New Car - Big Boot!

[Tiggywunkle]

Hi, please would you help me.
The last car I bought was as a single person. I now have a DH, and two children and a pile of pushchairs! We always have a boot full of stuff!
My convertible has done us proud, but we haven't had the roof down for nearly 2 years because the kids say its "too blowy", and what is driving the change more than anything is the lack of leg room in the rear.
We always used to have back up if we needed to transport anything big but now we don't. So we need to be able to put large items eg a Christmas tree in, if necessary:

So, we need a car with:
a) Leg room for the children in the back - most cars would fulfil this one!
b) 4 seats - we dont need any more particularly but 5 I know is the norm and the 5th would be useful for taking kitties to the vets!
c) a HUGE easily accessible boot where the rear seats could be dropped down if necessary ie Ikea run! I dont really want an estate car, but if that gives me the big boot then fine. Equally I dont want to be playing Jenga where you load everything in and the whole lots collapses or slides out the bottom of the boot when you move something! So a ledge would be good.
d) I dont want a van like seating position ie sat upright with legs down rather than forwards. I used to drive a Zafira and it made my legs hurt badly.
e) Sliding doors or easy access doors would be fabulous
f) I have a sense of style and dont want anything old fashioned, too square or old grannyish!
g) good storage pockets everywhere would be a bonus!

We will probably buy something thats a couple of years old if that helps.
Budget is probably under £8,000.

All ideas would be appreciated as I am soooo completely out of the car market that I dont have a clue!
Thanks in advance.

Octavia is a good shout. Also the VW Passat, even the saloon boot is cavernous. I slept in the back of that a couple of times, rear seats folded down and stretched out into the boot. The seats don't fold to horizontal though, there is a bit of a slope.

Honda Accord is a very nice drive, not sure about boot size. How about a Jaguar S Type? A 5-6 year old 2.7 diesel is in budget. It might not fit the style requirement, depending on your preference, but how about an XJ? You'd be looking more at 2003/04 models (personally I prefer the previous models, late-90s sort of time) - is this getting too daft on running costs?

Mercedes E Class, again looking at about 6-7 years old. Their Bavarian rivals BMW - 5 series, plenty of 520Ds around the same age (or slightly younger) for your budget.

Thanks for the suggestions.

We definitely want something fairly new ie only a couple of years old, or else we would make do with what we have. I am trying to avoid servicing / MOTing it as things are starting to fail on it.

The Accord looks good....although my dad had one and that in itself puts me off. But thats the sort of thing.
It needs to be reasonable on running costs TBH. We really dont need anything like a Merc or Jag TBH much as I would love one. They are a step too far.
Skoda fits into f) above!
I guess I was looking more maybe at a Meriva / S-Max / Megane Scenic / Picasso / Mondeo size but know nothing about these and some of these strike me as too upright for me to drive.

I'm loving my Kia Venga. We had a picasso before and because of my mobility, I needed a higher up car. It's perfect for us x

We have had loads if trouble with our scenic. Won't touch Renault agsin. Everything that goes wrong costs so much more than the Toyota. The Renault has cost more in 2 years than the Toyota has in 8.