estate or people carrier?

[Cha]

We need a bigger vehicle and I was wondering if you could tell me what you've got and why? I never buy A THING without asking mumsnetters first...
ATM we have a Polo, 2 kids and a large dog. We also have 3 other kids (dp's) who come to stay at the weekend and holidays, so at times there are 7 of us. Though this is mercifully not very often, so a 7 seater is not an absolute must. In the summer we like to go camping, so we need a car with lots of boot room for all the equipment and the dog.
We would be buying second hand and could only stretch to about £8,000 - what do you recommend - and what do you say steer clear of?

The police use people carriers too!

Seriously though, yamamoto, from Cha's first post, they sometimes need to carry 7 people plus dog plus camping kit. I think they'd need a roofbox and a trailer to do that with a Volvo estate!

Excellent, thats decided then, a Volvo V70 estate with rear seats and a trailer. Well within budget and the "safest" option! If trailer is used the roof carrier would not be needed. (Ours is an R reg with 70K on the clock, and worth about £6K. New price £32K!)

Is there a spell check on this site??