9 seater for private use.

CiniO

Anyone has any experience in that field?

I'm thinking about buying a 9 seater vehicle for private use.
Something like Nissan Primastar or Renault Trafic or similar.
They are generally van shaped, but come in 9 seater version (8 passengers + driver).

Questions I have.

1. Will it be possible to insure it with any of the Irish insurers? Maybe someone did it so might know which insurer will be likely to even offer a cover for private person for such vehicle?

2. Any other makes/model in similar setup? Needs to be reasonably big, have 9 seats, ideally easily unmountable if I'd need to transport something bigger and use vehicle as a van.

3. Lot's of vehicles like that are taxed as taxi/hackney. Also NCT disc would indicate it's a taxi. What is the procedure when bought by private individual? If taxed at purchase do I need to go to motortax office to amend tax class to private, or can I wait until previous tax expires? Anything to be done with NCT to remove taxi/hackney status from the car?


Thanks for any info.

Toots

I don't know anything about insurance etc but I know on holidays my family always rent a 9 seater and the ones we've had have been the Nissan Primastar, Volkswagen Transporter and Mercedes Vito. Primastar had the most space and also the double doors at the back were handy for cramming in luggage, however I found it to be very underpowered when full of people. The Vito was the nicest, slightly less boot space than the Primastar, but much better all round in terms of what you got with it, and driver/passenger comfort. Probably not so much an issue in Ireland bit the A.C. on the Primastar was rubbish, but the Vito could have doubled up as a fridge.