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7 seater pinball carrier - any views?

DAD

DAD

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Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
682
Location
Huddersfield. Real name David Dutton
Alias
David Dutton
Our Zafira has been a fantastic flexible reliable and cheap to run car but now at over 13 years old and 160,000 miles I have to accept it's living on borrowed time and think about what to buy next.

Its replacement the Zafira B seems to have a very bad press, does anyone have experience of running one of these?

What else is out there?

What I get with the Zafira and am ideally looking to replicate is the ability to carry 7 passengers and 4 bikes (on a towbar mounted rack) or to create a totally flat floor easily capable of taking one Pin or, with some manipulation, two.

The Volkswagen Touran looks like it might fit the bill, does anyone on here run one of these?

I'd be buying second hand since it will be subject to abuse!

All opinions gratefully received :)

David
 
Why not drive the zafira until it dies ? Probably the cheapest option. Get good breakdown cover just in case

I have a 20 yr old merc sl with 33k, a16 yr old volvo v70 with 140k. Both very reliable

I have a 2012 vw california camper (t5) with 30k. Complete crap. Least reliable car I have ever owned. Going back for a new roof, just like every other one in the country as they corrode within 6 months

A few years ago, I had a 2007 audi s5 with 60k - complete crap in terms of build quality. The second least reliable car I have ever owned

New cars are absolutely riddled with sensors and pcbs. These things are designed to gain minuscule improvements in the metrics reported (co2, mpg ...). But it leaves them horribly exposed to break downs. I spoke to my mates, we were all having a ridiculous amount of faults with mid 2000s and later cars.

My audi and camper have been back repeatedly with stupid faults. With the audi I ended up at a specialist in Leeds as every job was 400 to 800 a shot. Failing intelligent key, water pump, starter motor ..... The guys here told me that vw audi had not produced a reliable car since the late 90s. Customers would buy a 5 grand used passat, then have the automatic hand brake fail. The repair cost of 1000+ was out of their reach

If you must buy new or modem look at this. It will surprise you. Most reliable cars now japanese. Vw, audi, porsche, merc are nowhere ...

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer
 
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I would put the Touran on the list of car to avoid, especially if diesel.

A member of my team at work had one until recently, which had 2 complete engine failures in under 50K miles each time. They use the BXE series engine (google it to see how bad they are) which suffers from massive problems such as fractures in the engine block, piston failure and conrod detachment, which results in total destruction of the engine block.
 
Better the devil you know! get another Zafira, I love my diesel Vectra Estate, Elite model not 7 seats but big enough to fit in a pin easily even had a upright space invaders cab in with ease
 
DRD said:
Why not drive the zafira until it dies ? Probably the cheapest option. Get good breakdown cover just in case

I have a 20 yr old merc sl with 33k, a16 yr old volvo v70 with 140k. Both very reliable

I have a 2012 vw california camper (t5) with 30k. Complete crap. Least reliable car I have ever owned. Going back for a new roof, just like every other one in the country as they corrode within 6 months

A few years ago, I had a 2007 audi s5 with 60k - complete crap in terms of build quality. The second least reliable car I have ever owned

New cars are absolutely riddled with sensors and pcbs. These things are designed to gain minuscule improvements in the metrics reported (co2, mpg ...). But it leaves them horribly exposed to break downs. I spoke to my mates, we were all having a ridiculous amount of faults with mid 2000s and later cars.

My audi and camper have been back repeatedly with stupid faults. With the audi I ended up at a specialist in Leeds as every job was 400 to 800 a shot. Failing intelligent key, water pump, starter motor ..... The guys here told me that vw audi had not produced a reliable car since the late 90s. Customers would buy a 5 grand used passat, then have the automatic hand brake fail. The repair cost of 1000+ was out of their reach

If you must buy new or modem look at this. It will surprise you. Most reliable cars now japanese. Vw, audi, porsche, merc are nowhere ...

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer
Click to expand...

I intend to (drive it till it dies)- but it had a near death experience last year and is showing signs that it might not be able to keep going that much longer :-(

I agree with your assessment of modern cars and would be happy to find another cheap series 1 Zafira that had some life left in it
 
My wife had a zafira and Galaxy, the Galaxy was much better for carrying pins, and the wife only liked the Galaxy as she says it was bigger and more comfy for her and the kids.
Also on the New Galaxy the seats fold into the floor ?
Hope this helps
 
ive had a galaxy,zafira and a fiat multipla in the past,all good for carring pins/arcade machines,they were all bought 2nd hand with about 50,000 on the clock,I ran them till they hit the 100k mark,then sold them on,the galaxy was a smooth ride and reliable,but very thirsty on fuel,the zafira was better on fuel but less reliable,the multipla,although it was ugly and the build quality was crap,was the most reliable,fuel efficent and pin/cab friendly
 
I have a bag of **** 7 seater metallic puke green 56 plate Kia carens , it's awesome for moving pins loads of space and the seats go dead flat , I have even had a pinball in the back a trolley and a @Sgt GrizZ at the same time , it has also done a few road trips accross the sea on a few pinball jollys with lardy pin heads up to seven , it's super good on juice and really quick and costs pennies to buy second hand . Mine was handed down from my folks when they PX 'd for a new Kia I gave them the Value about £1200 and it's done about 115.000 miles and will keep going until it does a blues brothers on me :)
 
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I have a vw touran 1.9 tdi bxe engine code and coming up to 80000 miles i have never had any trouble with it whatsoever just servicing costs still on original set of brake pads i must say its the all round best car i think i have ever had even fits nib pinball in compleate with sack cart and all tools
 
This will be down to budget mate
Cheap and bloody good engines in hdi spec is a Citroen Xsara c4 grand
Renault scenic grAnd as well
 
I drive a mitsubishi Outlander it's a 7 seater the boot has a drop down flap for access for sliding pins in. Mine is an 07 plate diesel normally get just over 40-43mpg. No problems with the car.
 
chris b said:
I have a vw touran 1.9 tdi bxe engine code and coming up to 80000 miles i have never had any trouble with it whatsoever just servicing costs still on original set of brake pads i must say its the all round best car i think i have ever had even fits nib pinball in compleate with sack cart and all tools
Click to expand...

You know you just jinxed it right? :rofl:

Seriously though you might want to consider selling it while it's still running as it will be worth considerable more now than when the block fails
 
DRD said:
If you must buy new or modem look at this. It will surprise you. Most reliable cars now japanese. Vw, audi, porsche, merc are nowhere ...

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer
Click to expand...

It doesn't surprise me that the most reliable cars are now Japanese. However as for the link... hmm... A website about unreliable cars put together by... a car warranty company. It is just me that finds this a little suspicious ??? ( it was kind of bourne out by the fact that lots of the 'mainstream' cars (Ford/VAG/GM) are the least reliable according to them, however the "average" mileage of these are all several tens of thousands higher than the others)....
 
Everyone ignoring my suggestion :(

You won't find a bigger, newer car at a cheaper price

We bought a 12month old Fiat 500L Trekking last year with 14k on. £20k rrp, £9k we paid.
 
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