best car for camping

[Loueze]

Afternoon ladies
We're after a car for camping, budgets £2k ish. Leaning towards zafira, mondeo or Picasso. Anyone own one? Go camping? Have experience or suggestions?
Thanks in advance x

I don't think that Citroens are known for their long life span or reliability, so if you are buying second hand I'd avoid the Picasso.

There are loads of Zafiras around, they seem popular and there are a lot of really old ones (the original style) still on the roads which suggests they are well-built and will last a long time.

Fords are generally ok, and the Mondeo is a big car so you'd fit all your camping gear in.

But I have never been camping (apart from with the Girl Guides over 20 years ago!) and have never owned any of the above cars!

Dh owns a mondeo and its a fab car. Massive boot. We used to camp but actually used my smaller car for camping!

"I don't think that Citroens are known for their long life span or reliability, so if you are buying second hand I'd avoid the Picasso. "

The legions of Xsara Picassos still being used as mini cabs says otherwise.

The 2.0HDi engine (the older one, so slightly less efficient than the newer 1.6) is almost unbreakable.

My own Picasso is not far shy of 200,000 miles and has been pretty much mechanically perfect, and came in £800 under your budget :) Of course things wear out, but parts are cheap and relatively easy to fit making bills small. And as they built millions of them, it's easy to get parts from scrap yards if ever you need them. (Looks disapprovingly at cracked rear light - thanks shopping-trolley-abandoner in Tesco)

When we camp we remove the unused rear seats and are able to go away for a fortnight without using a roof box or trailer (and our tent is huge) although it's a bit of a squash so we will use the trailer or roof bars this year.

They're dull as anything to drive, but as a family car at that price are unbeatable I'd say. Watch for the rear seats if you want to use those baby seats with the leg on a base - if you get a Picasso with the under floor storage you can only use those seats in the centre middle as otherwise the 'foot' bit is only on a plastic lid over the storage 'hole'.