Have you considered a Japanese import.?..e.g Toyota Estima or Honda Stepwagon.?

Petrol of course...but quality, reliability and loadsa bang for your buck.

Had my Estima 6 years now...not an ounce of trouble.

Thanks for the reply.

I've considered the Zafira and the Zafira Tourer - The Zafira B, to my mind, is looking too dated now and I don't like that the middle row of seats is a bench rather than individual seats; the Zafira Tourer reliability seems to be something of a lottery and with lots of reports of gearbox failures at the sort of mileage I'd be buying. I realise that could just be the internet magnifying a relatively small number of problems, but it's hard to find positive user reviews and therefore makes me nervous.

The S-Maxs that fall into my budget seem to be similar, if not worse, in terms of age and mileage than the Tourans and just don't appeal in the same way. That said, if a good looking one came along at the right price I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

I've also thought about the Mazda 5, but I think that the middle row middle seat is probably just that bit too small, although I haven't seen one in the flesh and am just going by photos. I've also considered the C4 Grand Picasso and Peugeot 5008 and they again seem to be similar age, price and mileage to the Tourans and I think I'd be more confident in German build quality than French (sorry - I know it's a bit of a cliche and that VW quality isn't always what you'd hope for).

I haven't looked at the Verso at all, so will research that - thank you.