I hired a C4 Picasso I think, and it was awful. Some absolutely bonkers design features in it.

Firstly, the pedals were offset and too close together, just like the only other Citroen I’d driven. Then the gearstick, whcih was on the dash, was too far away requiring me to lean forwards to get 1st and 2nd and I’m not short or anything. But most of all – the heater controls are on the door side of the driver down around knee height. Wt actual f? Not only does it mean that the passenger can’t change anything, but you have to take your eyes right off the road and crane your head to even see them. Incredibly daft.

7 seats but the rear two fold away in seconds into the floor when not needed leaving a big boot area.

Interesting reading this as our Octavia estate will be changed next year. Always taken the view that height in mpvs is wasted compared to tbe ease of loading an estate, plus much harder for normal sized people to get stuff on the roof.

Next car will need to do the next 8-10 years, by which time both kids will have been through their teenage years, and we will have to transport grandparents as they will be too old to drive. So an mpv kind of makes sense if you can fit teenagers in the back rear seats.

Suspect an estate will still be a better option, MrsMC will just have to get over her aversion at taking two cars if we need to take more than 5 people.

Apologies for rambling and thinking out loud.

Had a Toyota Lucida (Import Previa Diesel) and that set the scene, as when that eventually died we got a Renault Grand Espace.
Frankly it’s huge, even with all seven seats in. Even with five seats in, I’ve managed to get five people and five bikes (wheels off etc) inside. It is so practical as all seats other than the front two can be removed or reconfigured, so in effect you have anything from a mini-bus to a van. Due to it being french and old, I can now strip clean and refit the EGR valve within an hour and a half, I made and fitted some sill replacements a few MOT’s ago, but the body is mainly plastic so not much upper body rot.
Given your budget you’ll avoid the older rubbish and have some nice MPV’s to look at.
We will probably have another MPV, or some sort of crew cab pick…….so I’m told.

marcus7 – Member
Zafira will do what you want, not the most exciting car to drive but fairly good vfm
POSTED 20 HOURS AGO #

This is certainly a very good option.
2014 pre-reg models are getting discounted heavily, – pushing second hand prices down too. good value, decent cars.

Have just been through a very similar process – eight thousand budget, need for space and car seats, occasional need for 7 seats when visiting and taking out gramps (fold down flat when not needed to give estate style/size boot), preference for diesel (some long drives), and not a lot to spend on maintaining.

Went for a Kia Carrens.
Ticks all the boxes, and they extended their warranty period from 5 to 7 years in Jan 2010. Buy one newer than that and you’re still well within the warranty period.
For your budget, you’d get a decent spec 7 seat MPV, good diesel engine, low mileage, and with 3 or 4 years original manufacturers warranty. Well worth looking into.

Only prob is there’s not so many of them round to find, but they do come up at main dealers.

Next car will need to do the next 8-10 years, by which time both kids will have been through their teenage years, and we will have to transport grandparents as they will be too old to drive. So an mpv kind of makes sense if you can fit teenagers in the back rear seats.

Suspect an estate will still be a better option, MrsMC will just have to get over her aversion at taking two cars if we need to take more than 5 people.
^same here. The Touran is only Golf sized, and therefore a step up in size for bikes, boats and three teenage lads is needed…
I keep coming back to a Galaxy with a towbar…

Galaxy with a tow bar looks best option for me. Friend has the s-max but I’m not blown away by the usable space in it.

MrsMC needs it to be an automatic though. So that adds a thousand to tbe cost/knocks a year off a second hand one.

Don’t know how close you are to London but you could consider an ex Addison Lee Galaxy. Dunno that much about the others but always found the Galaxy a great car to drive.

They sell off their cars after 2-3 years at prices between £8-10k. The cars are pretty basic (steel wheels, cloth seats, only come in black etc) but will have been serviced every 3000 miles (note that an Ad Lee car can do that in a month)and anything that fails is always replaced as part of the service routine. It does take some of the risk out of buying a higher mileage car.

They are all 2.0TDI with automatic box, air con, leccy windows etc. do decent MPG and will swallow up to 4 bikes without removing the wheels. Will take 5 adults with all seats used.

They have a car lot by Mornington Crescent station in Camden.

edit – re the servicing. Ad Lee fines drivers if they miss their service so the intervals are always followed to the letter (or in the case the mileage!)

I wanted to like the C4 Picasso but the steering is very electric and the suspension very wallowy- will too light/soft for my taste.

If it was a large MPV I’d go with a Toyota Previa.

(Sadly) I’d avoid the Touran and by extension the Altea as I’ve heard too many bad stories about the Touran. Pity as its not bad looking over the past few years.

Had my fiat doblo for 10 months now and it’s not put a foot wrong so far, but it is a chore with the 1.6 multijet engine as it lags a fair bit. I’d look at a 2.0 multijet one in future and a remap (165bhp out the exact same engine elsewhere) or a Peugeot Partner Tepee (not as big but supposed to be more agile) and revel in not giving a hoot !

Had my touran tdi dsg for 6 years and 100000 miles. It’s been brilliant. Turbo went 5000 miles ago but other than that it’s been perfect. I’ve literally just got back from holiday in the south of France this morning. Another 2400 trouble free miles in the last 10 days.

c max 2ltr tdci,lots of fun to drive and fairly quick with loads of torque.probs a bit small for your needs though so i would suggest an s max.one thing to bear in mind with vans is single carrage way national speed limit roads you are limited to 50mph and 60mph on duel carrage ways

I think I need to look at some of these in the flesh. The FRV looks expensive to be honest and I’m not sure the boot will be big enough. I need to be able to fit this trike in AND a push chair. The trike does split into two but is still pretty wide

In your position get the biggest vehicle (e.g. Galaxy or the like), or something far smaller and trailer.

100k in a zafira here. Pros:-
Very cheap to buy.
Economical (50mpg fully loaded towing a trailer on a run)
Cheap servicing
Very reliable
Powerful engine so gets up to speed nicely
Comfortable (as its not Avis spec)
Not too horrible to look at
7 seats can be useful.

Con’s
Its not very good for bikes. With the middle row folded forward there’s not really that much length. Folded down and the floors not flat and you loose a load of height. They cannot be removed either.

The boot has been squared off between the arches to make it look nice, but you loose a lot of space that’s handy when squeezing bikes in

Considering how cheap they are, they really are very good cars if you need the extra seats, but a big estate or a berlingo would probably be more practical load lugger.

On the CMax and Corolla Verso are any/some/all of the rear seats entirely removable? That’s one handy feature of the Rav…

Not sure here. We have an old style 04 zafira, last of the first shape. Done 145000 miles, things have worn out, but overall it’s been good and cheap to run. It’s a 1.9 tdi.

I love my zafira, it fits all our kit, and some. We have managed 2 kids, 2 adults, full ski hols kit incl 4x skis and 2x snowboards INSIDE the car last winter. Kids were 13 and 10. Seats in the boot slide under the second row leaving more space in the boot than in the touran. Height in the boot is great, giving loads of options, but then I do love a good game of luggage Tetris!

My brother in law is our mechanic, and he says it’ll make it to 200000 without too much trouble, so we decided not to replace it.

As a replacement we were looking at a touran, as according to my brother in law the newer shape (not newest) zafira diesels have fiats bits (or something) and we are not allowed to buy one as it’ll be too much trouble. This only really left the touran, as we wanted a car with 100 kg roof load for our bikes. I sat and drove a few priced at £9000-£10000 and did not think they were much nicer than my good old zafira, hence we decided to keep it.

We used the seats in the boot a lot when my boys were smaller, saves taking 2 cars. The seats are too small now really, apart from short journeys, so we don’t really use them anymore. We decided to replace the old girl with a Volvo v70 when the time comes. Much nicer car, 100kg roof load and middle seat folds down for skis.

Getting extra seats does mean you will forever be giving people lifts we found!

Perhaps spend £1000 and get an old zafira! Loads about, and we keep seeing them on the ferry on the way back from the alps, which must be a good sign….

Now the electrical gremlins have been sorted I am very happy with my S max. Was thinking of swapping it out for an estate car but couldn’t find one that does everything the smax does.

Mine is also a 203bhp petrol version so although it’s not as good on fuel as the diesel it’s a lot better to drive in a spirited fashion should you want to.

For your budget you should be able to get a nice 2.5turbo petrol titanium spec.

Berlingo’s are piqueing my interest atm. Obviously totally magoo to look at. But being able to remove a seat and stick a complete xl 29er in the back does appeal. Especially when dismantling the beast to thread it Into the back of a golf.

On the Zafira- not the latest (new) shape. Ive heard good things. Yes there are some horror stories about the 1.9tdi but its MASS/I.e many thousands+ out there on our roads. The 1.8 petrol has been around forever too.

I’d also check out some Japanese import MPVs, particularly the Estima (Previa over here) or if you’re after something a bit different/bonkers a Nissan Elgrand or Toyota Alphard. You can pick up 10 year old but low mileage Estimas for £3-4k, will easily last another 10 years, the petrols may be a bit juicy but total cost may well be cheaper bearing in mind the low initial cost

MoreCashThanDash, if you’re not blown away with the useable space in an SMax you won’t be blown away with the Galaxy. They are the same car, the only difference being that the Galaxy has a squarer back end to give adults in the 6th and 7th seats a bit more headroom. So no more usable space than an SMax. More useful for bikes in the back if you’ve got the internal rack system as with the SMax I have to remove the seatpost or lower the dropper. In a Galaxy I’d probably not have to.

I’m struggling to think of a larger car-based MPV than the SMax/Galaxy in terms of interior space.

Test drove a couple of MPVs this weekend: C4 Grand Picasso and S-Max.

Grand Picasso was a nice place to be with lots of gizmos and gadgets. Fold down tables for the kids were a nice touch as was the huge windscreen. I wasn’t sure of the build quality and the EGS gearbox wasn’t very smooth in either auto or manual mode. A quick Google suggests this is a common grumble, which doesn’t instil confidence.

The S-Max was a much nicer drive. It felt more like a “normal” car and definitely had more poke and better weighted steering. What puts me off is that they seem to be very expensive for “just” a Ford. For my budget I can get a Picasso with 30k on the clock or an S-Max with twice that!

I still want to try a 5 Series 😉

None the wiser 😆

The BIL has a Grand Picasso it just needs and ice cream sign on the top to make it complete

* other mpvs and opinions are available

Whilst this thread has probably long since expired, I thought I’d share the latest…

Test drove a 5 series estate last night. Loved it. The build quality puts things like the Picasso to shame and unsurprisingly it was lovely to drive. I want one.

Unfortunately it is simply too small. The tailgate slopes too much and the boot floor is quite high, making the boot too small for what I need to get in it. Space across the back 3 seats was tight too. I’ll have one, just not yet.

So, back to the MPV dilemma. I really can’t get on with the Citreon EGS gearbox yet, but the Picasso looks a great place for my kids to be. S-Max a much nicer drive but a lot more money. Am I sacrificing too much of what makes me enjoy driving just to get a family bus? 😆

I was contacted by the Ford dealership who sold me my SMax 5 yrs ago as cars of the spec and mileage of mine are rare and saught after, so I said I might be interested in doing a deal on a new version with the 2.2TDCi engine i’ve currently got with the Powershift (i.e. double clutch) auto box. They had a less than year old one in with 3k miles on the clock, full spec for just under £23k (a bit over my buget unfortuntely). I looked at what equivalent Audi A6 Avant or BMW 5 Series Touring i can get for that cash and it was mid spec at best three or so yr 30k mile cars. You pay a hell of a premium for that brand. I wouldn’t mind so much but they’re not exactly leagues ahead of Ford for build quality or reliability these days. You’ve got to really want one.

As to the enjoyment of driving, that’s what the wife’s car is for. The family bus is a functional tool – and is a very good drive for just driving normally, but if I want a fun blast I take the wifes car. Unfortunately she’s got a dire Fiat 500 which I loath and detest and takes motiring back 40yrs in terms of refinement and performance, but i’m talking her round to a BMW1 series.

I’m on to our second smax. Surprised to see a complaint about usable space and I think they are huge. Much more usable space than my Santa-Fe that we just got rid off and that was a much bigger vehicle

We headed down south last week with a outwell montanna 6 person tent which is huge, all of our camping stuff (my wife likes buying camping accessories) clothing, toys etc in the boot and could still see out of the rear view mirror. Three kids all on separate seats, great drive and averaged 48mpg. Really cannot complain at all.

I like the S-Max. The only reason I’m looking at other MPVs is that Fords are expensive in comparison to the Citreons, Renaults, Vauxhalls etc

Am I sacrificing too much of what makes me enjoy driving just to get a family bus?

i think thats what makes MPVs so good, you need to forget the driving experience its all about practicality and simplicity. What your looking for is something you can just open the boot and throw stuff in, particularly a pram.
We had a Fiat Multipla as our last car, and its probably my favourite from cars i’ve owned. looks where dodgy, had no extras inside, but hugely practical. now have a volvo v50 estate, with all the extras, and would change back to a multipla again without hesitation.

I think any of the suggestions above will probably make a good car, i’d probably go for whatever ones offers the best deal at the time.

^wise words. Practicality and cost and the priorities. I need to remember that.

You can get a Grand Picasso with a 160hp full automatic gearbox. There are a few out there

our 55 Grand Scenic has been awful this last year

Bills probably 3 times its value

Timing belt, service and water pump (thats a service not a repair)

Then Exhaust gas resurculation thing

Then we needed a new turbo

Mate has an 04 which he calls his clown car. Amazingly he has spent more than us. Window motors, electric hand brake etc, dash black out..

But I have heard that the mark three is better

My conclusion was when it goes pop again its a Toyota Verso

The Fords command a premium over the French stuff as they are a lot more reliable and easier to work on when and if things go wrong.

Ive just changed the rear discs and front and rear pads for £135 all in for quality Pagid stuff.

Plus they look better to………..

In an unexpected turn of events we decided not to buy outright but instead we’re going to lease a VW Sharan…

….if any of you give a flying wotsit any more 😆

We’ve just bought a 12 year old 2.5v6 petrol Bongo.
Fuel consumption is horrendous, but it has sleeping, a big rack on the back for bikes, a fridge, a gas stove, and when I fix it water in a sink.
…and we might manage to get away from work at least one weekend every month.