Looked closely at Mazda 5 (very nice, great doors, slightly small middle seat, what we wanted, bl**dy expensive second hand and no cruise control…), Verso – (great build, nice kit, good value, bland as a bland thing and didn’t drive quite as nicely I thought, but mrs_oab struggled to see over dash as she is only 5’….) and finally the Touran that we bought (boring, but well put together, practical and stonking good value second hand, but some annoyingly crap design with folding seats (rear and middle) that means it not *quite* as good as the others, and silly lack of rear speakers FFS! – we paid £7k for 3 year old 20k ex motability car…)
If I had the money, the Mazda (but it needs cruise…), sensible and boring Touran won – we now have 6 friends and neighbours with them and no complaints – ours has now done 20k since July, does 53-55mpg on a run with just me, but drops to 47/49 with family on board.