Credit where it's due

Rambling from the Sage of Oxford
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Charles
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Credit where it's due

Post by Charles » Sun Dec 22, 2013 6:29 pm

I know that I have a go about our family battle wagon - the Renault Espace - but having just completed a 1500 mile round trip to the French Alps with 6 people, a roofbox and fully loaded with baggage and the kitchen sink, I have to praise the vehicle for its load-lugging and passenger carrying ability.

This is what people carriers are all about and even with 145k miles on the clock (admittedly with a second engine installed at 60k miles), I couldn't fault it.

What I am struggling to understand is why no-one is selling a full-size 7 seater anymore (apart from the Grand Voyager which is fine unless you want to go round corners). All the MPV's on the market have either a third row of seats or boot space - but you cannot have both - and the big four wheel drives are about the same - with even less boot space.

Rumour has it that Renault are reconsidering their decision to scrap the Espace and I sincerely hope they do so, as there is definitely a market for such cars.

It may not be an ALPINA but at least ours is adorned with register stickers to explain why the lunatic at the wheel is doing all he can to keep up with the flow of traffic on the motorway and is testing how high the centre of gravity is when cornering :twisted:
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Post by AidanB10 » Sun Dec 22, 2013 10:58 pm

Was there not a survey done a few years ago and very few people rarely used their 3rd row of seats, hence why the death of the "MPV" so to speak

On a sidenote to you mentioning Renault killing the Espace, the Laguna isnt avaliable over here anymore, and may well be killed off alltogether

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Post by ali » Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:26 am

Personally I don't think there mis great enough demand in the market place for such a vehicle.
The massive rise in SUV sales and also minivans sales has killed them off.
If you need 6 or 7 seats most people I know of are buying the likes of a Mercedes Vito or a Transporter T5.
A lot of families that require a vehicle like that tend to do active stuff like snowboard, MTB etc and the greater flexibility offered by the dayvan / minivan option has helped kill off the full size MPV IMO.

I am about to convert my recently aquired sprinter into a 6 seater fopr that very same reason. I don't want to take the entire family or a pile of mates and 4 bikes out in the Alpina
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Post by shaziman » Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:52 am

Ford Galaxy to add to your list.

The fact is there is now a bigger market for the C-sized MPV over the D sized MPV. Also if you take a galaxy as an example, it started off as a C-sized car and has grown into the D-Sized market. Hence why the S-MAX has sold better in recent times.

Also, depreciation is what puts loads of people off. Galaxy is as good as £30k new, and drops to about £10 in 3 years. S-Max is £22k and drops to about £12-£15k in the same time period.
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Post by Paulb » Mon Dec 23, 2013 2:44 pm

Peugeot still do a 7 seater charles. The 5008, my brother currently has one from them for Xmas & New Year to get him, his family, dog, luggage and presents (santas and for others) up to Aberdeen.
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