What engine size? Total confusion over what's good for a 7 seater? say a Grand Scenic or Touran

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Why dont they just make one engine size?
Can anyone tell me if they find their 7 seater sluggish. Im wondering if a say 1.9diesel is better than a 1.6 petrol. Am I really going to notice. Currently have a 1.6 petrol Zafira. Occasionally find it a little sluggish but Im not doing loads of driving. Mainly round the local suburbs with the monthly trip to the coast or motorway drive. Have now test driven a VW Touran and a Grand Scenic. Prefer the Touran but Grand Scenic considerably cheaper second hand. Any body know about these things or love the zip/hate the lack of zip about your bigger car??

We love our Touran we have got the diesel. We tried the Grand Scenic as well. If you look up customer review websites the Renaults have lots of faults and poor customer service/satisfaction. This leads to them being much cheaper second hand. Tourans like most VWs retain their value much better so they are more expensive but you will lose less money when you sell it on. VW definitely a better drive.

Thanks Tapster. I know I felt happier driving the Touran. It felt very solid and well put together and I prefer it to the Grand Scenic but the price difference between the renault and VW might be too much for us. Neither me nor dh are particularly car savvy. Its very hard to know how much to spend isnt it? once we've bought this car, we want to keep it for a good few years so perhaps we should go for the Touran.
Just out of interest what model diesel did you go for. Did you find it hard to drive/sluggish to begin with?

I've got a touran, 1.9 diesel, and me and dh love it to bits. I've never driven a diesel before, so I've nothing to compare it to there, but it's got more, erm sorry not really into cars much, so prob shouldn't give advice, umph if that's the word, than the vectra it replaced.

We've just got the basic model - it's about 2 years old now, but it comes with all the extras that we need - cd player, air con etc.

do you intend using the 7 seats all together most of the time?

Hi Bobblehat. Thanks for you message. YOu dont need to know loads about cars. We test drove a diesel Touran the other afternoon and I just found it quite tricky - I kept stalling and the car salesman said that it would take a little getting used to. Then there was talk about the different engines!! straight over my head!
I probably will only have my 3 in the car most of the time, with the other two seats as occasional more than everyday. Do you drive mainly just around town or do you drive loads.

If you look in whatcar.co.uk you can click on the different engine sizes and models and it tells you which one they recommend. For a big car like that, I think diesel is generally considered to be better and I would say at least a 1.9 litre engine. I think it's fairly normal to keep stalling when you try a new car but you should get used to it fairly quickly.

I did stall it a lot at the start, but it's quick to get used to

tab, I have a 2002 2.0 dti Zafira (they don't make that any more I don't think, it's a 1.9 now) and it's fantastic, accelerates really well and does about 45mpg.

I had a 1.6 - or maybe 1.8 - petrol one for a couple of weeks, when mine was being fixed after an accident; it used about twice as much fuel and was much slower.

Whichever car you get, go for a diesel engine

We have the smallest diesel that you can get in the Touran and I dont find it sluggish but I dont use the 7 seats very often. Im a crap driver and if anybody was going to stall it it would be me and I did at first for a week then I was fine. We plan to keep our Touran for many years and the reliability makes us feel comfortable with this!