This summer we were in the market for a 7 Seater people carrier with sliding doors and a large boot space. I always liked the look off the Grand Voyager but thought they must be quite expensive.
I do not like to spend to much money on a car because I always tend to think what would my savings account look like if I kept the money there instead.
So the most important factor for me in a Seven seater car is sliding doors. I have three young children all of whom require me to fasten their seat belts for them, we do not have a driveway, so the car is parked in a relatively busy street.
My pet peev has always been the difficulty of getting and strapping the children into the car in a busy street. You are probably familiar with the situation where you are pressed against the side of the car with the door half open while waiting for the traffic to clear.
Well we researched the Grand Voyager and were initilly put of by the press reviews, “poor safety rating” (Mainly for pre 2003 versions of the car), fuel consumption not as good as the leading European models out there, Drive performance not as good as leading models, etc. Both me and my wife were put of by these reviews even though I still thought the car looked cool.
So what were my options?
Pretty slim it turns out, The Volkswagen Touran looks nice but is small and does not have sliding doors. The Citroen C4 had sliding doors but tiny boot space when in the seven seater configeration. The Ford Galaxy looked interesting but then again It did not have sliding doors.
So we started looking with real interst at the new Volkswagen Sharon and Seat Alhambra (essentially the same car) which came out in late 2010. These seem to tick all the boxes, modern European car, Eco friendly engines, very good fuel consumption, everything was great except …. The price.
To get either of these cars in the configuration that I wanted I was going to be spending in excess of £30,000, what would I have wanted?
- Electric sliding doors.
- Automatic transmission
- Diesel Engine
- Leather Seats (Easier to clean)
Suprisingly the SEAT was nearly as expensive as the Volkswagen…
Excuse me maybe they are as good, but if I am spending that kind of money … I’m taking the VW (My guess is the resale price will be much better) and for me at least I expect to get a significant discount on the SEAT versus the VW (Sorry SEAT!).
So the hard facts for me were the new VW and SEAT as of November 2011 have only been on the market a little over a year, so second hand prices of those 7 seater sliding door cars are still going to be quite high £18,000 to £28,000.
I would guess depending on what model you get (If you can find a second hand model, the sharon had a 6 month waiting list as of June 2011).
Now when you look at the Chrysler Grand Voyager, you can pick up models going back to 2006 and before, (2006 is as far as I want to go) depending on milage and prestiege version of the car you can pay from £6,000 to £24,000 or so for a very nice fully loaded mpv.
We bought a 2007 Chrysler Grand Voyager Limited (Top of the range model) fully loaded for £12,650.
Spec was…
- 24,500 miles on the clock.
- Electric doors and Electric Tail (boot) lift.
- Leather Seats
- Built in DVD Entertainment system.
- Two Button Memory for two drivers, memorising Seat, Radio and mirror settings.
Standard features include….
- Visual rear parking sensor
- Stow and go seating, all second and third row seats fold flat into tho floor, it takes about 30 seconds per seat. essentially converting it into a large van.
- 2.8l Diesel engine
- Automatic Transmisson
I have not yet done an accurate mile per gallon test, however I would guess 30 mpg or so. Thing is if buying it second hand at at about 20 – 50 % or the new price, you have to drive a lot of miles for the higher mpg cost to become an issue and negate the savings made with this car because as mentioned SEAT and VW are the only real competion for this car and they are not sufficeintly aged yet to provide a good price.
The Experience
We have three young boys aged 5, 3 and 1 , so we have configured our car (configured it, aint it great!) as such….
- Middle seats, One Stowed in the floor, Other one with baby seat for our youngest.
- Back Seats all up. Two booster seats, attached.
I love it, now when we are loading the kids just slide open the door where the seat is folded flat, two eldest kids jump in, I climb in behind them and can kneel on the floor inside the car while fastening their seat bets, no more standing in traffic while trying to strap them in. then either slide open the other door and put he toddler in the baby (toddler seat) and we are all set.
If I want to show off then just press a button and all the doors close electrically, sweet ! ;-)
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