Looking for a family camping carryall

[Rustybits]

Morning Pistonheads,

I'm looking for a weekend car that I can use to comfortably carry 5 people, 2 come with car seats and 1 has a booster seat.

I'd also like the ability to carry a metric boatload of camping equipment for when we go away.

Budget is tight, around the £8k mark.

I've considered things like an Elgrand, but a problem I've noticed with a lot of these Jap vans is that the 2nd row is quite tight for space, meaning that we would need to utilise the 3rd row to get all the kids in. The 'middle' seats are quite often a lap belt, without the room for a booster.

I'm also open to nice estates like a superb or something, or a galaxy, but neither of these seem as interesting to own as the van option! A discovery might fit the bill but potential bork factor really makes me cautious.

So just wondering if anyone here can offer some suggestions or has been in a similar position before?

Thanks!

Edited by Rustybits on Saturday 20th January 08:53

[Chucky-egg]

Nissan X-Trail? We've had a Quashqai family wagon for 6 years, 50-odd k miles and it’s been near faultless, just wish it was a bit bigger (for said camping trips etc) and the X-trail fits that bill.

[edc]

You will struggle with nearly all estates to get 3 in car seats across a row. Your best bet is going to be a car with 3 even sized individual seats. These are generally 7 seat MPV type cars and have these seats individually sliding too. This gives you the most flexibility in terms of car seat choice too. Be aware that some like the Zafira have restrictions on use of the middle seat so normally your best bet is something like C4 Grand Picasso, Touran,5008, next size up Smax, bigger again, Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra.

[Rustybits]

Chucky-egg said:

Nissan X-Trail? We've had a Quashqai family wagon for 6 years, 50-odd k miles and it’s been near faultless, just wish it was a bit bigger (for said camping trips etc) and the X-trail fits that bill.

We've got a Quashqai now, on 140k, and it's also been brilliant, but it's becoming a bit of a squeeze in the back for the 3 kids. Boot space is great but we still require a trailer to get all our kit in.

X-trail looks like it could be an option, I'll take a look, cheers.

[Rustybits]

edc said:

You will struggle with nearly all estates to get 3 in car seats across a row. Your best bet is going to be a car with 3 even sized individual seats. These are generally 7 seat MPV type cars and have these seats individually sliding too. This gives you the most flexibility in terms of car seat choice too. Be aware that some like the Zafira have restrictions on use of the middle seat so normally your best bet is something like C4 Grand Picasso, Touran,5008, next size up Smax, bigger again, Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra.

Yeah I think the Galaxy is probably the sort of size we are looking at, some fairy decent ones around for the budget as well.

[ZX10R NIN]

Hyundai i800, will do everything you want with ease:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202401085...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310032...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202401205...

[Rustybits]

Yes i800 is a great option!

[shtu]

Berlingo is a bit more compact, but 5+ camping tat should be perfectly doable.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202311073...

[MOMACC]

Just sold my 1997 Mazda Bongo
Bloody awesome for camping
8 seater with lots of room

For that price I'd consider one as they convert into a camper, stick an awning on and you've got space for all to sleep.

They do come with a shed load of rust though.

[Rustybits]

MOMACC said:

Just sold my 1997 Mazda Bongo
Bloody awesome for camping
8 seater with lots of room

For that price I'd consider one as they convert into a camper, stick an awning on and you've got space for all to sleep.

They do come with a shed load of rust though.

I do have a lot of love for the Bongo, but the problem I have is that most of these 8 seater vans only have lap belts for the middle row of seats.

That's not useful to me, as I need 3 proper shoulder belts for the little ones. That means splitting the kids across the middle and back seats, and with the back seats up I lose all the space needed for the camping gear...

It's a bit of a pain

The Berlingo is a good shout, although it doesn't really have the room in the boot for the all the camping stuff.

[Gee Whizz]

We have an E51 era Elgrand and it is plenty big enough to have all seats in place and still have a decent amount of space to carry gear. We took ours around Europe for a month and even with "kitchen" fitted in the rear, all seats were still useable. You probably know this already but if you just need one of the rear seats, the other once can be folded up to give you more storage.

Please note they are thirsty buggers. We had ours covered to LPG on purchase to take some of the sting away. It was quite an outlay but worth it if you plan of keeping it a while or doing a few miles during ownership.

[Rustybits]

Gee Whizz said:

We have an E51 era Elgrand and it is plenty big enough to have all seats in place and still have a decent amount of space to carry gear. We took ours around Europe for a month and even with "kitchen" fitted in the rear, all seats were still useable. You probably know this already but if you just need one of the rear seats, the other once can be folded up to give you more storage.

Please note they are thirsty buggers. We had ours covered to LPG on purchase to take some of the sting away. It was quite an outlay but worth it if you plan of keeping it a while or doing a few miles during ownership.

Yeah I think I just need to see one to try and get my head around it.

Last year we had a fully packed out Quashqai, full trailer and a roof box . We do have a an 8 man air tent which takes up a lot of space and will still need the buggy for our youngest.

I've also read that it's difficult to work out what or if Jap vans can tow as they don't publish towing weights on their VIN plates in Japan which complicates matters somewhat.

Not too worried about MPG as it won't be a daily, just weekends when taking the whole family out really, and when taking it away we'll just have to budget for additional fuel.

I'm now wondering if I would gain much seating space over the Quashqai if I got something like an E-class estate and upgraded the trailer, after all the camping requirement is only 2-3 times a year.

[Gee Whizz]

Maybe we were doing something wrong but we had a qashqai and could barely cope with one child! As soon as no. 2 was announced we chopped it in for an optima estate which is bigger but nothing compared to the Elgrand.

I certainly wouldn't buy one for 2 to 3 times a year though.