Mazda 5 versus Toyota Corolla Verso

BigEejit

Wifey and I were looking for a MPV type car for her, she will be doing 60 mile round trips and so we were thinking diesel for economy. We have narrowed it down to the Mazda 5 (likely a 2.0D 143 Sport, 2008, pre facelift) and the Corolla Verso 2.2D SR (also 2008). We are in the southeast UK so tax considerations dont really apply.

I have a few questions that you knowledgeable people may be able to help me with:
I have seen the mazda 5 referred to as a 6+1 ... one of the seats is quite small apparently, has anyone any experience of the car can give their opinion?
Also on the mazda 5, I have seen a couple of places that it can eat tyres ... to such an extent that they changed the rear suspension and the alloys with the 2008 facelift. Honest John has someone complaining that it ate new tyres down to steel in 16 or 17 thousand miles. Anyone have experience of that? Is the lad on Honest John a 'squeaky wheel' and most people do not have this issue?
If anyone has the satnav version of the mazda 5, whats the quality of the picture from the reversing camera?


Anyone think we are barking up the wrong tree and we should be considering something else? Budget is about 9k sterling ...bit of leeway to go over that but it would want to be a good reason because I have to talk the wife into it :P


(/edit we have two kids and the amount of crap we end up carrying around isnt funny, we need something with a decent amount of space)

Leonard Hofstadter

Don't go for the Mazda under any circumstances, those diesel engines are a total disaster. That said, Toyota's 2.2 diesel is not fantastic reliability wise either - head gasket failure is a known fault with those engines.

What about something like a Ford S-Max, or an Opel Zafira 1.9 CDTi? Being in the UK there should be loads of both cars around, so it should be relatively straightforward to find one with a decent spec. That said, with the Opel, the 150 bhp engine seems to be a lot less reliable than the less powerful 120 bhp model.

alias no.9

The rearmost seats in all the mini MPVs are not really suitable for adults and are at best occasional seats for kids. The middle seat in the middle row in the Mazda are also small so think of the Verso as a 5+2 and the Mazda as a 4+3. I was looking at one before and getting three child seats across the middle row of seats is a bit of a struggle if that's a concern. All that said the sliding rear doors on the Mazda are the business for getting small children in and out of the middle row. The biggest concern about the mazda is the engine, ticking time bomb for big end failure. Rebuild or scrap is the only option when it happens because replacement engines are impossible to get due to the extent of the problems.

bazz26

HG is only an issue in the 180bhp version of the 2.2 D-4D engine as fitted to the Lexus IS220d and Avensis T180. The 150bhp version fitted to the Corolla Verso doesn't suffer from the same problem. The Verso is also available in 2.0 D-4D.

Citroen Grand Picasso 2.0 HDI is worth looking at too.

colm_mcm

Verso D-4D 2.0 only available on the newer current model.
(or way back in 05-06)