Buying a Used Car

[Parafox]

I am looking to buy a decent 2nd hand MPV soon and having researched t'internet I have narrowed it down to 3 probables. However i need some independent views and FT members always seems to come up with (usually) sensible advice so your comments will be much appreciated. Hopefully a car around 05-07 plate. If anyone has had experience of these cars or has any other recommendations/horror stories, please feel free to chuck it in, thanks.

I am looking at

1) Vauxhall Zafira 7 seater

2) Toyota Verso

3) Seat Alhambra

There's a few others and all have different write-ups so it's really hard to know wheher they're good or bad unless I can tap into your personal experiences.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I don't know for sure, but I think Zafiras have got the same clutch as the Astra on which they're based, and there were problems with them until they started fitting a new one in 2007. I've got one of the dodgy ones (in an 05 Astra and it judders horribly), and although a lot will have been fixed under warranty a lot won't have, and the proper Vauxhall fix is £1100, yes you heard that right. If you're buying from a dealer it's well worth asking about, particularly as it misbehaves more in certain weather conditions so won't necessarily show on a test drive. It's a shame as other than that they're sound.

Don't know much about the Toyota, apart from everyone I know that owns a Toyota loves their reliability even if they're not particularly exciting to drive.

What about the Focus C-Max? (edit: not sure how many seats it has) My Dad has one and it seems very nice, not that he's let me drive it

[Jon the Hat]

My sister just bought a 7 seater Zafira and is well pleased with it. About £7.5k for a 3 year old model.

She was considering the Mazda 5 as it has a sliding door, but she found there were not many about so the prices were a bit steep.