People carrier for £1,000 to £1,500

Mr_Thrifty

I'm looking for a people carrier such as a Ford Galaxy for less than £1,500 or so.

Any tips or advice as to what I should look for?

Ideally I'd like something big and spacious with good fuel economy. If that's possible, LOL. Reliable too. Any suggestions, advice, tips?

blue_haddock

At that price buy on condition rather than age/mileage.

And dont buy an Espace.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

seat alhambra ford galaxy, toyota estima, mitsi spacestar, toyota emina lucida, mazda premecy take your pick?

Tobster86

Volkswagen Touran/Sharan. TDI if you want it to be economical.

Go German & you can't go wrong!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

touran????? OP has £1500 maximum, not £2300 minimum for a 2004 touran in decent condition and the TDI on them years have premature failures of plastic impeller water pumps too.

vw sharan i would gues is in the remit of the OP but same as galaxy and alhambra. the alhambra would be my choice with more toys and VW build.

Tobster86

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

vw sharan i would gues is in the remit of the OP but same as galaxy and alhambra. the alhambra would be my choice with more toys and VW build.

Good point, there were a bunch of Ford people carriers of that era that had Volkswagen TDI engines. I'd just hope they have better body work than the MK3 Mondeos, also of the same era.

bengalknights

Second the seat alhambra cheaper than the other two for same vehicle

oldtoolie

Honda Stream -- big and reliable ok on mpg.

s_b

i would be very wary buying at this end of the spectrum,
petrols will empty your pocket quicker than a chancer on london bridge
diesels unless you are lucky will be hand grenades with the pin out
see if you can find a genuine sale of one privately where they have a genuine reason for sale
a quick look on autotrader just brings up pages of garbage to a mug punter
i cant advise further other than take your time and check everything because parts are dear for all derivaties
as said do not buy reno

Tobster86

Does it definitely have to be a people carrier?

If it's 5 + 2 kids, there are 2001-2003ish Volvo V70s for that sort of money which have the option of seven seats, although the rear-facing seats in the back are unsuitable for adults. They're pretty solid cars.

If your budget was double you'd be well into ex police/ambulance ones which are much newer (very high mileage but well serviced, plus bodywork dings from being working vehicles).

Mr_Thrifty

Thanks for all the useful input and suggestions guys.

I like the ideal of the galaxy simply because of the size and practicality, although a V70 would be fine too. Interestingly, the seat alhambra looks virtually identical to the galaxy - are they made on the same production line or something? The Espace looks like a great car, but I would never buy a renault again as they seem to self-destruct after 100,000 miles (flimsy plastic, unreliable engines, etc). Fords on the other hand just never really seem to have any major problems like other brands do. And even when they do have problems, everyone knows where to get the parts and how to fix them. The VW and Toyotas look good and may be more robust but may be more expensive to run (parts/servicing)?

Any idea what kind of mpg those vehicles get? The 2.0 litre ones seem very underpowered (just 115bhp for a vehicle that size??) and I'm concerned that the 2.8/3.0 litre ones might be gas guzzlers particularly as I do many very short journeys (like 6 journeys of less than 3 miles each per day). I saw a 4WD one which looked great but again, am concerned that would just reduce the fuel economy even further. Obviously I'm not going to drive the thing like a formula 1 car, but having had very slow cars in the past, there is nothing worse than having a car full of people and luggage and crawling up a steep hill while the engine screams away at 6,000rpm. Being able to effortlessly go about your journey without having to do a michael schumacher style 10 millisecond gear change on steep hills is a big benefit.

Finally, what do you think of LPG versions? Obviously, with LPG being so much cheaper, it's very appealing on that front (if you can find one of course!), but are they prone to expensive problems?

The bottom line is, I just need a big, safe people carrier that isn't going to cost a fortune to run. Most journeys are less than 10 miles, but occasionally will do very long journeys too. Any further thoughts/suggestions? Very much appreciating all the input so far.