My mum is after a new car and feels she needs a 7-seater to ferry around children/grandchildren!

Although with the rarity she will actually have a car full, I think that she would be better off with a normal sized car with two extra seats that can be unfolded from the boot when needed.

Two cars spring to mind, the Vauxhall Zafira or a Toyota Corolla Verso.

The Zafira has been ruled out as it only has a Euroncap rating of three stars, compared the Toyota rated at five stars.

Are there any other cars worth looking at with a budget of £8-9k?

Thanks
Andy

 

Touran's out of your price range, I guess?

 

She wants an automatic, and the cheapest I can find one is £13k!

 

We've been around this route. We looked at the Touran and the Verso. The Verso is nice but the rear seats are very cramped. The Touran wins hands down on space but is pricey and the dealers are truly awful. We passed on the Touran because of this and the reliability troubles that friends have had with recent VWs.
We ended up with a Mazda 5. It doesn't come as an auto at the moment and the 7th seat is very small but the other seats are all useable and the sliding doors are simply fantastic in a car this size. Apart from the ease of getting kids in and out they make access to the rearmost seats much easier.

I reckon an auto won't be far away and there are some very healthy discounts available on them too.

 

E Class estate ?

D

 

Andy,i've just got a VW Touran and it's really good...

Went for the 2.0 TDI Sport with 7 seats..

Booked into the guy at Superchips at power eng for a remap,he reakons 190 bhp and over 300 torque.......

Alan.......

 

My thoughts exactly, she could get a really good late W124 diesel for a lot less than £8-9k, it'll go forever, drive like a magic carpet, and as a bonus will hardly depreciate either

My '86 250TD has now done 196k miles, runs like a dream, carries prodigious amounts of stuff and does 45-50 to the gallon

 

Citroen CX Familiale?

 

Some friends have a Renault scenic 7 seater... - NOT that I'd want to recommend a French car

there is a company that makes rear facing seats for virtually any estate type vehicle I think - I considered that for a Legacy estate...

Proper 7 seaters... Would HAVE to be be new LR Discovery for me - but not on the budget you qouted... or my own personal budget come to that

good luck hunting Andy...

Mick

 

I couldn't agree more.... IF it will be needed for long distance runs. For short to medium distance running around the Touran/Verso/5/Grand Scenic are great but I find them all very tiring on a long run

 

Dont even bother with the diesel - 230 te estate post 94 airbags and as safe as , zero depreciation and less than 2k

 

thats not to suggest its not worth it ...!!

 

NEW shape Zafira is very good to drive, huge improvement on the old one in every area. Probably out of the price bracket though

Also consider 307SW with the 3rd row seats option (extra)
A very good drive and also the diesels are extremely good on fuel plus good performance too for 1.6 diesel. Bit cramped in the back though. And there are scare stories out there about them, but I've run round in plenty of rentals and not found one with a problem (unlike the Focus and Megane rentals ).

Honda 6 seater (can't remember the name) might be an option, but I haven't a clue on prices.

Touran is good, but a bit lacking in spec (2 speaker radio on some models FFS ), and found the TDi (115ps IIRC) engine somewhat peaky with a grabby clutch which bogs the engine down easily (Fine when I was driving, awful when I was a passenger whilst somebody else was driving). Other than that, its very good.

 

Thanks for the advice guys!

The Honda FRV (IIRC) and the VW Touran is out of the price range.

My mum doesn't want a French car

The new Zafira is five star, and maybe in the price range, although there would still be a lot depreciation left to happen as they are only a year or two old.

Alan, you will love the chipped TDI! My communter car a Golf TDI 150 has been chipped to 180bhp and 295lbft!