vans for family of 6

Nebulous2

RichardD1970 wrote: »

Roof box or trailer (or both!). Then you can have a normal(ish) size car for everyday use and the extra capacity when needed.

There is a lot you can do if you're imaginative enough. We had six of us at home when our children were younger and tried all sort of combinations. We have a fairly robust trailer that has done thousands and thousands of miles, full of camping equipment. We even had roof bars for it and fitted 4 bike racks, so we could carry four bikes on top of the trailer. At one point my father made a net for our Ford Galaxy, which we tied to the roof handles inside. We drove to France with this net packed with soft stuff - towels, bedding etc. between the roof and our children's heads.

Like most purchases in life a vehicle is a series of compromises, and everyone needs to find their own balance point, by trial and error sometimes. All of those workarounds can only take you so far. There is also a real value in having space available to do the things you want to do.

knightstyle

How often will there be six in the car plus all the baggage?
I would look at a Honda Fr-V which has six seats is very reliable, cheap and plenty of spares about plus a trailer.

CardinalWolsey

Don't forget to take in to account the varying height between the vehicles - from the perspective that you will struggle to get in to car parks / local tip etc if the height is over 1.98m ish.

AdrianC

TBH, trying to take "a van" into the tip may well be a show-stopper anyway.

And don't forget about speed limits. Look carefully at the V5C for anything you buy. If it's M1 type approved, it's a car. If it's N1, then it's a van, and you get into a very grey area if you're hoping to get under the "dual purpose vehicle" loophole for car limits.

sevenhills

AdrianC wrote: »

TBH, trying to take "a van" into the tip may well be a show-stopper anyway.

And don't forget about speed limits. Look carefully at the V5C for anything you buy. If it's M1 type approved, it's a car. If it's N1, then it's a van, and you get into a very grey area if you're hoping to get under the "dual purpose vehicle" loophole for car limits.

There is also the congestion charges and clean air zones, the one in Leeds starts in Jan 2020, not far away.
Cars have zero charges in most, but not necessarily vans.

AdrianC

The OP is looking at vans new enough to all be Euro6, so it's not an issue.

VFR

knightstyle wrote: »

How often will there be six in the car plus all the baggage?
I would look at a Honda Fr-V which has six seats is very reliable, cheap and plenty of spares about plus a trailer.

Yes a very unique vehicle & reliable as you say.

jimbo6977

if i'd had the money i'd have bought a chrysler grand voyager but i didn't have 40k so i bought a pre-registered euro6 ssangyong turismo for 16k.

despite chrysler leaving the uk market there are importers bringing in new dodge grand caravans (same car different badge) for £30K.

Richard53

Nebulous2 wrote: »

How do these vehicles drive nowadays? I've driven people carriers for many years, but my experience of vans is much less recent, driving hired vans and minibuses fairly regularly many years ago, They were quite rough, noisy agricultural even. Have they moved on, with more confort, less noise and better handling?

I haven't any experience of most of the vehicles mentioned here, and don't drive vans much. However, we have a Transit minibus at work which I drive often. It's from 2013 and is a really good drive - smooth, quick enough, quiet and predictable. The driver's seat is comfy and it has plenty of useful things like storage and hidden 12v outlets etc. I'd happily drive it the length of the country tomorrow. Having driven many minibuses over the years, I would say that at least for Ford there have been massive improvements, and the experience is not far short of driving a decent car.

Mistermeaner

FYI in case anyone is interested we ended up going for a 2018 Ford Tourneo long wheel base 8 seat version

We got a high spec one with all the jazz like reversing cam etc. that the mrs liked

I liked that all of the rear seats are full size individual 'captains chairs' that can be folded down, folded vertical, removed and repositioned in numerous configuartions (including forward and backward facing) giving the ultimate in flexibility