When Renault launched the 7 seat Espace it got off to a slow start. Later they were joined by the Ford VW Seat and Peugeot Citroen launches and MPV cars 7 seater or people carriers as they were called became quite popular.
However a survey of Espace owners revealed that although the liked the ease of access, space, versatility and elevated view of the road drivers felt guilty driving around by themselves in what they perceived to be a big car. Plus most owners rarely if ever made use of the 7 seats.
In response Renault launched the Renault Scenic with 5 seats. It was a hit and a winner for Renault. Citroen quickly followed with their Xsara Picasso and took the lead with a cheap as chips pricing policy. Vauxhall followed a little later but with 7 seats in a compact package and the Zafira eventually became market leader. The Vauxhall Zafira price range was also very competitive.
This caused Renault to launch the Grand Scenic with 7 seats and Citroen to later bring out the Citroen Grand C4 Picasso with 7 seats plus a more compact 5 seat version.
Most new MPVs now have a 7 seat version, for example the new Ford C-Max. It makes you wonder if surveys are worth it as we all say one thing and do another. And why do some need a seven seater MPV?
The Ford Galaxy and Renault Espace which have grown in length over the years still plod on and have been rejoined by the VW Sharan as the only options in the large 7 seater MPV market.
The real expansion has been in the medium size MPV cars 7 seater market. We’ve mentioned the Grand Scenic and Picasso. They’ll be joined by a longer Zafira later this year. The main player and target to compete with seems to be the Ford S Max.
Other medium size seven seaters are the Mazda5, Peugeot 5008, Toyota Verso and VW Touran. Citroen/Peugeot, Ford, Renault, Vauxhall and VW all have a large presence in and commitment to the MPV market.
There’s a good choice of cars with extremely well thought out interiors. You can choose large, medium or compact. The more compact MPVs being the Meriva and Roomster. There are also mini MPVs like the Modus, Note, Agila and Splash.
Diesel MPVs are becoming increasingly popular because MPVs have large frontal areas to push through the air and are not the most economical with petrol. New technology in automatic gearboxes is also worth considering because you no longer pay a penalty in fuel consumption and performance in fact quite the opposite can be the case – they can be more efficient.
If you are considering an MPV make sure you operate all the seats and judge if you find them simple, light and easy to move about. Also have a look at older MPVs to see how they’ve stood up to battering and breakages some normally suffer with kids climbing all over them.
Some MPVs have very high performance so keep an eye on the car insurance groups and get quotes before you buy.
So why do we need MPV cars as seven seaters when five seaters seem adequate given the average family size. It’s even possible for a partnership with one child to enquire about an MPV. The answer is one partner may have several children with a previous partner as may the other partner. So if they have one, dad has two previous as does mum that makes five kids and they need 7 seats when they all go out together of a weekend.
Funny how things change.
Regards
Ralph
