Been looking for months and I can find older ones or 2 year old ( too expensive )ones.

Want a proper 7 seater , not French or automatic. I only find 1 at a time and usually too far away to just go & look at one. Phoned round garages, looked in the paper, looked on autotrader. Looked on eBay although I don't know enough to buy from there.

Took me a while to find mine and had to travel.

Took me 4 months to find my diesel 07 plate with a decent mileage. You need to look every day, have saved alerts and be prepared to travel. You can't rely on leaving your details with dealers - imo they never phone you. Mine was a trade in at a Nissan dealers - it is not a Nissan!

Also depends which 7 seater you want - VW and Ford SMax are most common around here.

We are currently looking at 40 mile radius but that takes us 2 hours away.

S Max isn't proper seats is it? That's the bit we keep hitting.

Preference is VW sharan, ford galaxy, seat alhambra,Mazda bongo ( not much hope there!). Dh is tempted by the bigger vans but I'd like to get into car parks!

Ive got a Dodge Journey.
Seven proper seats.
Bloody awesome cars. Im on my third one.

Tell us postcode of your nearest town, OP?

It's not just you, we struggled to find ours. We started looking when we found out I was having twins (scan at 13 weeks). I was 37 weeks when we finally picked one up! It wasn't quite what I was looking for either but we ran out of time

We got our Bongo on Ebay, in fact both of ours. Where are you, maybe someone might have one for sale.

Just found loads of Bongos on eBay ( approx 2 hours away) then realised they were all automatics.

Postcode may out me as I'm only in a small town.

Why is it difficult? Because you have very specific requirements:
- 7 'proper' seats - small number of vehicles/minority market
- not French - eliminates a few large manufacturers with focus on the 'family' sector, and also the main price point that you're probably after
- not automatic - I share your preference, but it further reduces the prospects, especially if family cruisers are usually specced with autos.
- between £x and £y
- less than 40 miles away

Either be more flexible with what you will accept, or wait until you find the right one.

I've been looking since the start of October , thought there would have been more than one to look at.
Seems to be a gap at that age range as I can find lots of 10+ year old ones and loads of 2 year old ones.

We've recently xchanged our 4 year old SMax and they said it was very rare to get a car of that age and type in as people normally buy them and keep them until the DCs are much older.

I think that's probably right. I can see why the people before us got rid of our scenic though

What about a VW Caravelle?

Ooh that might work too.

I had never had a automatic until we bought our first Bongo, wouldnt drive a manual now.

Bongos are fantastic we love ours, the best £1200 we spent.
www.bongofury.co.uk
This has loads of info on them.
The problem you have is not many newer seven seaters about we have two a 1996 Bongo and a 1997 Peugeot 406 Family estate, had the Peugeot 4 years and 200,000 m iles I love it and wouldnt swap it for a newer one

You can buy my car. It is shit though and breaks down every few weeks and has biscuits stuffed down the windows so it crunches when you wind them down. Oh and it comes with three stroppy children thrown in! All reasonable offers accepted.

That's why our scenic is going! That and the fact every problem costs at least £300.

Been looking at the bongos again, discussing going to this garage at wigan (2 1/2 hours drive!)to look at a few at once to see if they tick our boxes. Had a quick scan for galaxy/sharan in that area to compare with but still not much.

Dh is currently on bongo fury at work.

Definately get a diesel manual it it will last forever, automatic gear boxes wear out and are very expensive plus more heavy on fuel consumption.

Don't forget the alhambra it's the same as the galaxy/sharan

Yeah that's on my list. Though seem even rarer.

Good info on the automatic, know nothing about them.

Definately get a diesel manual it it will last forever, automatic gear boxes wear out

That's a bold statement - if the car has a diesel particulate filter, it can get clogged and stop working which could cost in the region of £1K. Manual gearboxes will probably need the clutch replacing at some point (again, could be a four-figure sum depending on the car).

All mechanical components can wear out.

If the Garage in Wigan is Wheel quick, it will be a good Bongo.
They are a small service and repair place who sell a few good Bongos, I have been twice for parts and once for a repair, allways excellent service a few people on the Bongofury forum bought from him and live miles away but stiull return for servicing.
Just get a video and pics Emailed befor you travel, any Bongo type questions please ask

I forgot to mention
If this is a second car you can get the insurance down if its a camper, a standard Bongo seats convert to a large double bed, or four seats and a table, I fitted a kitchen with hob abd sink in the boot,some insurance companys now class it as a camper van, my insurance went from near £1000 to £320 fully comp with two drivers.
Some cos want a full conversion and the log book stating campervan, but half are happy if it has a pop top, so best to ask and shop around as some are funny over it being a jap import and having 8 seats, but do your home work, Adrien Flux is a good start for insurance, then just check on Bongo fury, most insurers will ask if you belong to a club, if so say yes and jopin Bongo fury for anout £12 a year its worth it for the insurance discount

Thanks. That's useful, it is wheel quick.

yes sumo i guess it is, I can only rely on what my decent, reasonable, knowledgable mechanic told me.

I know this is not what you want but some ties its about getting by till the right vehicle turns up, I have just heard of a mint 7 seater Volvo estate for sale its about 20 mins from Wheelquick, Silver, top of the range, leather etc, think he wants about £1000, so they are about, this was £30,000 new, extra seats have never been used.
I had one for about 3 years and couldnt break it.

Zumo, if the op isn't interested in the volvo would you mind sending me a pm with the details?

Details sent via PM

zumo are the extra seats proper ones or collapsible? We will be using 6 all the time hence the limitations on what we want to look at. I've not come across a Volvo one but it's not a brand im familiar with! Pm me the details but enorma don't worry about getting there first as it might be a while before we could get that far to look!

Have a look here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5fJ02fX_vk
At 2.42, show how the extra seats work, its a slightly newer car than his
PM sent

Its not the ideal solution but would keep you mobile whilst yopu are looking

Thanks.