Right now £7K is a chunk of money large enough to get you into a brand new car. Not least because you can use the £2K scrappage allowance on your old motor. Trouble is it may only get you inside £9000 worth shopping of hatchback when in fact what you wanted was something a little bit larger. Buying yourself some serious space has never been cheaper and with £7K in your pocket you will be spoilt for choice. So whether you want to shift boxes, or bodies there is a practical vehicle out there for you.
Vantastic
Sometimes what you need is a box on wheels. But you don’t want a boomy, two seat van that’s just finished a stint with the local builders. No you’d appreciate car comfort and more seats, with the option to remove them. You must have a Peugeot Partner Combi. It comes with diesel engines and it proves itself to be a very pleasant, versatile and practical package. That big square boot is brilliant at swallowing loads. Tumbling forward those rear seats means even more useful space, but if you want to carry five and their luggage it will manage easily. Few hatches, or even compact people carriers will do that. You should also look at the extremely similar Citroen Berlingo and Renault Kangoo in the small MPV section. We found a 2006, 34,000-mile Quicksilver model with all the aircon and CD extras you would expect, at a main Ford dealer.
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Space Ship
When all you need is a great big seven seater, which is easy to drive and great value, you never need to look much further than a Ford Galaxy. It’s been the UK top selling people carrier and quite frankly it is not difficult to see why. The Galaxy has always been comfortable, refined, spacious and best of all nice to drive. It might look big, but it drives small. Galaxys only struggle when it comes to luggage and a full compliment of bodies on board. Seems expensive when new, but it becomes much affordable used. With the set budget you can buy a 2006 1.9 TD Zetec Automatic. It will have 72,000 miles, but is a proper family wagon that is easy to own and drive. You could though pay a bit more for a Volkswagen Sharan or slightly less for a Seat Alhambra (see Large MPV section).
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Estate of the Art
There are luxury estates, lifestyle estates, four-wheel drive estates and some just miss the whole point, which is to provide a great big boot. The Citroen C5 never makes this mistake as it has an absolutely huge rear load bay. It also makes load-lugging life easier with adjustable suspension, which means you won’t get a bad back. Passengers are unlikely to complain as there is plenty of head and legroom. Pilot and co-pilot have loads of gadgets to play with, as the level of standard trim is impressive. A diesel is the default choice and you can get a 2005 or 2006 for the money, it depends on the size of the engine and the spec. A VTR with 55,000 miles is good value at £5995 as you can check out for yourself in the large family car section.
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Bag a Jag
There’s a new XJ on the roads, but we still fancy the old one rotten. Now the only proper way to buy these is to go to a specialist and we were delighted to find a 2001 3.2 V8 Executive for £6,995 at an Independent specialist. A two-owner example it had full Jaguar history to cover its 74,000 miles. You can trust a fellow Jag lover and this one would be serviced, freshly Mot’d and warranted all in for £6,995. That is top money according to our price pages, but this car is worth every penny and it would have cost you the thick end of £35,000 eight years previously. With a specialist doing the servicing and provided you don’t rack up 30,000 miles a year this a Jaguar which will be cost effective to run. Certainly a lot of luxury car for the money.
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Supersized 4 x 4
Big 4 x 4s are always on the menu and the easy answer might seem to be a not so big Discovery, but they are still too pricey and dare we suggest it, too flakey. Thousands of farmers can’t be wrong with the Mitsubishi Shogun and a 2003 3.2 DI Classic with 87,000 miles seemed like value to us at £6990 and the large 4x4 price section seems to agree.