Hi there, I am in Warsaw and about to buy an used 7-seat car,budget 55,000 PLN. I am thinking of Peugeot 5008, Ford S-max, Ford Galaxy. I have never driven these cars and i would like to receive your advice:
- Which one should i buy. - Other suggestion for a 7-seat car? - With the above budget, can i buy an used 5-seat Mazda CX-7? - Please advice me where in Warsaw can i buy used and reliable car? (My friend bought a Huyndai Santafe 3 months ago and then had to spend nearly 5,000 USD to replace its engine. He had to ordered new engine from Germany. Last 2 months, i also bought a 2007 Yaris car 21,000 PLN and then spent more than 4.500 PLN to fix accelerator....)
I own a Peugeot 807 2.0l Turbo Diesel. It's the equivalent of the Ford Galaxy. It has sliding doors on both sides which I will never want to miss anymore. The Peugeot engine is highly reliable. This is the third Peugeot diesel powered car I own, and my previous cars all reached +300.000km without engine or gear box exchanges or other major defects.
Peugeot 807 is the best family car I ever had and I can completely and wholeheartedly recommend it.
The Citroen C8 is basically the same car, just marketed under the Citroen brand. So is the Fiat Ulysses and Lancia Phedra.
Peugeot 5008 is also good, but hasn't got sliding doors.
I'm actually going to be buying a used 7 seater at a similar price in a few months from now, though I'm looking at smaller models than you. I'm not an expert in buying cars, but I've learned a bit by reading online and talking to friends.
The first thing to know is that the Polish used car market has a bad reputation. It's quite common for sellers to change the odometer reading and sell cars that have been in accidents without telling the buyer. Some supposedly private sellers are actually dealers lying about who they are. Because of the lack of trust among buyers, many Poles sell their cars to friends or family - that's what I plan to do with my existing car, because many buyers won't believe that my 6 year old car only has done 30,000km and has never had a fault.
If you can't find anyone among your friends / family / work colleagues who is selling a car suitable for you, then you can try Otomoto, which has an English interface. Select it to only search for 'first owner', 'undamaged', 'serviced by authorised service centre', 'country of origin Poland' and while that will eliminate 90% of the cars for sale, the remainder should be fairly reliable. You'll still have to get someone to check the documentation and take the car to a garage for a check, but it's the only way I've found to eliminate nasty surprises.
Using the above technique, I found 3 Mazda CX-7s for under 55k in Warsaw. All were from 2008 or 2009 and they ranged from having done 63k to 81k km.
As for 7 seater cars, some similar to the ones you describe are the VW Sharan and the Seat Alhambra - they are built on the same platform as the Ford Galaxy as far as I know. I believe the Chrysler Voyager has 7 seats, but I don't know much about it. Even if you're buying used, you should probably go to some new car dealers to look at the models you're interested in and try to get a test drive. (Obviously don't tell them you have no interest in buying new.)
If you Google the models you're considering, you should find various discussions comparing them. Remember that people have different priorities when buying cars, so consider what yours are when reading reviews and discussions. I don't care much about performance and looks, for example, but I am concerned about reliability, safety and practicality, so when Top Gear complains that a model I'm interested is boring, I skip that part of the review.
Hope that helps - let me know how you get on so I can learn from your experience.
Thank you Bod. I finally changed my mind and bought a 5-seat Ford Mondeo Combi car, year 2011, at Ford Auto Plaza, Warsaw. The price is high if comparing to buying from users but they gave me 2 years guarantee. I am quite happy with that. Now i am looking for another used car for my wife, using your searching techniques and advice. Thanks a lot.
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