Boss had a Corolla Verso, great car, lovely to drive.
started to get expensive after 3.5 years when bits started going wrong.
id buy one if it was in good order (and couldnt afford a Galaxy )

 

I've always liked the Audi Q7!

 

We are a family of 5 with a seven seater, usually use only the 5 but........7 seats are useful when Nana comes along or we suddely acquire a few mates to take home from school/football/karate

Shaun

 

I had a galaxy 2.3 for 5 years never needed to fix it nothing went wrong with it very comfortable and if you did'nt need them i folded them down or took them out the only down side of the galaxy was there was'nt really a boot so with the rear two seats out there was enough room for a pram and a weeks shopping easy and there was still 5 full size seats with there own seat belts.

cheers

john

 

We've had two VW Tourans over the last 7 years and they are the best mid priced 7 seater out there.

Really clever rear seats that rise from the floor when needed, when not needed you have the largest cargo area in its class. Great economy and build quality. Good resale.

Only negative is the typical VW 'grabby' brakes ie 'too good'.

Citreon and Vauxhall a class below - frog-wagon made of cardboard and Vauxhall with stupid sliding mid seat arrangement.

Galaxy and Sharan a step up in price BUT the rear seats are not as good a design as the Touran - ie either they are in, or folded to the side, or for full access, you have to take them out.

Grand Espace is the only other one I'd look at, although we may upgrade to the new Seat Alahambra with elictric sliding doors in the new year.

A

 

The OP's budget is around the £8k mark.......... You can have a 60,000 miler Touran for that LOL

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3111960.htm

Shaun

 

We have a Grande Espace too. F*cking great tank it is but nothing is as flexible. The seats can come out, crutially the seat belts are on the seats so you can slide about whilst belted up.

they can go in backwards as well, though Renault don't say so. All seats run on rails so the flexibility is amazing. Flat floor without for carrying stuff, HUGE boot did I mention.

If you compromise on leg room by sliding the middle rows and back rows forward a couple of clicks, you still have a massive boot with the Grande model.

Downsides: they depreciate like you'd expect a massively overpriced french car to.

Fuel economy around town DO NOT GET A 2.2DCI Auto if you do mostly town runs like we did. Ouch. It makes my Sti look economical. The 2.0DCI manual is ideal though.

Up sides.
I can get a motorbike lashed down in the back.
I can get 7 adults and four suitcases in.
The biggest top box Halfords do looks tiny on the roof.
For a Renault, the Espace is actually built pretty well!

We have four kids so even this car means one of the Grandparents has to walk!

 

i have a zafira brought new last year ... have the elite 1.9 cdti and cant fault it mate tbh, loads of room, leather for the baby which is wipe clean and heated also does very good mpg on run or around town, build quality pretty good for vx and does what it says on the tin ... i agree with having to mess about with the middle row to gain access to rear seats, unless you leave them up all the time, but boot is massive with them down, i can get big pram and large labrador in boot with ease, plus my fishing kit .

i have also had the zafira gsi (older shape) great fun with 200bhp on tap etc, again a great car which gave me only afew probs ... which ended in vxr turbo etc pushing 250 bhp in a people wagon. I also owned the espace previously for a whole month and sold it !.

We use a galaxy tdci at work which i use quite often, and i must say i hate the thing ... the seats are crap, the ride is crap, it wallows all over the place and makes you feel sea sick, the engine would not pull the top of a rice pudding, its cheap and breaks down quite often and only done 78k! fixed or repaired daily (ford) is very true with this car!

my dad owns a taxi firm for 35 years and had every people carrier out there, last 5 have all been vw sharans, all done 350k on original engine and gearbox and never missed a beat, but all been serviced every couple of months aswell lol. fords,citroen and others never got close to the vw's!. But as said, you will pay a little premium for the vw as its a better made vehicle.

Suppose it depends on what ur after mate, if its ur main car then i would look at the vw sharan or touran, as they have great engines and imo better quality car, if your after something to simply get u from a-b then get the citroen or vauxhall or ford and spend the savings on a holiday away for the family having said this my zafira was 24k last year brand new, and we love it, we use it as the main car if were going some distance, and use the scooby if we want some fun as the 2nd car, best of both worlds i reckon.

Hope this helps mate.

 

I'm curious. You have an addition to the family (congrats) but why a 7 seater.

Are you planning on having a tribe ?

 

hi clive.
is that response to me mate or the op

 

We only have two kids, but we are always transporting Granny and Grandad and/or other kids around with us as well (e.g. last weekend off to my boy's rugby two dads and 4 rugby boys in the back plus 4 kit bags and two chairs for us old gits) so our view was a 5 seater would only work some of the time and, if you're going to have a big shed anyway, then why not get a full on party vehicle?

Very comfortable and took 5 of us and all our ski gear to the French Alps and back with the greatest of ease, comfort and a decent average speed of "a bit more than the speed limit" for all 650 miles each way. Got out of the car on arrival fresh as an unshaven daisy.

Still have the P1 for when I'm feeling antisocial

 

OP fella

 

We had a 7 seater Mitsubushi Delicia and I must say it proved really handy many times.

 

I've had 7 and even 8 seat people carriers since 2001.

Had a 2 x Galaxys, Ulysee and now have a Megane Grand Scenic.

Looked at Zafiras because they're as cheap as chips but the middle bench is a massive PITA.

The big 7/8 seaters like has been said already, leave you with no boot space at all. But on the plus side you do have 7 full size seats.

Our Scenic gives the best of both worlds. With the seats folded into the floor you have a big boot area and then with the 2 seats up you still have room for a suitcase.

Had the Meg for 3 years now, done 55k in it and it's NEVER missed a beat.

If the 6th and 7th seats are for occasional use look at Citroen, Renault and Toyota.

If I could afford to change, the only one I'd chop it in for would be a S-Max.

 

just buy a bus as you are used to them

 

I also have the Zafira Elite 150 2008 model just as warrenty ran out things started going wrong,

DPF
DMF and so on, very expensive to replace also.

So unless you have a money pot or do loads of miles id get a petrol Zafira

The Elite is a fantatsic car cosmetically just after spending the last 2 months on the forums ive found it to be a real money pit, and the 1.8 petrol a far better beast

Ive actually just sold it and got a Lifetime warrenty meriva for the wife, at least i can most **** done for nowt LOL

But be aware Zafiras change in 4 months so the price will fall through the floor on the old Ones so you will get a real Bargin in Jan if you can wait

 

the Grand Espace has more boot space than the Scenic with all the seats up and fully back. My friend is chopping in his Scenic for a Grand Espace for exactly that reason, having had a look around ours and having 3 kids. I'd agree re the ordinary Espace as that has **** all boot with all the seats up.



If you push the two back rows of full size seats forward a little bit you can get quite a lot extra in and the two back seats have a gap in between as well that a full size suitcase can stand in as well - see above

I've had others - an 8 seat Previa, Sharan etc. The only one I'd go for other than our existing would be the S max - it's definitely smaller inside than the Renault, although it is more of a car like drive (but then these are all about comfortable transport and driving is what the p1 is for...)

 

Actually scrap all that - this is the Espace you need