Looking for a 7 seater

[fredgroves]

The Touran is built on a Golf chasis, the Sharan (Sharon lol) and the Alhambra are built on the Passat chasis.

The original Mk1 Sharan/Alhambra/Ford S-Max were actually all the same car too!

For the Mk2, Ford dropped out and VW used the Passat B6 to build them.

The Sharan and the Alhambra are as you can imagine quite a bit bigger than a Touran.

I had a quick look and you could pick up a 2016 Alhambra with a 1.4 TSI for your sort of money...

[Yusee]

yes, exactly.

We chose Alhambra over the Sharon simply because you get more bang for buck. I think there are minor differences in interior quality to satisfy the VW snobs

You could probably get a top spec 5 year old car in your budget.

I think you'd have to go for diesel - you really don't want a weedy petrol engine to pull a big car.

[Yusee]

Oh yeah, its' Sharan!. 2 colleagues at work have them- sometimes hear them asking " how's the shazza"

[navmk4gti]

very interesting .. did not know ford dipped in and was using the same chassis too!..ill drop the pursuit of a touran then i defo need a proper 7 seater..ill take a look at the alhambra and sharan..

it defo has to be a petrol.i don't want a diesel and do short journeys etc then be stuck with a hefty maintenance bill because of it..diesels are made for long journeys  so they have enough time to properly warm up..i would just be in a ticking time bomb if i got a diesel with the driving i do

[fredgroves]

During covid I went from 20k+ in my Mk7.5 Golf GTD to more like 3k for a year. Only short journeys to essential shops.

It really didn't like the short journeys.... I didn't manage to get a DPF clog but it was constantly trying to regen and definitely would have spat its dummy over time like that.

I like an oil burner, it definitely makes sense but DPF is a nightmare unless you are doing the mileage at speeds.

[Yusee]

Fair point about the engine. Ours does a lot of short trips- school runs etc- but does the distance work too.

We had a "DPF warning" message around a month ago- for the first time. Just required driving at higher revs for a while then it cleared.

[navmk4gti]

Due to these lockdowns looks like i will be working from home fulltime now.. our company has no intention of opening the offices any time soon..not till atleast next summer..so i would rarely get to take the car on a regular long jounrney to merit for a diesel.