xsara picasso vs scenic-thoughts please

[Fillyjonk]

can't decide

mileage is prob about 5 k per year and we'd be getting a diesel. We have about 8k to spend really (but the less the better as we're paying it back), so are prob going to get quite high mileage and an 03 car.

Am worried about the false floors on both, the official advice is not to use car seats with "feet" on false floors.

We have a 6 week old, a 2.8 yo and a 4 year old.

yes I know this is deeply boring. I would rather gnaw my own leg off than look at more car info but I am not sure that that would help much.

From what I have heard with Renault, if you get a good one, they're great, but they can equally be very, very bad. Personally wouldn't touch either Scenic of Picasso with a barge pole, despite their ubiquitousness, as neither have that great a reputation for reliability. But then, I do love a Vauxhall, and the Zafira is the one people carrier that doesn't have underfloor storage, so can be used with footed car seats. And they're incredibly cheap to run/service/repair.

Incidentally, with 8k to spend I would have thought you'd be looking for a low milage reasonably new car...

I must be incredibly sad, lol, as I love looking at cars and reading reviews and whatnot!

Ours is a funky spiky one. Diesel with lots of oomph.

We have a Picasso. My Dh loves cars, spent hours and hours looking at reviews/comparisons/safety/reliability/fuel economy etc (snore, snore).

Our Picasso has been terrific, no repairs at all, no problems at all, loads of room, easy to drive, easy to park. I think it looks nicer than Scenics too.

Get a Picasso!

Love our Grand Scenic. Tons of room and a good drive too. The diesel engine's really quiet. Never had any problems with it. Feels more substantial than a Picasso.

I have a Scenic, nearly six years old. Only conked out once, about 3 years ago. This was because of the recirculator(?) according to dh who is a car fanatic. Recirculates the exhaust fumes. Unfortunately we were on the way to a funeral up north at the time. However, the AA man knew exactly what was wrong and fixed it instantly by turning it/something 180degrees. Apparently a common problem, but dh says would be common to both Scenic and Picasso as they have the same engines.

Dh was only commenting the other day that that incident apart, the Scenic has been exceptionally reliable and economic. (its a deisel).

My only grumble is that the windscreen sometimes takes a minute or two to clear on a cold morning. A plus is you get such a great view (which I love too) that ds2 hardly ever gets travel sick in it. I also think the interior is good quality and has worn exceptionally well.

We are due to replace it this year and dh is favouring a Volkswagon Touran.

WHAT?

They have the same bloody ENGINE?

Oh fgs

Hi Filly - sorry - forgot I'd posted! If I were in your position I would go for either a Zafira (if finances are tight) - loads around, decent reliability, v practical. If you have a bit more money I would go for a Ford s max though - I don't know if you can get them for approx £10 yet but it's worth a go. Fab to drive, great room etc, etc. My thoughts are with you - we had this last summer when no 3 finally grew out of her car seat and 3 boosters wouldn't fit in ours. My dh was depressed for about 8 weeks (I kid you not - I would have killed him with my bear hands if he hadn't come out of it shortly after that!) but we are now thoroughly used to our alhambra - nice and big but cheap to run and endlessly reliable - ugly as u know what though!!

bare hands!!

ahhh thanks

zafira doesn't fit the seats across and with all 7 seats out there is NO boot, so have ruled it out

can't afford s class sadly, though dp is checking cmax for car seats fitting.

its an utter pita, if we could hang on a year we could buy an octavia but...I think we need something nowish

but thanks!

fillyjonk haven't read the thread, BUT we have had both. Currently we have a icasso, had a scenic about 5 years ago (possibly 6 or 7 as time flies)

The picasso felt more 'plasticky' than the scenic to start with, but it really made up for it in the fact 3 car seats can fit in the back, they cannot in the scenic. We only have 2 kicds, but we have had 2 stage 2 seats and a booster in teh back before.

ALSO the picasso seems better fuel economy wise, it is also FAR lower emissions, we get cheaper car tax! The only downside is the blind spots that I have noticed. I love the large centrallised trip computtor and everything else.

It was also far cheaper. We got a year old model at £9000 ish it had 30,000 miles on teh clock. It has now got 120,000 miles on teh clock and is going strong. We expect another 4 or 5 years at least. We do 15 - 20,ooo miles a year.