Touran or Sharan?

[fatsatsuma]

We love the space and comfort in the Sharan, and the sliding doors but we're not totally convinced we need quite such a big car. We do have 3 DCs, including 2 teenagers, so a proper 7 seater might be good.

I know the Touran is smaller, but is it really that much smaller? Does the Sharan drive and park like a tank. We test drove one today and really liked it, but didn't get to have a go at parking or reverse through our narrow gate...I know there's park assist but prob too expensive for us.

Any advice from VW owners gratefully received.

is Park assist the parking sensors? It was £200 to add them to our 2007 seat alhambra. The touran doesn't have full size rear seats which put me off, and i hear the back seats are much less safe in a crash (from a colleague who has a sharan and was advising me on MPVs prior to us buying our Seat for our not yet here twins and toddler) . I traded my mini in for a 7 dearer and have to say I love it so far. And the alhambra is basically a cheaper sharan, so say my local garage! So with 3 dc and a good chance of using rear seats I'd get a proper 7 seater and go sharan.

Oh-and driving is a bit minibus like but so comfy!!

Just glanced at this on active convos and rolled my eyes thinking it was a baby names thread

Ohbugrit

Thanks DreamingofPeace. Park assist is more than just parking sensors - it basically parks for you!

Any other VW tank drivers around?

Sharan is fab, absolutely love ours.
Don't have Park Assist but the sensors help lots. Used to have a Grand Scenic and it doesn't feel that different. If you're transporting teens and their associated crap I'd go for the Sharan.

Thanks weblette. I think we would have rear parking sensors fitted so good to know they help. I'm imagining myself choosing to park in the far corner of the car park to avoid having to squeeze into tight spaces

Please tell me why you love your sharan

Can I get dh on Later fatsatsuma. We got one before Xmas and he is thrilled with it.

Yes please gigondas - that would be great.

If he's a sharan expert, I'd better come clean and confess that we're looking at the petrol engine. Partly due to the mileage and type of drinking we do most, partly cos they're cheaper. We test drove one and loved the smooth ride compared to our current diesel.

'type of drinking we do'???
Driving...

We've a diesel actually and the ride's lovely. Plenty of ooomph when you need it, engine noise minimal - it's certainly much quieter than previous VW diesels we've had.
Fuel economy is excellent, we've done 800 miles on one tank on a long road trip.
Cabin's spacious, back seats are comfortable for adults while still leaving enough room for luggage even with everything up.
Fitout is solid, well-made and not gadget-heavy.

we have an alhambra, (only 2 boys though) My dh generally drives it and he thinks it's the best car ever

I saw this in active convos and thought it was going to be a baby name thread :o

Another factor was that our local dealership is fantastic.

One of issues that decided us on sharan v touran was width /seat arrangements. You can get 3 isofix fittings on sharan . Plus it's wide enough for 3 to sit as opposed to touran (or The Tiguan we had before ) which can't really sit 3 across the back comfortably unless it's little kids .

This was quite important as do long trips on hols so quite often have adult in back.

We have diesel dsg- and am sure dh will also go on about it's fuel economy

Fat satsuma - see link here where dh posted before (poppysdog) shazza . Can ask if you have any more queries but think there is lots there

Thanks Gigondas. Just had a look through that thread - lots of useful stuff. We also do long journeys for holidays, with a car and trailer full of camping gear, so would be good to have plenty of seat space.

I've already asked this, but how do you find parking?

We have a touran and love it but the two seats in the rear are obviously smaller. At the moment my children and their friends are small enough to fit comfortably in any of the seats (age 7-11) but when they are proper teenagers the rear ones will be a bit small if you are going any distance 9so for you I guess it means if you are likely to be having friends / relatives as well as your own family). The pluses for us are that you are driving around (and parking) in a reasonably normal size car rather than a van equivalent and this outweighs the negatives of it being smaller.

We have park assist so incredibly easy. If not, the visibility is good but it's the usual issue on parking a big car. So vote here for park assist as an option (it parallel parks and perpendicular parks ).

We have a touran and whilst I love it...we need a few inches in the back. so if you can get a sharan then I would!

As someone who has bumped and scraped a Ford focus, so far I've been ok with our Sharan-sized alhambra. Parking sensors help (but are v v sensitive so sometimes I look like a fool by getting out to check how much space I have behind it still if they're beeping). Parallel parking is taking a little getting used to, obviously you need a bigger space but the visibility all round is good unless you add an enormous extended rear facing child seat in which you won't with teenagers so I think its that I'm hopeless anyway and we've only had it a month or so.

I'm also capable of scraping a small car. I would prob be over-cautious in a large one

Decisions decisions. It's so tricky.

Thanks to everyone who mentioned diesel engines. We've decided against petrol in the end, but of course diesels are more expensive. Our budget will stretch to a reasonably new diesel, but prob not any fancy extras - so no Park Assist

Have you tried an online broker? Discounts there have usually paid for park assist when we used them.

Sorry Gigondas - am v ignorant but what do you mean by an online broker?

We have a touran and we really do love it. Have 3 small dc's though. If I could afford a sharan we'd definitely upgrade. I would love the extra space but then again I'm always lugging a pram etc around.