cab Knowledge and now has a Blackcab, he bought a Subaru WRX for his wife.

The Galaxy got sold to a bloke that was going to use it on a council transport contract, so it still works for a living.

psarinuk

Ranger8, I think you are referring to Corolla Verso. Thanks but I am not a big fan of Toyota's styling and don't know much about their diesel engines. The 2.0L is high CO2 output though.

Madmel, VW touran is more of van like in looks and I can't get bluemotion (which I like in specs) in my price range. I would prefer the S-Max still for its sporty looks if I was to spend that much.. How was the reliability on your grand scenic?

bigji, thanks for such a detailed response. I like Galaxy as well, including the old shape but its quite big, so has high CO2 (band I) and low MPG.. I think I will test drive a few and see how I like it.. Cheers..

Ranger8

psarinuk wrote: »

Ranger8, I think you are referring to Corolla Verso. Thanks but I am not a big fan of Toyota's styling and don't know much about their diesel engines. The 2.0L is high CO2 output though.

I didn`t realise you were looking at an oldish 7 seater because the Toyota hasn`t been called Corolla Verso for a while now and emissions are very competitive.;)

Kilty_2

davidjwest wrote: »

4. The alarm has a tendancy to go off for no reason despite having been looked at by several different garages including Renault dealers.
.

Is that just randomly or when you open the doors?

My Laguna II loves setting it's alarm off when I get in the car :rotfl:

citykid5

what about a mercedes vaneo? a class people carrier.go for the 1.7cdi family,very cheap as thier often missed off wish lists