Recommendations for a reliable 7 seater car please

[Jeany1967]

Am in the market for a reliable automatic 7 seater car. I was looking at the Citroen Grand Picasso but have read horrendous reviews in the last few days so am looking at others. I've read mixed reviews about Peugeots, Renault's and Fords.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.

VW touran?

I rented a 7 seater automatic Skoda kodiaq recently and loved driving it.

Love our Nissan xtrail, but the person in the middle seat on row two needs skinny hips, and the people in the boot need short legs.

Kia?
We've just moved out of our 7 seater era but our first sedona then sorrento were both fab reliable cars and 7 year warranty was worth it. No sliding doors on the sorrento but otherwise great

Ugly but can't fault our Zafira Tourer.

I've got a Peugeot 5008 had it from new 3 years ago. No problems at all with it, I love it. It's a tad big - like any other 7 seater - so have to make sure I've got an end bay in smaller car parks, but no downsides other than that.

Thank you everyone.

My favourite is looking like the Peugeot at the moment as the others aren't in my price range unfortunately. But I've read really mixed reviews about Peugeots (much like Citroens). The Peugeots look spacious (what you need when you have 4 young children and pushchairs to think about).

Skoda kodiaq

VW Sharan. V reliable and great use of space.

My best and favourite 7 seater was my VW sharan. I had 3 Sharans; loved them so much!

All manual transmission and diesel. My 3rd Sharan was a 2008 reg plate that we got in 2010. It had integral child seats. We loved that car like a member of the family!

I kept it from 2010 until 2023!!!!

I put it on Gumtree in 2023 and it was sold within ½ hour. I was so sad to see it go, I had actual dreams (like when i was properly asleep at night!) about the car for 3 whole weeks🤣

I still check out her wherabouts on the tax and mot website - she is still on the road somewhere at 16 yrs old. What a car!!

We had a Touran for a while and it was far too small. With 7 seats up you can just squidge a small stroller buggy in the'boot'

Do not get a Touran if you have 5 kids.

Currently have ford s max.

But our kids are adult now so we only really need 5 seats. We normally have the back 2 seats down which leaves a huge boot space for our double dog crate.

But - the extra 2 seats are handy if needed. They are only for small adults or kids though.

Sharan, Alhambra, Galaxy. They are great sized 7 seaters.

Wow!! Sounds like an awesome car and one I should look into! Thanks!

We have had the Citroen for 5 years (now 7 years old) - no problems at all here and we love it.

I absolutely love my Ford galaxy. I did lots of research before I bought it (quite obsessively 😂) and it was definitely right for me. I seem to remember the Alhambra and sharan have exactly the same proportions? The galaxy I think was the biggest and seemed the most reliable in my research. It is big to park and drive but you get used to it. I have 3 kids now teenagers, with 4 I’d definitely be looking at the galaxy, Alhambra and sharan rather than anything smaller. I looked at lots of videos online which helped me to visualise it. One thing that swayed me is the Ford has adult size seats in the back and all the other 7 seaters were a squish - important if you’re planning to keep it for a while (as I was). Galaxies seem to last for an awful lot of miles too (did I mention I love my galaxy…)

We have the Peugeot 5008. As a family of 5 it works well, if we were a family of 6+ and all seat were in use all the time I'd be looking at the Alhambra or other people carriers with easier access to bigger rear seats.

Just re read your post and see you have 4DC. In that case I definitely wouldn't go for the Citroen or similar - the back seats are only usable on an occasional basis (they don't fit car seats well, and once child is too big for car seats they're too big for the space!) Think you want the Sharan or Galaxy.

Sharan has adult sized seats in the back too. Or at least mine did. Obvs mine was an older model. It was the old shape and no sliding doors.

They discontinued Sharans last year i think but there is a 2nd hand market for them.
Alhambra has the exact same engine as Sharan, just not as swish inside so cheaper (though vw you always pay through the nose for)

Galaxy same size.

My vw with integral car seats was a special model - Sharan SE i think it was. I don't know if they continued any with these seats or even if they are legal by current standards but they were amazing.

You could pull a tab on the seat which put it up into a booster seat.

And then a bit pulled out from the seat back with belts and that was for babies (from about 8 months) It had isofix too for baby car seats.

Here is a pic of one of the seats from when i advertised the car. It had 2 of these seats.