Tell me about your 7 seater mpv

monkeysnapper

Im so confused in looking for a good mpv 7 seater.

Can people give me their pros and cons in their mpv , would they buy their current model again if they had the chance

My background is i own a audi a4 avant. 1.9 tdi , its hopeless with boot storage. By time we put a buggy for 3 year old and pram for 4 month old and bags, theres no room for shopping or anything els. The car itself is really good but very dissapointing for space .

We,d like to extend the family in next 2/3 years so want to buy something in next 6 months and will keep us going for next 5/6 years

Thanks

SuperGrover

I had an A4. Happy out. Had 2 babas. Buggy space issues etc.

Bought a Mazda 5. Sorted.

Pros - plenty of space, but compact enough. Sliding rear doors. Flat folding seats.

Cons - basic enough spec. 1.8 petrol.

gallag

We changed the wives car to a mpv and after a lot of research, legwork etc ended up with this titan x sport s-max. She had a vxr vectra and likes a bit of grunt so got the 2.2 200bhp donkey. Great car, no complaints so far.
2012-11-01 22.52.10.jpg

NIMAN

That's one sexy baby carrier!

goz83

We have a 06 Zafira. 1.6 Petrol. Works very well with kid under 2, a 5 year old and 9 year old (plus anothe due in Dmber). Has 5+2 seats, with the 2 rear ones able to fold flat independently. If 1 child wants to sit in the very back, we can have one seat flat, still leaving haps of space for buggy and baggage. I should also mention that when the back seats are in use, there is ample leg room for kids, which is not the case with other fold flat seats in other models. If I were to change, I would get the 1.8 model for a bit more power. Otherwise, great family mpv.

BnB

07-Ford S Max

Pros -

MASSIVE boot space with the back 2 seats flat.
Back seats are very easy to flip up and down.
Middle row of seats fold flat to give you a massive flat van like load space if you ever need it. Handy for buying furniture etc
Ours is the 140bhp (as far as I remember) 2 litre Diesel. Plenty of power in it
Decent Car to drive - Not too Van like
Reliable - We have it 4 years now and it has never let us down.
Great room in the middle row of seats

Cons -

Boot Space is fairly small with the back row of seats up. It's not terrible but not great either.
Back row of seats are for kids only. Woudln't be suitable for adults

Please Kill Me

BnB wrote: »

07-Ford S Max

Pros -

MASSIVE boot space with the back 2 seats flat.
Back seats are very easy to flip up and down.
Middle row of seats fold flat to give you a massive flat van like load space if you ever need it. Handy for buying furniture etc
Ours is the 140bhp (as far as I remember) 2 litre Diesel. Plenty of power in it
Decent Car to drive - Not too Van like
Reliable - We have it 4 years now and it has never let us down.
Great room in the middle row of seats

Cons -

Boot Space is fairly small with the back row of seats up. It's not terrible but not great either.
Back row of seats are for kids only. Woudln't be suitable for adults

Have a Mitsubishi Space Wagon and very similar in that when all the seats are folded down, it's like a van and with the roof bars, it's a great car for moving stuff. When the back 2 seats are folded down there's tons of room for a buggy (or 2) and shopping etc. But when the seats are up, one buggy and a small shopping. And back seats when up are purely for kids only, unless the adult is an amputee.

Other cons

- VERY van like and noisy at motorway speeds.
- 2.0 ltr petrol is very thirsty.

Chriscl1

Zafira
Pros
Massive boot once seats 6&7 are folded flat, which they always are. Always one of the twins double buggies in there.
Middle row takes two recaro child seats + and adult.
Looks pretty cool for a Zafira.
Plenty of poke 190bhp and 286nm torque (130mph easy, on a private road of course )
On the run on the n7 to Dublin I average 34mpg which I'm happy with.
Easy access to strap the kids in.
Reliable, just an oil leak at the rocker cover gasket that needed replacing.

Cons
It's an Opel lol
Handling could be a bit sharper but would still out handle most 7 seaters.
Would prefer a shorter gear change.

Zubeneschamali

08 S-Max Zetec 2.0 140bhp 6 speed, 175,000 km up. We have 3 kids and a dog, and there is plenty of space. Seats very easy to fold and unfold, unlike our previous Multipla. Very Mondeo-like to drive. Great on long trips (like the South of France long).

It's had one issue over the 5 years, a bent inner driveshaft, which cost some hundreds of € to fix. No clue how it happened, it was well out of warranty and over 100K km, no help from Ford on it.

So far I haven't had any of the modern diesel engine issues you hear of (not with the S-max in particular, I mean in general) like injectors, DMF, DPF etc etc.

Stallingrad

Grand Scenic (current shape), 1.5dci

Pros
Lots of space inside, seats slide and fold in all directons
Good ride, quiet cruiser
Well specced, satnav, bluetooth, cruise, parking sensors, climate, privacy glass, etc.
Rear tailgate is huge and the floor is flat, so loading is a cinch
Kids love the tables and cubby holes
Rear seats very easy to fold away
Economical, low tax

Cons
Renault dealers few and far between (Dublin)
Diesel is a bit grumbly/vibey at idle/low speeds (like most diesel I suppose)
Crosswinds affect it
Will it be reliable? Its a new gen Renault (2010) so we would hope so.

monkeysnapper

The s max seem to be very popular , the way im feeling, its got to be a 2008 onwards because of the road tax, my other car at moment is a peugeot partner 2004 1.4 and i bought it very cheap, 1300 , because it had very high milege, 160k and its as slow as a snail , and to be honest it isnt going to last long. So i reakon ill have to get a top engine dsl 1.9 ect

I took a citroen grand picasso for a test drive a month or so ago and have to say i was impressed with that , but they loose value quickly.

I also took a gallaxy for a test drive same day as the citroen and thought the citroen was a better car all round and galaxy was way way more cost wise .

Ill defo have to take a s max out for a test drive.

Id love to hear from somebody that has a citroen grand picasso.

fergal.b

I have a kia carnival and am very happy with it, 7 year warranty, heated seats the electric doors are very handy when your hands are full, lots of power from the 2.9 crdi but you'll pay for the Tax. I wanted the bigger engine for pulling the boat. My one is adapted to take a wheelchair in the back where I just have one seat taken out leaving 6 with plenty of room.

Stallingrad

That is a beautiful boat.

Zubeneschamali

monkeysnapper wrote: »

Id love to hear from somebody that has a citroen grand picasso.

I test drove it back when I was looking at the S-Max. At the time, I couldn't get a 2.0, only a 1.6, which I didn't fancy in such a big bus. The steering was very numb, like a playstation controller.

Sister-in-law bought one new at that time, got rid 2 years later. Flimsy inside, bits falling off, seats coming off the rails - not what you want when your kids are in them.

monkeybutter

I know you said 7 seater, but the multipla can seat 6 adults properly, 2 rows of 2 and with a proper sized boot with all 6 in. You don't have to move seats forward or back to get access to a 2nd row of seats essentially in the boot and it fits baby seats not problem




The rear seats fold flat to ceate a massive space should you need it, as the boot is wide it will take buggies etc sideways no problem. It is wide, but not ridiculously so.


You are still not going to have much space for shopping in any of these if you have a buggy a pram and bags in there, unless you move up into the Van territory of people carriers.


I know it looks ugly as hell, still can't figure out why they designed it like they did. But none of the MPVs at the time looked great. Some of the newer model MPVs don't look 1/2 bad, smax and Mazda 5 (probably the same car really) especially, but the newer models will cost you more.


http://www.carzone.ie/search/Fiat/Multipla/MANUFACT/201235209796039/advert?channel=CARS

oh and there is a newer model, doesn't look as weird

whowantstwoknow

Have to say the space in the galaxy is just great. Remember there are full MPVs and mini-MPVs. Looked at the smax, but it just felt like a normal saloon in terms of space. I hope we're only going to move to a MPV once and while we were at it we went with the bigger model.

ditto on the grand picasso, its a mini-MPVs and the build quality was a concern. The galaxy seems to take the family battering quite well.

I know they can be expensive but if you are patient you'll get what you want at a good price. Ours is 3-4 years older than a nearby neighbours, but we got it at 1/2 the price :-). I know the tax is high (660) but the savings will go along way covering tax and the maintenance costs...

Touch wood to date we havent have any major problems with the galaxy....

W.

largepants

Op my wife drives the Grand Picasso 1.6hdi. Have it over two years now and no serious issues with it. Only drive it now and then myself and find it a great car on the motorway. Wouldnt be too fond of it on the back roads tho. Bit bumpy, body roll etc.

Lots of room inside with loads of little cubby holes. Havr have very few problems with bits falling off. Never really measured Mpg but Im happy enough with that.

Overall I thinks its a decent car for what we use it for. Im no expert but Id have no problem buying another.

useless

S-Max

Pros
Massive boot with seats 6&7 folded
3 individual seats in row 2 so you can accomodate 2 kids + an adult easily
Plenty of power (mine has the 2.0 163hp diesel)
Nice to drive, a bit like a tall Mondeo.

Cons
Small boot if seats 6&7 are in use
No spare wheel and nowhere to put one. Car is supplied with a can of gunk and a compressor.
Thirsty enough- I'm only averaging about 32-35mpg but most of that is town driving. Only gets up to 42 or so on my monthly motorway trips.
Its nice inside, but not as nice as a new Audi/BMW. Plenty of hard plastics to look at.

Plenty of nearly new ones in the UK if you want to save a few quid, but Ford have dropped their prices since last year when i got mine.
Also, I drove a Peugeot 5008 as a hire car last year- it was a fine car, but I preferred the SMax. 5008 is a lot cheaper though.

monkeysnapper

fergal.b wrote: »

I have a kia carnival and am very happy with it, 7 year warranty, heated seats the electric doors are very handy when your hands are full, lots of power from the 2.9 crdi but you'll pay for the Tax. I wanted the bigger engine for pulling the boat. My one is adapted to take a wheelchair in the back where I just have one seat taken out leaving 6 with plenty of room.

Wow nice boat and car looks really nice but howcmuch are you paying for the tax!!!!!

fergal.b

Thanks, gone are my day's of little sport cars so I had to get my kicks another way:D As mine is wheelchair adapted I don't pay road tax but I think it's around €1000:eek:

joujoujou

My woman had 7-seater Touran (04) 1.9 TDI.

+ good visibility, as you sit high,

+ a lot of space in boot when very back seats folded,

+ 3 separate seats in second row, adjustable individually,

+ second row of seats can also be folded to have more capacity. They can be also quickly and easily removed from the car, to have even more capacity,

+ plenty of small and big compartments to keep all your gadgets in,

+ back seats separate as well, so only one can be unfolded to keep some space in boot,

- not really much space in boot with rear row of seats up (both),

- no spare wheel, no place to have one,

- well, it's VW and diesel, but I'm addicted to petrol, so forget about this line.

Conclusion - did she like it? Yes, she did! Swapped it, now she has 09 touran!

slave1

BnB wrote: »

07-Ford S Max

Pros -

MASSIVE boot space with the back 2 seats flat.
Back seats are very easy to flip up and down.
Middle row of seats fold flat to give you a massive flat van like load space if you ever need it. Handy for buying furniture etc
Ours is the 140bhp (as far as I remember) 2 litre Diesel. Plenty of power in it
Decent Car to drive - Not too Van like
Reliable - We have it 4 years now and it has never let us down.
Great room in the middle row of seats

Cons -

Boot Space is fairly small with the back row of seats up. It's not terrible but not great either.
Back row of seats are for kids only. Woudln't be suitable for adults

Great summary, we have one too and I'd second all your points.
Regarding the spare wheel, I bought a Mondeo space saver rim and tyre so I can "limp" home if I get a puncture around the town, we just leave it in the boot as the back two seats are generally flat, for longer runs we replace the space saver with a full size rim/tyre. Haven't had a puncture yet!!!

mfceiling

m

NIMAN wrote: »

That's one sexy baby carrier!

My missus used to be one of those as well...

AR76

Hi,
does anyone one here own a 5008? I'm considering buying a used one in the new year and would be interested to hear the pros and cons from someone who actually uses one on a day to day basis!

monkeysnapper

I have my day off work tomorrow and have to do the weekly shop, I might sneak into the garages and do some test driving of the s max.

I can never go back into the local citroen garage, ive been there a few times now and id say they're sick of me .

Its such a important decision for us because i feel ive made a few mistakes in the past when it comes to cars.

I got made redundant in march and found a new job in april thank god but im now on the defence. do i want to spend a load on a new car or do i want to just struggle along with what ive got.

Thats why i want to buy something thats maybe a bit bigger. like when you were a kid your mum would buy your shoes a little bit bigger. "you'll grow into them my son"

Diesel

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso
Have it from new, 2008. Would definitely recommend it.

It's 1.6 Hdi - 800km's on full tank if on long roads, about 700 on city/short runs.
Engine - reliable and strong. It's a 1.6 but can do 140km/hr very comfortably.
Comfort - excellent all round.
We have 6 in family (3 adults + 3 younger) and have travelled long distance on continental holidays easily. (roof box for extra luggage)
We have fitted 7 adults, 2 rear seats OK for adults on short run, not on long. But that's the exception.

The important thing to us at time of purchase was 3 kids seats in centre row - it done this well. No other car under 2.0 litre could do this.
Since then, with all seats down, I've carried good size loads (3 small fridges in one go....) again, something a lot of similar cars would struggle with.

Never experienced issues on poor roads as previous poster said, to me, road handling is perfect.

The only con I would suggest, is the low build quality on light bodywork. Panels 'appear' flimsy. But as chassis/door/engine/transmission goes - I can't fault it.

They don't hold great second hand value, so as a positive - look at buying second hand ?

End comment: I'ld recommend it - and yes - we did road test quite a few models at the time. (S-max, verso, tragedy..sorry trajet, peugeot SW)

monkeysnapper

Diesel wrote: »

Citroen C4 Grand Picasso
Have it from new, 2008. Would definitely recommend it.

It's 1.6 Hdi - 800km's on full tank if on long roads, about 700 on city/short runs.
Engine - reliable and strong. It's a 1.6 but can do 140km/hr very comfortably.
Comfort - excellent all round.
We have 6 in family (3 adults + 3 younger) and have travelled long distance on continental holidays easily. (roof box for extra luggage)
We have fitted 7 adults, 2 rear seats OK for adults on short run, not on long. But that's the exception.

The important thing to us at time of purchase was 3 kids seats in centre row - it done this well. No other car under 2.0 litre could do this.
Since then, with all seats down, I've carried good size loads (3 small fridges in one go....) again, something a lot of similar cars would struggle with.

Never experienced issues on poor roads as previous poster said, to me, road handling is perfect.

The only con I would suggest, is the low build quality on light bodywork. Panels 'appear' flimsy. But as chassis/door/engine/transmission goes - I can't fault it.

They don't hold great second hand value, so as a positive - look at buying second hand ?

End comment: I'ld recommend it - and yes - we did road test quite a few models at the time. (S-max, verso, tragedy..sorry trajet, peugeot SW)

thank you for that, i have no intention of buying brand new, in my opinion i can never see the logic in buying brand new, then again somebody has to .

i thought the grand picasso seemed a real good car and the price was great also, and thats coming from a life long critic of citroens and renaults.

But ill also say at this point ill never buy a renault. ive heard nothing but horror stories on their electrics. but there new cars from 2012 onwards i dont know about

CashMoney

fergal.b wrote: »

I have a kia carnival and am very happy with it, 7 year warranty, heated seats the electric doors are very handy when your hands are full, lots of power from the 2.9 crdi but you'll pay for the Tax. I wanted the bigger engine for pulling the boat. My one is adapted to take a wheelchair in the back where I just have one seat taken out leaving 6 with plenty of room.

Damn Fergal, if I'd known you were in Enfield with the boat, I would have loved to go and have a look at it. Do you be here often?

rocky

gallag wrote: »

We changed the wives car to a mpv and after a lot of research, legwork etc ended up with this titan x sport s-max. She had a vxr vectra and likes a bit of grunt so got the 2.2 200bhp donkey. Great car, no complaints so far.
2012-11-01 22.52.10.jpg

Did you buy it (nearly) new? how much was it, did you have to import from UK?

RobAMerc

I am fairly sure fergal.b built that boat himself from scratch ! a beaut isn't it ?

A lot of people here complaining about the luggage space with the rear seats up yet ye are only mentioning cars which are meant to be occasional 7 seaters.

In reality to get 7 seats plus luggage you need to go full size Galaxy, Espace, Sharan or Alhambra ?

fergal.b

CashMoney wrote: »

Damn Fergal, if I'd known you were in Enfield with the boat, I would have loved to go and have a look at it. Do you be here often?

Hi cashmoney the plan was to head for Thomastown but I got stuck in Furey's pub next time I will try to refrain myself and make it all the way That was my first trip on the Royal but not my last it's a lovely trip but not too many people seem know about it.

Moonbeam

I have a 07 petrol ford galaxy Ghia .

I usually carry a 1,2 and 3 year old in it .

Pros -
It is very nice to drive.
With only 3 kids in it the boot is huge and even with 7 people in it there is still a boot that you can fit suitcases in.
There is room for 7 adults in it.
Can get 40mpg with proper motorway driving.
Aux in
The seats are all proper seats and move independently.
Loads of foot room in the 2nd row to get in and strap kids in if needs be.

Cons -
29mpg I average on local driving
Anyone sitting in the 3rd row has to get in the boot or you need to put down the middle 2nd row seat if you have car seats in both of the isofix mounts.
The seats do not come out like the Citroen C8
Only 1 power supply in the front and one in the boot.
Only 2 isofix mounts

I had a primera previously and there is no comparing the 2 cars for comfort and driving but there is something a little boring about the dash board and controls in the galaxy ,nothing fancy about it but I love it.

fuerte1976

Have a 06 Santa fe (new model) bought in april 2012. Some machine, 2.2 tho so tax is high but was going to spend another 3k on something so that will off set the tax for a few years.
Loads of space and comfy as hell.And they are supposed to be bulletproof as I read on here. Have 2 sprogs so lots of stuff. Even put a roof box on it for more space as the roofbars come on it.

bbam

We have a C4 Grand Picasso 1.6 diesel

Great comfortable car for long and short journeys, last seats very easy to lift and fold. Economical and yet reasonably powerful on the motorway..

We have a manual as was told the automatics aren't great.

We moved from an Opel Zaferia which is a nice car but smaller all round..

Davidth88

Hi

We have a 06 Scenic ( 7 seater ). 1.6 petrol

Pros.....

Space , tons and tons of space , the boot when the rear seats are folded ( as they normally are ) is just HUGE.
Comfort , it's a very comfortable beast

I cart around 1 6YO and 1 18month old , and it's great .

Cons...

Gutless , you almost have to book an appointment to overtake on the open road

It's pretty thirsty if you are cruising at high speeds ( 120-130 kph ) on the motorway .

The rear two seats are really only for kids , the legroom /size are very small.

We have not had many problems with it ( although one of the rear windows has caught the Renault problem ) .

Altogether , its a nice enough car.