Top 10 MPVs & People Carriers

Price from: £20,495

Starting off with bang for your buck. The Turismo is an MPV with serious road presence, available in 4 wheel drive and has a cavernous interior. Very much a utilitarian option which is exceptional for kids, the Turismo also benefits from the 2.2 litre Diesel unit it has borrowed from Mercedes-Benz. Worth mentioning this is the only engine available with the car, but it produces a nice 176bhp and returns up to 40mpg - which isn’t bad for a big car weighing north of 2 tonnes...

Price from: £20,215

The old Zafira Tourer was in production for 9 years without any significant tinkerings and some questionable heating devices. In all honesty, the Zafira got very boring and very common but luckily with the new Zafira Tourer; Vauxhall have dug themselves out of a hole thanks to a solid range of engines. The Zafira offers plenty of practicality-perks which is always valuable in this segment and also boasts a surprisingly luxurious interior. MP3, USB, DAB and iPod compatibility are all free of charge from bottom level up, which is nice, and you also get a six-speaker stereo.

Price from £21,289

As with pretty much any Toyota on the market nowadays, they operate most consistently as solid workhorses which rarely ever go wrong, hence why minicab drivers are so favourable to the Toyota brand. This rings true with their Verso, too. Just in case you’re still questioning how well built the Toyota models are, they offer a 100,000 mile / 5-year warranty with the Verso. They know that their car will stand the test of time. Interestingly, there are only 3 engine choices available which saves time on decision making. 2 petrol and 1 diesel, with the latter being a BMW-sourced 1.6 diesel that can return up to 62mpg as quoted by the manufacturer.

Price from: £23,810

Like the Scenic, only bigger and better. The Grand Scenic has existed under some questionable aesthetics previously, but this new model is really up to date with current design trends. Inside there are bags of practicality perks too which help pitch the Grand Scenic to family buyers and although there is a bit of wind noise at speed, the car is actually pretty good fun to drive around in. Naturally, it’s also got a 5 star NCAP safety rating.

Price from: £24,910

It wasn’t long ago that BMW introduced their front-wheel-driven 2 Series Active Tourer and now there’s this, the 2 Series Gran Tourer. The two cars share the same platform and engines but the Gran Tourer is a longer, more capacious seven-seater which is fit for a growing family with fine tastes. The BMW sets itself apart from the rest of the MPV market thanks to the impeccable fit and finish of the interior as well as the prestigious badge appeal and BMW styling cues of the exterior. With all 3 rows of seats in place, there are 145 litres of boot space left which doesn’t sound much but is on-par with the likes of the VW Touran. Fold that final row of seats down though and you have 560 litres of loading capacity to play with, which is more than the Ford C-Max.The 2 Series Gran Tourer starts from £26,775

Price from: £28,395

The Alhambra is SEAT’s like-for-like equivalent to the Volkswagen Sharan only with a lower pricetag, a more quirky interior and a less superior badge. As with the VW models, we’d recommend the Diesel engine with the Alhambra and you get two power outputs to choose from, 148bhp and 182bhp. Both of these will return you over 53mpg which is brilliant for a 7 seater. Only 130g/km of CO2 ensures the Alhambra isn’t too dear to tax, which isn’t bad at all.

Price from: £23,565

The Touran is a 7 seater with blown-up dimensions of a hatchback. You get a nice high roofline, so the cabin feels lofty. Like the Sharan, the Touran has a similarly conservative aesthetic on the exterior, with styling cues from the Polo and Golf that exist across the VW range. That is no criticism though, because it still looks classy and the interior is probably the most intuitive in its class. This is a relatively expensive car alongside competitors though, so expect to pay a bit more for the extra.

Ford’s biggest and best MPV, the S-Max. It’s a great big family car that still holds on to some of the more exciting traits of the smaller Fords on the range. Striking alloys and bulging, muscular bodywork make it a highly desirable option for parents and it’s also one of the most fun to drive MPVs on the market even despite its colossal size. The S-Max is also relatively economical as well. If you go for the 2.0 TDCi model then you can certainly expect upwards of 50 mpg with the manufacturer quoting 56.5 mpg. Here’s the best part though, with all rows of seats up you’ve got a significant 280 litres of space, then if you fold the rearmost row then you’ve got a massive 965 litres of space. Then, finally fold the centre row of seats and you’ve essentially got yourself a Transit van as the luggage space expands up to a ridiculous 2,020 litres. You’ll do well to find a more practical car on the market to be perfectly honest.

The S-Max starts from £26,450

The SpaceTourer from Citroen really demonstrates a concerted effort to make the MPV market less boring looking. It’s got a fun, curvy shell with a playful front-profile and it backs up the style with serious substance. Out of all the 7 seat MPVs, the SpaceTourer is perhaps the most versatile. It performs naturally as a 5 seater with a big boot then almost magically, a rear row of 2 extra seats can be summoned from the floor. It’s not just the design of the SpaceTourer which is futuristic, it’s the technology on board too. You’ve got a centrally mounted speedometer alongside two screens, one for entertainment and one for managing your driving. There are countless features on the Citroen that make it stand out but if you go for a test drive the first thing you’ll notice is the panoramic windscreen which extends above and beyond the driver and front passenger’s heads. It’s almost like something out of Star Wars.

The Grand C4 SpaceTourer starts from £23,425

Price from £25,580

The brand new 5008 is the latest addition to the Peugeot model lineup and, wow, what a huge improvement over the previous model. This 5008 blurs the lines between crossovers and MPVs - it no longer has the typical ‘people carrier’ exterior, it is now more of an SUV and with the GripControl feature, the 5008 is a versatile unit too. Again, like the 3008, the interior and exterior styling put this at the very top of its class - certainly up there with the premium manufacturers.