Family is growing..new vehicle required
Discussion
The confirmation came yesterday, the second critter is on its way (the older brother will be 2,5 years old when it arrives). We only use the car ocasionally on shopping runs and on the weekends for quick getaways. The grandmother does tag along quite often.
Space is the obvious requirement. Two baby seats plus another place for the grandma or whoever may come along. Add to this that two / or one large baby pram (for 2 kids) need to be packed in the boot as well as some place for the groceries and perhaps luggage for the occasional getaway.
It also has to have a comfortable suspension and a reasonably powerful engine. AWD would be nice as well for safety. The yearly milage will be relatively low so fuel consumption is not that important.
The americans have way more choice in this category with great minivans like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest. In Europe we have to make due with pseudo minivans like the C4 Picasso, Scenic, Touran etc.
So the choice boils down to:
VW T5 and Merc Viano: both feel and drive like the commercial vehicles that they actually are.
Ford S-Max: great product but I wish they would offer a more powerful engine (the old 2,5T was nice but did not come with an auto box).
Merc R-Class: awesome vehicle but those massive rear doors in the lwb variant are a serious drawback in european parking lots.
Seat Alhambra: ticks most of the boxes, but please God why does it not have at least one single thing to get me excited.
SUV's: I hate most of them, the only ones that I can warm up to are the Range Rover, the LR Discovery, the XC90.
I am open to any suggestions and guidance.
Thanks in advance
Space is the obvious requirement. Two baby seats plus another place for the grandma or whoever may come along. Add to this that two / or one large baby pram (for 2 kids) need to be packed in the boot as well as some place for the groceries and perhaps luggage for the occasional getaway.
It also has to have a comfortable suspension and a reasonably powerful engine. AWD would be nice as well for safety. The yearly milage will be relatively low so fuel consumption is not that important.
The americans have way more choice in this category with great minivans like the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest. In Europe we have to make due with pseudo minivans like the C4 Picasso, Scenic, Touran etc.
So the choice boils down to:
VW T5 and Merc Viano: both feel and drive like the commercial vehicles that they actually are.
Ford S-Max: great product but I wish they would offer a more powerful engine (the old 2,5T was nice but did not come with an auto box).
Merc R-Class: awesome vehicle but those massive rear doors in the lwb variant are a serious drawback in european parking lots.
Seat Alhambra: ticks most of the boxes, but please God why does it not have at least one single thing to get me excited.
SUV's: I hate most of them, the only ones that I can warm up to are the Range Rover, the LR Discovery, the XC90.
I am open to any suggestions and guidance.
Thanks in advance
We have a Mazda 5 2.0i Sport which ferries around a moody teenager, two kids in cars seats, myself and the wife in relative comfort. The sliding doors are a revelation and well worth it just for getting kids out at the supermarket. Only downside really is that the middle row is only 2.5 seats (its a tiny middle seat) so the teenager sits in the back row.
Had ours 4 years, nothing's gone wrong except usual maintenance. Recommended.
Had ours 4 years, nothing's gone wrong except usual maintenance. Recommended.
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