Stylish Seven Seater Search.

[Spanglepants]

Not very practical (mpg) for day to day use but my mates got one of these - Dodge Ram day van, huge inside, big comfy seats that fold down to a bed and flat screen tv.

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/EF8pQ8Hq[/url

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[smiffy180]

Mercedes viano 3.0 cdi?

[IroningMan]

Miglia 888 said:

Another vote for the R-Class from me. Perfect for crossing continents in supreme comfort & quietness.
Replaced our Grand Espace with one, which raised our comfort up another level for us.
Grand Espace was good, but the flat floor has no rear footwells so adult sized rear passengers feet rest higher without much thigh support from the low seats, and there's even more rear legroom in the lwb R than with the Grand Espace seats slid as far back as possible.
The lwb R is about a foot longer than the Grand Espace, and more than a foot longer wheelbase too, which really does make a noticeable difference inside.
The R320 CDI also feels noticeably quicker than our 2.0 Dci 175, despite all its extra weight, and ends up just as economical for us on long journeys despite its 4wd and auto box. Longer gearing enables under 2000 rpm in the 7 speed auto R compared with about 2500 in the six speed manual Espace at normal motorway speeds.
The R also feels more like a car than the Espace, although both are probably less nimble than an S-max.
The main difference for me, is the R feels more like a lwb S-class estate with 4wd, and the Grand Espace felt more like a MPV. HTH.

If you'd written that a year ago I'd have looked much more closely at Rs before opting to replace our - dead - Grand Espace with a Discovery 3. We've enjoyed every minute in the Disco though.

[J4CKO]

surveyor said:

J4CKO said:

Everyone who I know that has had an Espace have had quite a few issues, electrics and Gearboxes mainly, nearly bought one new, some Yacht racing themed special when we bought a Sharan in 2002 but some friends had one that tried to bankrupt them, it ended up scrapped at 5 years old. In fact everyone I know that has had Renault has had issues, basically they are a bit st really apart from a couple of sporty exceptions.

Have you had one or are you repeating what everyone else says?

What the people who have had one are saying is buy post 2006 and you should be fine. What's good about people like you is they are a bit of a bargain for those who are in the know.

No, never had one based on experience of people who I have known with them, like I said we nearly bought one new but were given dire warnings about the reliability, three separate owners with Espace woes, along with two other colleagues with a Laguna and a Megane Scenic, both of which ate their own gearboxes, the latter uses a sizeable chunk of gearbox as a paperweight in the office. We have some other friends who had a Laguna and a Clio TD that had engine (Turbo) bother and ended up getting scrapped, So basically I didnt want to "go there", pretty daft after that kind of warning, to be fair we do know one family who have one and have never mentioned it going wrong despite a hard life and the demo we drove back in 2002 drove ok.

[jellypig]

Chaps, again thanks for your sage guidance.

Fortune has struck me a lucky blow - the hideous Pugthing has failed to start this morning, and she's had to take m'truck.
(There must be something draining the battery, though its also always been very slow to crank.. but never commanded enough interest from me to take a look)

She will return in 2.5hours, time I shall use productively to search the local market though conveniently I saw this http://www.driving.co.uk/clarkson/8979 this earlier and had already mentioned it to her along the lines of
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man who has the means to buy/scam/borrow any car he wishes, and also, like us, dear, has 3 orfspring, has only ever had the same car once, in fact he's had 3 - Volvo XC90s. Shall we go look at them?"
Her response was "I'm late for rowing" - but the more astute will notice that that didnt include a "No". I'm taking that as win/progress.

I think my preference is probably(bearing in mind her spec) for an R-Class, but a Volvo or S-Max will do, so long as we wave off 807.

[oldcynic]

jellypig said:

conveniently I saw this http://www.driving.co.uk/clarkson/8979 this earlier and had already mentioned it to her along the lines of
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man who has the means to buy/scam/borrow any car he wishes, and also, like us, dear, has 3 orfspring, has only ever had the same car once, in fact he's had 3 - Volvo XC90s. Shall we go look at them?"

3 XC90's, 3 Jaguar XJ's, 2 Land Cruiser Amazons. Apart from that, only the same car once (unless you lump the 3 merc's together, but they are properly different models).

I take it you've left something plugged into the 12V socket in the boot of the Peugeot to accelerate tha changeover process?

[jellypig]

Thanks for all the advice above chaps. We took some of it. And bought, collected today, an S-Max Titanium Sport X.
I've not driven it yet, but the Project Manager appears fond of it = Win.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Excellent choice - congrats. Hope you enjoy it.

[va1o]

Yep good choice and exactly what that car was designed for

[jellypig]

Thank you. I had sought the sage guidance of this forum, so thought it fair to report in the result.

She seems happy with it, and thats good enough for me. I've had to do a bit of "tech support" so far, and apparently its a "bit nippier" so am just silently debating if I aught to bring teatime conversation round to the subject of BHP/tonne

[paps]

Well played. S MAX would have been my choice in those circumstances too.