I need a new boring family car

[dibble34]

Hi all

Budget of 6k tops, needs to do as close to 50mpg as possible and ideally have 7 seats.

Looking around I seem to have 2 options

1-Megane scenic or grand scenic 1.5dci
2-vw touran

I can get a much newer megane for the money and on paper it is more frugal. I am just scared of buying a French car! Does anyone know what the. 1.5 dci engines are like and what kind of mileage they can cope with? Grand scenic that looks nice has 84k, which feels like it could be trouble!

Anything else out there? Any advice greatfully received and if you know any good places to buy in hampshire let me know

Cheers

Dave

[Ashlandchris]

Have you tried Nissan quashqai +2 ?

We had a standard quashqai and it was fab. The Diesel engines are great and a 5yr old would cost approx 6-7k.
The 7 seats aren't great for constant use, but ok for occasional.
Likewise the Mitsubishi outlander / Peugeot 4007 or Citroen version. All also great, but don't know used prices

[Essex2Visuvesi]

Be wary of the French..... then can make good cheese and wine but their cars are not so good. Nice looking but can be expensive and difficult to repair (My Mother in Laws Megane needed the front bumper taking off to change the headlight bulbs)
I would suggest either the Vauxhal Zafira or ford S-Max, both would do the job nicely, are within budget and not to bad servicing an parts wise

[DCM]

I had a 1.9dCi Espace and could get, maybe 35mpg on a run, but in reality, round town, schooll run etc, 22mpg and to be honest a smaller engine will just have to be flogged to keep with traffic!! Plus the Scenic is pretty small!

[Si Coe]

I was looking for exactly this 6 months ago. We tried everything, literally everything, and after a while a few things became clear:
1) The French cars (Scenic and Grand Picasso) are really stylish but build quality isn't that good.
2) Quite a lot of people carriers aren't actually that big - the Touran is one of these.
3) If you want functional and reliable you want a Ford or a Vauxhall.

That left the choice down to an S-Max or a Zafira. The S-Max wins hands down in just about every category but price. There was no escaping the fact you can get a much newer, lower mileage Zafira for a lot less than an S-Max.
So in the end we got a Zafira 1.7CDI. Its not the most exciting car, especially to look at, but it works, uses very little fuel and was cheaper than virtually all the opposition spec for spec. The only real problem is its grey, and that means we lose it in big car parks all the time as every family seems to have a grey Zafira! But than again maybe there is a reason for that......

[Ashlandchris]

Originally Posted by Si Coe

I was looking for exactly this 6 months ago. We tried everything, literally everything, and after a while a few things became clear:
1) The French cars (Scenic and Grand Picasso) are really stylish but build quality isn't that good.
2) Quite a lot of people carriers aren't actually that big - the Touran is one of these.
3) If you want functional and reliable you want a Ford or a Vauxhall.

That left the choice down to an S-Max or a Zafira. The S-Max wins hands down in just about every category but price. There was no escaping the fact you can get a much newer, lower mileage Zafira for a lot less than an S-Max.
So in the end we got a Zafira 1.7CDI. Its not the most exciting car, especially to look at, but it works, uses very little fuel and was cheaper than virtually all the opposition spec for spec. The only real problem is its grey, and that means we lose it in big car parks all the time as every family seems to have a greuy Zafira! But than again maybe there is a reason for that......

"Vauxhall and reliable " 2 words you don't often see in the same sentence