Wife’s grand Picasso has been a heap of ….
Currently looking at a Toyota verso and a Kia careens
kia bit bland but seven year warranty is heading me in that direction
Any experience/opinions?

Have a look at an SMax also. Mine is the cat’s ass.

Had a Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCI Zetec for nearly 5 years, since it was 8 months / 2000 miles old.

Brilliant car, uber-practical, and has never missed a beat. (We only use it for longer trips though, have a 1.2 petrol car for town work).

We had an smax at work. Horrible horrible vehicle, hugely unreliable and bits of interior trim would just fall off randomly.

The current Alhambra is far superior, but the electric handbrake does my head in when parallel parking on a hill.

Galaxy owner here…can do 4 bikes and 4 people inside easy…only other vehicle id consider would be a t4/5 or vito etc

My old man just got a Citroen C8 Eurovan (see also Peugot 308 / FIAT Ulysse / Lancia Zeta, early models have a terrible rep but later ones seem to be good but plagued with the same rep by association. It’s alright, a bit wallowy as I expected, but the speedo is a pain in the hole as it’s centre mounted on the dash pointing towards the back door rather than the driver, for that reason alone I’d never buy one myself (having to regulate speed with the limiter is just ridiculous). Did get two armchairs in the back without having to do anything with the middle row though.

+1 for galaxy, great for taking bikes. Watch for problems around the CV joint thingies at the front though which seem to be the only things that ever fail, at least in my case.

Had a verso as a courtesy car, very disappointing, ride quality was horrible felt like the car was stretched beyond the capacity of the platform its built upon. + bits of the trim had fallen off.

Previous car was a 2.0ltr TDi Touran, 75k of faultless motoring(not mirrored by some on here however)
Current motor is. Kia Sorrento, mainly for caravan towing purposes but the 7 seats are usefull to carry all the grand kids.

Spotted a met blue version of; http://www.fordglobalfleet.com/tourneo-connect/features which looks a lot better than the VW Caddy imo….

If downsizing another Touran will be considered 😆

Sometimes we have to compromise looks/badge snobbery for functionality 💡

We had a Touran for ages – very practical and sorted, but went wrong more than expected and cost lots to fix.

Now on a Galaxy, it is huuuuge, and even more practical than the Touran. But, mrs_oab being short finds it uncomfortable, ours is older (56 plate/90k, bought as a stopgap when the Touran died). Ours also has a few electrical gremlins and is quite rusty underneath compared to Touran – I wonder if previous owner lived by the coast…

We are looking at a newer vehicle – I would have Galaxy or Sharan, but the prices are bonkers high. Same for most good vans, especially running costs.

The Ford Connect Tourneo Grand is my next choice, but mrs_oab won’t drive such a van like thing…and the 1.6 will struggle with 5 of us, two canoes and five bikes on board.

So that leaves us with……a Zafira Tourer…. I think they are practical enough, and the prices are daft cheap for pre-Reg or nearly new. I think that is what we will end up with…

I love my SMax. Been very reliable apart from one annoying issue that turned out to be the Bluetooth module, but as everything electrical is connected to a sort of network it was a bugger to trace. Drives like a car and not one piece of trim has fallen off yet, despite the kids doing their very best to trash it. Get the Galaxy if you want a bit more headroom in the back (the same car but with a boxier back end). I’ve got 65k miles on mine, I got it with 2.5k on the clock at 9 months old, and will be keeping for another 2 yrs – no point in changing now as the only replacement I’d consider at this stage and the kids at their current age is another SMax.

Another Touran owner here, on our second. Very practical, huge boot, even bigger with the middle seats removed, 7 seats in total, the rear 2 can be put up in seconds. Great fuel economy, genuine 60mpg on long motorway journeys, 105 diesel.

The first one did rather seem to implode at 3.5 years (had it from new), cost us a lot to fix, hoping the second one fares better, the original one had 80k on the clock when we sold it at 4 years. Got a really good deal on the new one which is why we’ve given them a second chance.

just got a galaxy hence the constant stupid smile on my face (until it drives itself into Every diesel station it comes across) other than that its flippin Ace

Well I’m getting high 30’s mpg out of my 2.2tdi SMax with roof bars on (500 miles per 62 litre fill up), but since the diesel prices have dropped I’ve been using the posher diesel and am getting an extra 30 to 40 miles out of a fill up. On a long uninterrupted motorway journey at ‘typical motorway speeds’ I’m knocking on the door of 600 miles per tank. So I don’t think your Galaxy will be too bad.

I’m getting between 38 and 42 out of my 1.8 diesel SMax. The trip computer insist that it is 48 – 50. 🙄

I got a Verso last month. Pretty pleased with it, although inclined to agree with the person above that the trim, whilst all still intact, is not in VW league. Engine is decent (1.6 diesel), and it’s a very easy drive. If you need to use the rear seats often I’d look at something else, they’re tiny. Not a problem for us as width was what we needed, and have a 14, 8 and 5 year olds comfortably across the back, and a boot plenty big enough for two dogs now we are past the buggy stage. Warranty/reliability was a big factor for me and probably what swung it to the Toyota. I don’t think it’s the best MPV, but I think its a decent MPV if it meets your needs. Slightly bigger inside than the ‘old’ Zafira, although doesn’t look it due to shape.

Depends on how big you want to go? http://www.driving.co.uk/car-37643186/sp 😉

My wife is on her second Touran, 10 yrs and counting. We looked at every ” practical ” car on the road when it came time to change the last one, and in the end got another Touran. Dull as dishwater, and 1.6tdi a tad under powered when fully loaded, but we just can’t fault them. A proper 5 seater with big boot, or 7 seats when necessary. My wife likes it because it’s not too long and in fact can park itself! We spent 17 hrs travelling back from skiing earlier this year in it,(5 hours without moving!) and it performed brilliantly as a home from home for the kids and very well when I hammered it up to Calais once the jam had cleared.

May not be as big as the Sharan/Alhambra, but sit in one in a showroom and ask yourself if the extra 5 or 6k if worth it.

A mate loves his SMax, but limited boot space with the rear seats up.

FIL has the big Citoen C8(?), and it has been faultless, if bland.

Toyota will be super reliable, functional and interior a bit plasticy. All standard Japanese car features (have had Toyota, Mistubishi, Honda). The Toyota will be everything the Citroen was not. They are not the largest but I am sure you know that.