Sharan Diesel 4motion 7 seater SEL (Highline)

Overall a great car, but some design niggles.

This car is not available in the UK and it is a left hand 4x4 drive import from the continent.

7 seater, it is easy to use but surprisingly my ex Citroën C8 it replaces had some design aspects which were superior: larger steering lock, better front visibility due to thinner pillars on the side of the windscreen and simply larger windscreen, better windscreen wipers. The Citroën had a 5th, spare wheel, the Sharan does not, which is a pain. This runflat r****** is not to be trusted and what is worse, a near unique tyresize. I just know it will happen on holiday, the wife will do her nut and it will take a week for a new tyre to come through.

The rearmost set of windows open slightly on the C8- they do not on the Sharan. Automatic closing windows and powered folding door mirrors are absent from the Sharan, as is an integrated 2nd rear view mirror to keep an eye on the kidz.

However VW leather seats all-round, 6 speed manual gearbox, 4 discbrakes, 140 bhp, start/stop Bluemotion technology, 5th generation HALDEX 4 wheel drive and everything that goes with VW quality is a pleasure. Oddly, the insurance on the new car was cheaper than on the 10 year old Citroen C8 it replaced, a nice surprise. Brilliant at 75mph on French motorways. The sliding doors are great.

The folding seats are mega easy to use and are vastly superior to those on the Citroen which weigh a ton and are a pain to remove.

Can't wait to use it in the snow as I often go to Mont Blanc area for work en route for Italy, which is why I bought it. Would have loved red, but sexy red colours for VW Sharan doesn't seem possible, which is a shame. It is worth shopping around. I got 25% off a brand new car paying in cash (bank transfer..) in France. If you have 3 kids it is great: ISOFIX on all 3 seats on the second row.

I took off a star because I was surprised to see the Citroen C8 2003 design still stood up quite well even if on build quality the VW wins hands down.

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