Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

People Moving

Pretty soon we are going to have to bite the bullet and buy some kind of people moving vee-hickul. The Golf isn't quite cutting it anymore, particularly with Little #3 coming along in a few months.

Are any of you readers people moving types? Any recommendations? In my high fallooting people moving dreams I'd love a swish, silver, hearse-like Honda Odyssey. But that's not really do-able. We need some thing second-hand (but not ancient), and fairly cheapish. Tarago's are a good buy, but kinda uggs. And the Kia one (Carnival?) is meant to be pretty good, but looks massive and boxy.

My two picks so far are the Toyota Avensis and the Mazda MPV. But so far I haven't spoken to anyone who owns one to see whether they are a good buy or not.

So what do you reckon?

10 comments:

Pedro said...

Do LOTS of reading mate. Check forums and things for people's comments on owning one for a bit.
Mazdas are always pretty preliable but Kias? Hmmm....look into those. Not a big fan of the older ones especially.
Hondas are the top of the pile but you pay for what you get. Toyotas are also up there price wise...But the Avensis, not sure.
Thought of a wagon? Good wagons are a lot more affordable ans till have room for buddy in the back...
Cooper has an odyssey though and has had a few issues.
Read heaps bethra. See what REAL owners are saying about all models.
Good luck.

Ben Boardman said...

Come have a check out and drive of our Avensis anytime. We love it. Very flexible and practical space wise and drives like a car, not a van. We bought our 2006 model 2 years ago for a good price. ben

Libby said...

We did a decent amount of research and ended up with a 2nd hand Toyota Tarago (2000 and something) which we plan to drive until it dies - which should be quite a while. We are very happy with it. Other things I remember from our research is that Carnivals guzzle petrol and their safety rating isn't great. We have owned an Odyssey and it was pretty good but only had good petrol consumption on freeways so was expenisve to drive around town.
The thing that clinched it for us was our garage size - it was tiny and so we needed sliding doors if we were to actually get in and out in the garage. The Tarago and (I think) the MPV are the only two (again, I think!) that had them. Even at the shops the sliding doors are fantastic for not crashing into someone else when putting a baby in. We went with the Tarago over the MPV only because it's bigger inside and we are hoping to add one more to our family in the future...

Julie said...

We have the Mazda MPV and I LOVE it! I will be devastated when I have to part with it actually as they aren't made anymore. Ours is 2005 model (I think they stopped them in 2006). I preferred it to many other models because of sliding (rather than hinged) doors on both sides. Much easier to get kids in and out in tight parking spaces and you don't run the risk of a zealous child opening the door into the side of an expensive sports car or something.
Also not as uggs or expensive as the Tarago, you can fit 3 car-seats across the middle with the option of removing the 2 backseats if you want more boot space with 3 kids...
I also love the higher roof compared to Avensis and Odyssey - less chance of hitting babies' heads on their way in and out of the car, and the height makes it easier to get in and out during those last few awkward weeks of pregnancy too.
The only downside is that they don't come up for sale as often as the Avensis (as they aren't made anymore) so you probably don't get as good a bargain on them as you might with other people movers... We got ours in 2010 for about $20000.

Julie said...

I forgot to add: my husband read on a few forums that MPVs aren't great on fuel efficiency. We haven't found it a problem as I am mostly driving the MPV locally, with the odd weekend longer drive or family holiday. That might be something you want to investigate if it will get more use. I'm sure you can get actual figures somewhere online.

Stuart Heath said...

Do station-wagons still exist? If not, I'm sure they'll be coming back in for the nostalgia value.

We enjoyed the reviews at http://www.dogandlemon.com/

Paid, but worth it.

Apricity said...

We thought we'd be getting a people mover/four wheel drive but ended up with a second hand holden caprice which we love. It was a toss up between that and a Toyota Hilux but the caprice was actually wider (which we needed to accommodate three baby seats). It has so much room inside which is great because we can stand in it (if we need to - like if it's raining) to buckle the kids in without having to jump up into a high car or lean across and up -great for ones back. And also has a massive boot that accommodates prams and golf clubs etc. Depends how many seats you want I guess but if you just need five, it'd be worth looking into.

Karen said...

When we had three children and weren't planning more, we drove a Honda CRV. A very nice car to drive, I still miss it now :( One of the big selling points I remember when we bought it was that it has a fold up picnic table in the boot....we didn't even use it once ;)

Once our surprise 4th baby arrived, we had to go for a bigger model, so we are now rattling around in the very spacious Hyundai iMax. A great car for separating arguing children and the boot space is enormous, heaps better than you'll find in Taragos, Carnivals and the like. It takes a bit of getting used to driving, because of its size, but after a few months of scraping posts, I seem to have improved with judging parking distances (although you do need to be careful in tight spots). The only thing I don't like about it now is that it doesn't seem to have a lot of grunt going up hills, but perhaps a diesel engine (costs more so we went with the petrol model) wouldn't have that issue.

I was not at all a fan of driving a big bus, so we checked out many of the 7 seater 4WDs and other more car-like 7 seaters out there before we eventually decided space to cart lots of stuff was what we needed most. We didn't mind the Mitsubishi Grandis when we were looking, though I think it's now been discontinued. The reason it was crossed off was a lack of leg room in the back row, not good for our two boys who are looking like being as tall as their 6 ft 8" Dad!

Our friends have an MPV and quite like it. The only thing is, as Julie said, that they don't make them any more and it's hard to find many for sale.

Tasmanian said...

Tarago is next on the list for us (#4 due.) My sister has one and loves it. And my husband found they have a V6 model. Whether we can find a second hand V6 is another story.

Ben McLaughlin said...

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the info. I'll read up on all those suggestions.

In some ways I'd prefer a station wagon, but it kind of sets the limit on 5 people in the car. I wouldn't mind keep ing the options open there.

ps- I might just take you up on that offer! Thanks