MPV opinions please

[alexinapot]

Not a very PH subject for a first post, but I'd like some first hand experiences please.

My daughter is a childminder currently living within walking distance of the school. She'll shortly be moving about a mile and a half away. Not far but too far to walk with up to 6 little ones on her own in safety so we're looking for a people carrier. It will be secondhand and cheap - up to £5k. Will be short trips so not ideal for a diesel. Needs to take her, 6 kids from 6 months to 9 years and a triple buggy. Will do very little mileage other than the school runs, and very few trips of 50 miles or more.

Lots of Zafiras around in this price bracket but they don't look as if they'll take the buggy with all seats up. In fact most marques seem to have very little luggage room at all. So far the classifieds seem to have thrown up a few that could cope:
Renault Grand Scenic
Toyota Corolla Verso
Mazda 5
Renault Espace.

Any current/past users who could give me a steer on what to look at - and equally what to avoid? I think she may have to increase her budget but with the house move she'd like to spend as little as possible.

Thanks

JC

[Fleckers]

toyota previa

up to 8 seats

[daemon]

Grand scenic petrol

Cheap as chips

[Ozzie Osmond]

Espace is better than some people like to believe.

Grand Espace and Toyota Previa and Grand Voyager are all VERY big. I'd avoid unless you need that much space.

Espace and Galaxy are astounding vehicles. Highly recommended.

[caiss4]

What he says ^^^^. Galaxy or variations thereof (SEAT etc) or Espace.

Just to add I had a Galaxy. My daughters (now all grown up) still hanker after it. It really was a great car and served us well; I probably got rid of it too soon but after 130k miles the autobox started playing up!

Edited by caiss4 on Thursday 5th June 20:38

[alexinapot]

Thank you all for your replies. Good to hear real world experiences. Next step is to check availability locally and take the buggy to check for space.

Thanks again

JC

[skyrover]

Chrysler Voyager by a country mile

[Dave Hedgehog]

caiss4 said:

What he says ^^^^. Galaxy or variations thereof (SEAT etc) or Espace.

Just to add I had a Galaxy. My daughters (now all grown up) still hanker after it. It really was a great car and served us well; I probably got rid of it too soon but after 130k miles the autobox started playing up!

Edited by caiss4 on Thursday 5th June 20:38

just make sure its the 2006 galaxy which is ncap 5 star, the older ones where a very poor 3 star !