Another advice on new car please thread

shortdog

Hi
I'm at a loss here, and was hoping for a little bit of advice from those in the know.:D
We discovered earlier this week that we are having twins, which means that we will have 4 kids in a few months, so our current car just won't do the job (it was getting replaced anyway).
We now need at least 6 seats, and a boot (shopping, pram, all the stuff you need to lug about when you've got a baby x 2!)
I had a look at a Kia Sedona this morning, which is a gorgeous car, but it doesn't have much of a boot, certainly nothing we could get a pram into. I know the Zafira is no good, but I haven't a clue what car will do the job. I'm assuming there must be something available, as one of the car manufacturers must have thought about it, but what?
We're not going to have a huge budget, looking about £2000, possibly a bit more, as the twins aren't due until December, but I don't want to leave it until the last minute - my OH doesn't drive, and I don't really want to be car hunting and test driving cars with a huge bump!
Thanks for any help, my brain is frazzled with looking and not getting anywhere!

Foxy-Stoat_3

Why is the Zafira no good?

At £2000 budget you are at the bottomish end of the market.

Ford Galaxy / VW Sharon - be prepared for the A/C not to work

Chrysler people movers are pretty good.

7 seaters dont have a large boot as they assume you fold the back seats down or up or whatever to give you more space.

plane_boy2000

Very few options give 7 seats plus a boot at that price point, in fact, I cant think of any.

A zafira may fit the bill as you could fold down one back seat to make room. Sharan / galaxy / alhambra will give you more space and you can remove one of the rear seats.

We have a Sharan and use all 7 seats and can get a phil n teds sport in the boot - the rearmost seats in the sharan will slide back and forth slightly to give you more leg or more boot space. They are generally reliable, ours is almost 8 years old with 90K on it and only bill to date has been DMF......and the aircon dosent work!

plane_boy2000

Forgot to say, avoid the Chrysler - they can be money pits and are expensive to run. For everyone who tells you theirs as been wonderful there are 2 who will moan about them

shortdog

The Sharan and the Alhambra look as though they might be OK, thanks. The Zafira is hopeless, a friend used to struggle to get her umbrella fold buggy in with one seat in the back up, so I can't see there being any way of getting a pram in there! At this rate, I'll be buying my eldest a skateboard and tying her to the back!
I'm not bothered about aircon - never had a car with it yet, living in Scotland, it's not something that's needed very often!
I was looking at the Multipla, which seems OK too, apart form it being pig ugly, you'd think one of the car manufacturers would have come up with something!

plane_boy2000

There are other options, but unfortunately not in your budget.

You may want to check the seat sizes in the multipla as to get 3 wide they often are slightly narrower. It can cause problems if you need to get baby seats in. Not a problem in our Sharan as they are all individual seats.

If you could stretch your budget a honda FRV may be in reach

NeverEnough

You *might* get an older minibus in reasonable condition for £2K, not a VW Caravelle as they will be over that budget, but there are lesser-known, non-cult minibus type vans out there with 8 or even 9 seats - Toyota do one, as did Nissan some years ago. They fit into normal parking spaces albeit they are bigger vehicles and as you can often remove a seat or two, your load area increases accordingly. For around £3500-ish, if you could up your budget, you could get an elderly but well-maintained Caravelle which would be perfect for your needs, and these vehicles do starship mileages if their basic maintenance is kept up. They are that bit bigger inside than the people carriers like the Sharan's so would give you the additional boot or packing space you need. You might be able to find a VW Transporter Shuttle, albeit an old one, within budget - lesser spec than a Caravelle but still has the seating and the space you want.

oldhand

Very best of luck with the new twins :T,there goes that little sports car for a few years though..........:(

OddballJamie

What about a Vito?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201305236918319/sort/default/usedcars/model/vito/make/mercedes-benz/page/1?logcode=p

ntb1

I would suggest the miltipla with in your budget or a Citroen dispatch they do a 7 seat verision of the van.

GAZ237

OddballJamie wrote: »

What about a vito

That is only cheap because its an ex taxi. Will have been to the moon and back. Notice they have not put how many miles it has done in the add.
The multiplas are a great car, we had the diesel, was great on fuel and versatile on space.
If you get one, Make sure its checked underneath for rust, as that's the only real issue with them.