Compact MPVs

Compact MPVs are a good alternative to estates, what they lack in length they usually make up for in height and can have quite a high driving position. The higher driving position makes the car more appealing to the elderly or those who frequently transport the elderly/those with disabilities, this actually has an indirect bonus of the car usually being well looked after and having fewer previous owners (increasing the chance of a FSH). 

So on to the cars:

The C-MAX

An MPV offering from Ford, with the car starting production around 2003 and a facelift taking place between 2006-2007. The common choice of engine is the 1.6L turbo diesel but a 1.8/2L petrol (same engine as in the mondeo mk3) is also on the cards. 

The standard trim is hideous and looks as bad as the mk1 mondeo standard interior.. infact it looks like they had some left over fabric and thought 'why not?'. There is an all leather interior which is better looking and I've seen a cream interior but I'm not sure if this was from the facelift version (2010+). 

Price wise these are on the top end of budget starting at around £2200 upwards, however most of those on offer that I've seen have had low mileage and appear to be well kept. A number of these are extremely over priced in what I can only assume is traders attempting to fool unwitting buyers (which many elderly are) into paying more than is reasonable. It's a good looking car and has all the standard features expected of a modern car (CD, electric windows, A/C, remote central locking, power steering etc). This really is the mondeo of the MPV market. 

A larger alternative to the C-MAX is the S-MAX which is people carrier territory, and I would say larger than required. Since it was released in 2006 it may be hard to find one of these in the price range.

Zafira

Vauxhall's offering was the inspiration for this discussion on compact MPVs. The Zafira is now on it's 3rd generation classed as the Zafira C which is yet to be released. The Zafira A is starting to show its age now in both its style and asking price:

The Zafira B began sales in 2005 which means it comes in at more expensive than the C-MAX with asking prices around £4500 and sales between £3000-4000 depending on mileage, that said the imminent release of a new facelift model can only cause prices to drop.

 

You can recognise the Zafira B from the thick bit towards the top of the grill. 

Scenic

The offering from Renault is what introduced the compact MPV to the world. The first generation Scenic was simply a small MPV but is a bit bigger than other car which have been discussed. What we're really looking at is the 2nd generation 2003-2009. The question with this, and infact all Renaults of the time, is do you love the styling or hate it. I am of course referring to the 'bum' on the back:

After a quick search the Scenic is probably the cheapest of the bunch with sales rarely exceeding £3000 even from 2008 models. Renault offer good value for money as depending on the trim level there are extra features, gadgets and gizmos to play with. Some would argue all these extra things are just faults waiting to happen, which may be true, but this is the generation of Renaults that made up the lost ground from poor reliability of the older models. 

Altea

This is from Seat and is a slight divergence from the other cars shown. Rather than being a scaled down MPV the Altea is more of a stretched hatchback:

This is a nice looking car and seems to be going for the same price as the C-MAX, similarly it seems to have a bit of a dull interior but boasts the same features.

There are other compact MPVs out there but I have either not included them because I think they're either too crap, too ugly or too far out of the price range. Any of the cars above would be reliable, stylish and cheaper to tax if the 1.6 Diesel option was selected (with the exception of the Vauxhall which is a 1.7 Diesel). All the cars have similar engine options starting from a 1.6ish Turbo diesel and 1.8+ Petrol.