Which people carrier to buy/avoid for around £4-5k

JimmyTheWig

Hi,

We're looking to replace our VW Sharan (S reg). It's got to the point where we're spending out too much on repairs.
Need another people carrier as we've got 4 children.

We've got about £5000 to spend, though it would be nice if it came in under this. (If push came to shove we could probably go to £6k if that really made the difference.)

Would much rather buy from a reputable dealer than private, though I understand that we'd be paying more this way. But at least there's some comeback with a dealer if it all goes wrong.

We've been perfectly happy with the Sharan, so would be happy to have another one or go for the Galaxy or Alhambra (sp?). We could, presumably, keep our existing integrated seats if we got one of those, which would be handy. But aren't really fussed. We've been looking online at the Zafira and the Grand Scenic, both of which look good.

Is there anything anyone would suggest?
Anything anyone would warn us away from?
Anything to watch out for when we go looking?


Thanks,

Jim

Arfa__

Many of the Chrysler's don't have a great safety rep, especially their right hand drive models which fair worse than their left hand models... Here's some NCAP results for the Voyager: http://www.euroncap.com/results/chrysler/voyager.aspx Not great. Not sure how the Grand Scenic fairs, so do research it well.
Where as the Sharan, Zafira and Galaxy's do much better, especially the later Zafira B (2005+) and Galaxy:
http://www.euroncap.com/results/vw/sharan.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/results/ford/galaxy.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/results/opel_vauxhall/zafira.aspx

funkycoldribena

Had a Galaxy for a couple of years now,nothing gone wrong and like the fact the rearmost seats are proper seats not fold-ups.Wouldnt touch the scenic and I just think the Zafiras rear seats are too near the rear end window.

Arfa__

Also, with four kids, are they still in child/booster seats? The Zafira's are narrower than the Galaxy and Sharan, you're unlikely to get 3 kids seats side by side on the middle row. So you'll probably end up with two on middle seat and two on pop up seats in boot. Access to the boot seats isn't great, they're too close together to squeeze between them, coming in from boot. So you'll have to clamber over the middle seat with either the middle or end bit folded down. Its OK for the odd occasion, but wouldn't fancy it for everyday. Also with the boot seats up, there's very little boot space left, 3-4 bags of shopping tops.

JimmyTheWig

funkycoldribena wrote: »

Wouldnt touch the scenic

What's wrong with it?

Arfa__ wrote: »

Also, with four kids, are they still in child/booster seats? The Zafira's are narrower than the Galaxy and Sharan, you're unlikely to get 3 kids seats side by side on the middle row. So you'll probably end up with two on middle seat and two on pop up seats in boot. Access to the boot seats isn't great, they're too close together to squeeze between them, coming in from boot. So you'll have to clamber over the middle seat with either the middle or end bit folded down. Its OK for the odd occasion, but wouldn't fancy it for everyday. Also with the boot seats up, there's very little boot space left, 3-4 bags of shopping tops.

Yes, our eldest is 7.
Generally at the moment it's the centre seat that we don't use, so that doesn't sound too bad. But I don't like the idea of a _smaller_ boot. There's only just enough room to get the buggy in the back of the Sharan if we take a wheel off.

davidjwest

We've had a Renault Grand Scenic 7 seater for the past few years and would avoid them in future.

For example - electronic hand brake failed, was told the whole unit needed replacing at a cost of £550. We were told this by several different garages so it appears to be true.

Cyclinder head gasket is leaking oil, the car is only 5 years old on 50k miles, not impressed, even my Rover managed to get to 110k before the head gasket went!

:rotfl:

To be fair the car has never broken down, but it costs £300-£1,000 every year to get it through the MOT!

There are other issues I can list if anyone is really interested enough......

Probably looking to replace it with a Ford Galaxy as we need something a bit bigger now the kids are getting older, haven't paid the finance off on the blighter yet though!

Jesswithwings

We've just traded our Citroen grand picasso for a Chrysler G.V although I'm in a flap now I've read the first post :doh:but for us it was the most affordable option at this time. I didnt like the electronic hand break of the Citroen - it made me very nervous on hills. The voyager is very spacious and has a large boot space (well, large for a people carrier!) but if its not safe then there's not a lot of point to that :think:

bigjl

Addison Lee are getting rid of the last of their 08 plate Sharons at the moment.

All 115pd with autobox, don't buy one that hasn't had the box reconditioned.

They are high miles but only three years old.

More importantly from what I have been told they all have two integrated child seats.

They may have cosmetic scuffs here and there due to the usage, and the drivers seat in the higher mileage one may show somw wear.

But they have priced some up for mid £5000 mark, the most expensive I saw was £6100.

They are in London though, but have a website, addleecarsales.

I must admit that I am biased towards the Galaxy/Sharon/Alhambra
they are a good value fairly large but economical family bus.

I have used Zafiras at work for several years now and the diesels are unreliable pigs, pity as for normal family motoring they drive well and other than egr and dpf issues (dpf issues can and do cause engine failure) the vehicle is robust.

If you do lowish miles then a petrol one is to be recommended.

I am going to look at a 2.2 auto at CarGiant next week, I would buy it with the intention of converting to LPG and the engine has a camchain rather than a belt to less hastle.

There are a lot of ex motabilty MPV's at British Car Auctions at the moment, these are a reltively safe buy, but as always don't bid too high.

I have seen 08plate Grand Scenic go for under £3500 recently, not as big as a Galaxy though.

davidjwest

How old are the children OP?

The Renault Grand Scenic boot seats are only designed for children up to around the age of 8, although I did manage to squeeze myself into one for a short journey and I am 6' 1" but it wasn't comfy lol

The Ford Galaxy boot seats are full sized seats so will accommodate any age and access is better although still not brilliant.

k4kate

I can highly recommend the Toyota people carriers - they seem to be built to go on forever and never seem to have any expensive issues from my experience.

We've owned an old H reg Toyota Previa which was a massive 8 seater with back seats that fold up against the sides to give loads of storage space. It was tatty round the edges but completely reliable - we even moved house in it. Still, you probably want something a bit more modern than this and I can't comment on the more modern UK Previas. Only negative was that it was a 2.4 automatic petrol guzzler so we now have...

A Toyota Lucida Japanese import. These are based on the Previa but being for the Japanese market they are are slightly narrower, diesel engined and come with air con as standard. For a slightly older car (ours is an M reg but you can get newer ones) they are very modern looking and have a suprisingly high level of extras - electric moon roof, curtains, captains seats, folding rear seats, separate air con for front and back, cup holders galore etc etc. It's an auto box and really easy to drive and takes anything we throw at it.

We are only thinking of getting rid of ours as it is a third car and we need to rationalise our car ownership. This isn't a for sale ad by the way - we haven't decided yet

Anyhow, these will be well below your top budget. We paid about £4k for our import as a fresh import with low mileage but that was 2-3 years ago and prices have come down a lot. A vehicle that has been in the UK for longer will be even cheaper - anything from around £1k.

HTH

hartcjhart

Jesswithwings wrote: »

We've just traded our Citroen grand picasso for a Chrysler G.V although I'm in a flap now I've read the first post :doh:but for us it was the most affordable option at this time. I didnt like the electronic hand break of the Citroen - it made me very nervous on hills. The voyager is very spacious and has a large boot space (well, large for a people carrier!) but if its not safe then there's not a lot of point to that :think:

do you intend to go round smashing into walls and other vehicles?

euro ncap is fine BUT the accidents staged are worse case scenarios

we have 2 GVs