Friends have an S-Max and i’ve been quite impressed. Not much luggage space with all the seats in though

Espace – consistently the best and most flexible in my experience BUT it’s made by Renault and WILL blow up in spectacular fashion

Discovery 3 – Thirsty, heavy, but the best car I’ve owned. The 3rd row of seats are fine for full-sized adults, though this does mean you need a roof box if you’re using all the seats.

XC90 – I had one for 80k miles; great, but third row of seats is really only suitable for kids up to the age of 10/11, for long journeys at least. Out kids are that age, which is why we changed.

S-Max – rear seats pretty small

Chrysler Grand Voyager – appalling in every way, but large.

Galaxy – pretty good; I don’t think the trim quality is up to much, but it all seems to hang together.

If you really need space, a Peugeot 806 is astonishingly dull but very large and van-like. Also very cheap secondhand.

Sorted!

Honda FRV? Proper size seats and reasonable boot.
Or its got to be the MPV route, Renault Espace or Toyata Previa.
But if the budget is big, Merc R-Class. A mate who has 4 kids has one and its lovely.

and thinking about it, if the budget isn’t big, a merc W124 E-class diesel is about £4k and has seats in the boot.

Surely that’s a DS not a CX?

How about a slightly new Citroen than the one above. C4 Grand Picasso. Avoid the 1.6hdi unless it has been perfectly dealer serviced though.

Been driving our XC90 for the last 9 years and it still feels current. very comfy, safe, great load carrier and not too bad on fuel (but we do have a Golf for running around).
Nothing else out there makes me think I should change – even if I did have the money.

also in this position, kids from 13 to 10, but really want it to be able to carry enough gear for maybe a weeks camping.

Hmm Personally wouldn’t touch another Sedona after having lots of unidentified problems – several thousand pounds of repairs (some in warranty, some not) were one issue, but the other was that most independent garages won’t touch one as you need Kia’s diagnostic stuff (£70 to just plug it in) and they are also so large they don’t fit on some car transporters.

The trim is nice, but DVD player failed 4 times (replaced under warranty until that ran out and then we gave up).

That was the old model, but brother has had the same issues with the new one. There is a reason they are cheap.

I would look at Galaxy, Espace, S-Max personally.

As above Citroen C4 grand Picasso rear seat easily folded down flat giving plenty of space had one for the past couple of months liking it very much

02 VW Sharan here, suits our 4 kids (12,8,6,3.5) pretty well, we usually run with all 7 seats in, but one the rear folded down for a bit more luggage space. The only downside is getting the seats out and the storing them if you need to turn it into a van for a while – they are great for moving stuff about – we got a large 3 seat sofa inside ours the other day.