What is the consensus of the best people carrier I could buy for family of 3?
Budget of £15,00 consisting of a car worth £5,000 with £10,000 cash on top.
Thanks.
I like the look of the new Corolla Verso, but probably no great deals on that.
Think the Xsara Picasso sucks.
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A family of 3 (is that three children, or three intotal?) but how many passengers, and what ages? Otherwise we won't even be able to agree on how many seats.
I saw a new Corolla Verso this morning and I wasn't impressed by the styling - a good basic shape spoiled by flashy styling and totally out-of-place Lexus style rear lights. That doesn't mean it's not a good car, but I don't think it's a beautiful one.
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VW Touran seems to get good reviews.
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A family of 3 (is that three children, or three intotal?) but how many passengers, and what ages? Otherwise we won't even be able to agree on how many seats.
Mummy, daddy and new baby - with all the kit that entails!
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Best value, best interior space, best boot size, is the Citroen Berlingo, and its cousins. Room for large child seat and two adults in comfort in the back--grandparents will no doubt want to go along for the ride.
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Agree, Berlingo 110 diesel will quite surprise you.
& you won't part with £15K!
VB
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Agree, Berlingo 110 diesel will quite surprise you. & you won't part with £15K!
maybe I being a pedant, but Citroen's website says no 110 diesel
the Berlingo Multispace comes with a choice of four engines - 75hp 1.4i or 110hp 1.6i 16V petrol units or 71hp 1.9D or 90hp 2.0HDi options
www.citroen.co.uk/level3/modelpage.asp?pagetype=mu...e
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Yes you're being a pedant. The 90 is more than capable of frightening the reverse baseball cap brigade if that's what gets you through the night. Shovel loads of torque at 2000 revs. Very good for lugging plump grandparents and their tins of toffee.
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"What is the consensus of the best people carrier I could buy for family of 3?"
What do you mean by family of 3? 3 kids plus parent(s) or 3 in total?
If the latter I'd say an estate car, forget the people carriers.
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I think I'd go for a Scénic dCi 120 Dynamique myself; about £14k from a broker.
Not as car-like as a C-Max, it's true, but that's partially a good thing, because of all of the cubby holes and so on, which the C-Max seems to be quite lacking in.
It's also got a 5 star safety rating, is decent to drive, not too expensive to buy. If you want to save some cash, you could consider the 100 bhp, 1.5 litre diesel engine (the 80 bhp is likely to be too slow), which should be good for 60 mpg and is £700 cheaper to boot.
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I went onto all the websites and requested brochures for C Max, Scenic, Touran, Zafira, Picasso and Tino.
They all give good reading and all seem to have plusses over the other cars. If you could get a mix of them all then it would be ideal!
If you have not had an MPV before, make sure you visit all dealers and drive the cars. Due to the novelty of the MPVs, the first one you try you will be amazed with all the cubby holes and seating configurations etc, but the reality is that they almost all do the same thing. So it will come down to what you feel best, not a motoring journalist or your friends or whatever.
You may find big differences in price as well.
Oh, by the way, word of advice, when you do the test drive, make sure you take SWMBO and junior along, together with car seat, buggy etc and do not feel that you are putting the salesman out by trying the babyseat in the car, the buggy in the boot etc. Is it easy for the passenger to turn round to attend to baby? I know I had problems getting babyseats to fit into the Scenic due to the mouldings and the angle of the seat back. But managed it in the end and was a great car - plenty of space for buggy etc, even changed a few nappies on the back parcel shelf! On some Scenics, the rear glass in the tailgate lifts open so that you can reach into the boot without having to open full tailgate, handy if boot is full or in restricted spaces.
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the daewoo tacuma is very cheap (dealer had 04 pre-reg for 9,200 with delivery miles).
When we where looking for a 5 seat mpv i remember while not being the best dash board it had loads of room in the rear compared to tino, matrix and scenic (old scenic).
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Ford Mondeo TDCI. OK, not an MPV, but acres of space for 2 plus a little 'un, utterly practical family transport (everything from moving people, shopping trolley, mobile skip, etc) & cheap to run.
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I agree, a normal saloon or larger hatchback has four seats, which - shock horror - means you can seat four people; plus a boot to stow away all the junk. I really can't see the obession with people carriers that people have as soon as they have their first baby. Even with a babyseat babies are small, and don't need lots of headroom. MPVs don't tend to have much boot space, which your surely need for all baby gear.
If you need to tranpsort 6 big people around then a people carrier might be worth having, otherwise a normal car would be ideal.
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I agree too, actually.
A couple of years ago I noticed how tall my three children were getting and went out to try a few MPV's. The Zafira and Tino seemed the best of the bunch to me - but they were not actually that roomy - boot space is comparatively poor. I also found that they ride rather 'bouncily' with a lot of vertical pitching.
I ended up buying my Nissan QX (large, front drive car) because it has masses of rear legroom (my 6-foot son can sit there in comfort) and the boot is cavernous. Not only that, it was a bargain price because its totally unfashionable. To date its not cost me a penny, apart from the simple routine servicing that I do myself, and has proved its worth in taking the family (and all luggage) in great comfort from one end of the country to the other on several occassions.
There is a 2001 Toyota Camry 2.2 Auto for sale local to me, 40k miles and fTsh, for about £6.5k. That is a nice roomy FWD car with plenty of toys & safety features, and likely to be super-reliable. With the money left over you can start a savings policy for Junior's university fees!
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I'd endorse that view - when I had two little ones (pushchairs, travel cots - the whole Billy Smarts set up) my SAAB 9-5 saloon swallowed everything even at Xmas time with presents for/from Granny etc plus it had the highest safety rating which I'd say is rather more important for this kind of cargo. That kind of money would get you a very nice 9-5 saloon and even a good estate version. Performance economy and a bit of prestige and the dealers are A1.
Still got the little blighters, BTW, but now a Gameboy is all they seem to require by way of acoutrements these days
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I don't get the idea of these MPVs and especially the smaller ones. I am so confused that I now no lomger actually know what MPV stands for!! What is a Multi Purpose Vehicle and how does it differ from an estate car save for having a higher centre of gravity and worse dynamics?
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I'll 2nd that or even 3rd it!
With 2 children under 5 the amount of stuff you take around with you, especially on longer holidays can be quite amazing.
In the past the Xantia estate and more recently my Omega saloon has been more than adequate for the job, plus (or perhaps minus) is that MiL fits in too! :-)
Chad.
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With 2 children under 5 the amount of stuff you take around with you, especially on longer holidays can be quite amazing.
I suspect that children's gear is one of those quantities which expands to fit the space available :)
In the seventies, my family changed for a while from a Cortina to a Vauxhall Chevette hatchback (nice car for its time, but v small boot and cramped rear seat). The interesting thing was that we still carried everything we actually needed, and I preferred being squashed into the Chevette cos it was quiter and got us there more quickly. Packing was much quicker too!
It seems to me that the real advantage of small MPVs is in the seating space -- the rear seats actually seem designed to fit adults, unlike the rear seats of most ordinary hatchbacks -- but that isn't an issue for small kids, let alone babies.
If you really do want to burden yourself with lots of luggage, I can see the case for an estate car with small kids, but not for an MPV. The MPV doesn't seem to have a role as family transport until you get much further into the breeding program, and have three or more big offspring ... by which time the bigger ones probably want to go and do their own thing anyway.
It really is one of the great marvels of our time that the marketing men have succeeded in persuading families that they a couple with with small babies needs a car specially designed to carry large people.
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Ah you forget one thing. Kiddies (5 upwards) *love* MPVs of the Scenic/Tino/Piccaso variety. Its the picnic tables, its the cubby holes, but mostly its the VIEW. They are high up, can see forward, see over things. They love it.
My scenic was the most practical animal I have ever had. And I have had, saloons, hatchbacks, estates. Nothing came close to the all round versatile nature of the Scenic, be it family trip to France minus dog, family trip to devon with dog, two mates using it as a camper van at Silverstone, Aged granny being able to slide in and out no problem, 24 (yes count them) 24 full dustbin bags of rubbish to tip, 4 doors from builders yard, three full size adult bikes.
There was nothing that thing would not carry or swallow when I needed it too. Did it in comfort and in style (but not pace, it was a slowish thing)
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Fair point RF - my kids love that feeling in my wife's F/lander, but Clariman's got a new born so at least a couple of years where seeing out isn't much of an issue.
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Very interesting that you only live 4 doors away from the builders yard - you have my sympathies!
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As far as I'm concerned by far the biggest advantage (and it is a huge advantage) of an MPV over a normal car is its height. It is much easier to strap children into the back of an MPV than it is an estate car. An MPV with sliding doors is even better.
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the daewoo tacuma is very cheap
For a reason, its a nasty bit of kit. Tried this and the H. Matrix last year. Cut my finger on sharp plastic moulding in the Matrix. The tacuma plastics reminded me of my (shudder) maestro. Both nasty nasty cars
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I'd save your money and time and simply keep the current car, or if you need to change it a decent 5-door hatchback.
I now have 4 kids and a Zafira, with three little ones the five of us got in a Metro 5-door with all the kit, you just have to learn how to pack.
"Why don't you pack the car dear" to SWMBO usually saw 3/4 of the stuff disappear upstairs!
Even now with the eldest (being a not insignificant 5'6" or so) fits happily in the back row of the Zafira with her music on ignoring the rest of the rabble.
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In the same position we opted to go for a second hand Volvo 940 estate. For about £10,000 you would get a very longlasting tough vehicle that swallows kit and is far better quality than a new Berlingo etc. maybe an 8 series or V70. Mileage is not a great issue either...we bought with 165000 on the clock and kept it 5 years.
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Encountered the same problme 7 monoths ago. Got a second hand Octavia estate. Biggest boot in the class and all the toys. Once a year servicing from friendly local (now independant 'cause his showroom wasn't big enough) Skoda dealer.
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