Hi

We are a family of six. Our children range from. Eight months to eight years old. We are looking at purchasing a second hand people carrier. We we looking to spend 3500 max and looking at petrol due to all this talk re taxing diesel etc and loosing value on car. Is there any people carrier petrol you recommend looking at 1.6 1.8 you recommend. I quite like citroen c4 grand picasso.

Your views would be appreciated thanks for reading this.

My recollection of the grand picasso prior to the very latest was that fitting a modern baby car seat made the interior very cramped. Also access/room to the rear row required contortionist midgets.

I've yet to find an mpv to match my Alhambra mk1 for practicality. The mk2 is the same but the mk3 although bigger on the outside seems smaller internally for rear passengers. The seats that fold in the floor compromise it with no under seat space to put our toes.

You need to sit in the back of whatever you chose before you buy and make your own mind up. All 7 seaters have poor/compromised boot space when travelling 6/7 up.

Toyota corolla verso, or mazda 5 spring to mind. But as you are a family of 6, you could also throw the honda frv into the mix. The citroen is certainly practical and well thought out, but build quality is lacking. Most vehicles of this type are best thought of as 5+2 seaters as the rearmost 2 are only suitable for kids. As yours are still quite young it shouldnt prove to be a problem though. The honda takes a different path, having 2 rows of 3 seats, all full sized, and because of this layout, if all seats are in use it has a much bigger boot than the rest. Another thing worth considering, even though you may not want to think about it, is that the honda's layout means if you are rear ended, the rear passengers will fare much better than the usual 5+2 seaters. If you want to know what i mean, have a look at how close the rear 2 seats are to the tailgate when in use.