best 7 seater for 7k?

[PalePolkaDot]

I desperately need a bigger car as we have had dc3 and neither our fabia or octavia for us I'm comfortably any more.

We can raise 7k but not much more and desperately need as much space as possible with reliability and safety. what would you go for? Tia?

We had a vw touran and now have a ford smax. Both have been fab. I would avoid zafiras.

I love our S Max. Three under three and the three seats fit fine across the back seat with the additional two seats if required.

Have a look at an XC90. They're expensive new but you'll pick an older one up for 7k. As a Volvo, safety is excellent. I had one until last year and always felt safe. Lots of boot room too. Even boot room for a pram with all the seats up.

I second avoiding zafiras. Their safety record is based on not having the 3rd row of seats up. When up, your child's head is very close to any impact. Safety tests with all seats up are terrifying even if not official. Check out YouTube.

I've got a Toyota corolla verso and I love it. My second choice was a vw touran

Thanks for all the ideas. It's hard to hear zafiras are a bad idea as 7k would buy a much newer one of those. S-Max's are way more fir much older. Decisions!

We have a ford galaxy which is fab. 6th & 7th seats are adult size too but good away to give a sized brilliant boot.

XC90 no use to us because of boot space.

Zafiras absolute NO....

and run away from Renault grand scenic too. Utter guff.

My dad knows about this stuff and swears by the galaxy.

VW touran is working well for us with three kids 5 and under. We're even leaning towards getting another one when we've runt his one into the ground!

I have a c4 grand Picasso. 3 full size seats in the back which move independently and easily fit 3 car seats, and 2 child sized seats in the boot which pop up super easily, we have had 7 adults in it at a push! I love it, reliable, nice to drive, pretty good fuel economy etc.

chocoLit, I found the xc90 very roomy but then I only needed one of the back seats up so that left quite a large boot space down one side.

Just read the zafiras comments to DH! He's sad!

Homemamma one of our friends have one and loves it too but we need our 7seater to double as a van for work. Galaxy is as close to a van as we can get

2 dfs had zafiras - one caught fire and they got out with seconds to spare and the other couldn't get their 3 full car seats across the middle so you have to make sure they're narrow ones. We test drove one and found inside it was plasticy and cheap looking. We went for an older model touran which was fab until we traded it in last year for an smax which has more space which is great now our dc are bigger. Lovely to drive too but the touran was pretty good too.

galaxy

I have a Grand C4 Picasso too.

Purchased new in 2009 and still going strong. I bought it specifically as the three back seats are full satay - not two seats and a shelf type seat in the centre.

DC grown up now so I don't even need such a big car but I love it. For a large car it is economical to run and easy to park.

Unfortunately when the back row of seats is up the boot space is tiny.

Look at the Kia Carens. You'd get a great one for 7k. Super car.

We are considering a seat Alhambra

Other choices are s max, Galaxy

We have an ancient Galaxy and are about to pay 3-6k for a newer one, or maybe a C-Max or a Touran.

Question is how much to spend vs age and mileage of car, really. Any rules of thumb for when a car is more likely to need costly repairs?

We are going with a C4 Grand Picasso. it came down to that or a Grand Scenic and the tax is lower on the picasso.

The XC90 looks amazing but it was v old for our money. if I was richer I'd look at a newer one though - really solid and fab space.

The Grand C-Max looked really nice and I like the sliding doors but there's lower head space and none locally anyway

We are going for lowest mileage though the car is older. I know nothing of when problems hit though

I'm on my 3rd Galaxy and I still love 'em. First two were quite old but I got a 6k loan last year and bought an 07 reg in immaculate condition with low mileage.
Look for ghia models but you can get great lower specs with pretty much all the ghia kit. Have a trawl round Autotrader to see what's around.
Newer Galaxies have fold flat seats which are better than the old ones as you had to take seats out to make most room.
I can fit 2 teenagers, a 10 yo, a big dog and a full week's camping kit in (including duvets are we are wusses), plus food, and not be cramped.

Not sure if you've got one yet but I've got a Kia Sedona and love it, it has electric sliding doors which are great when my hands are full of for opening/closing the door for dd1 while I sort out 15mo dd2, I can get a pushchair and stroller in the boot without folding them up (we removed back row of seats).

With back row removed the middle row of seats are still full sized so easy to fit 2 car seats in plus room for an adult.

Very reliable.