VW Touran v's Ford S-Max

Doh, done it again.

Richard can you pop this into padded cell.

Cheers.

Jason.

No personal experience with the exact models but...

I owned a ford f150, i took great care of it and at 116K miles it required an engine replacement...

So I was NOT happy about the longevity of the brand…  I would evaluate this as well…  for a small fee, consumer reports will provide a complete evaluation of a vehicle including expected maintenance and care costs expected with the vehicle of choice… so perhaps a good direction to go in for research to assist your decision making process.

Hope this helps,

Touran really only becomes a good drive when a Supercap is plugged in. Not sure whether the extra outlay for DR version is necessary .....

Don`t listen to me  I have a VW myself, but I think Touran has been a trouble car.

Blue Motion makes it very economic with fuel, but it has it`s price.

I would have put my money on a Skoda Octavia. (sorry for that input)

Good luck, Steinar

Have had two S-Max's now and I can thoroughly recommend them. I have the 2.0 litre (163bhp) diesel and previously the 2.0 litre (140 bhp) diesel. Expect 40 mpg average and you won't go far wrong unless you do all town driving. It's a solid, great to drive and highly practical car.  All seats fold flat in the back without having to remove them and the Sony audio system is not bad either. Avoid the standard Ford audio system if you can, it is quite poor without the Sony head unit.  For a car this size, it drives great and it's even fun on the twisty stuff with a manual box. High power petrol version even better for a spirited drive, but you will need shares in unleaded!  To ensure the best resale value go with Titanium or Titanium X sport if you can, lesser versions lose a lot of equipment and will be less attractive as secondhand buy.  Generally though, they hold their value well and we had a good p/ex value on our last one when we renewed it.

As for the Touran, it never got the blood flowing enough for me to show an interest. Plus a friend who did own one spent a fortune having to have new fuel injectors fitted just after the warranty expired!  Even then, he had more problems with it, so this would have put me off even if I was interested, but each to their own I suppose! 

We have had the 2L TDi Touran for about six years now and it has been great for our 3 kids and a dog family.

Economic, flexible and trouble free.

G

We had a Touran once, as a company car. We had it two weeks, during which 13 days were spent in the garage. Then we got it back, the turbo pipe blew off and we sent it back. The Ford is a massive behemoth. You don't need a people carrier - horrible things.

We now have a Skoda Octavia 150 ps diesel estate. It's great, drives well, is fast, has a huge boot and only costs £20 per year in road tax. it's no good if you are a poseur, but is a very good car.

here in the u.s. neither model is available, and i probably couldn't help much- i'm a car nut but also a paraplegic- i drive a mini-cooper (now with hand controls) .btw mini paid for the controls -hooray. I just (recently) convinced my brother to get a mazda 3, and getting him to spend ANY money is difficult.In the past i would definitely take vw over ford, but of late -not so sure- ford may be more of a risk, (by reputation) but they have certainly improved greatly. and perhaps you can "disguise " any purchase and convince them it is a bentley and have the naim system installed

Buy a Volvo XC60: proper off road capability too. Child seats are integrated. Some wicked second hand deals. And if you liked the Twilight film/book series, in whihc it feature,  you can order it in 'Twilight Bronze' and pretend you're a vampire.

Thanks Chaps,

We are driving to the log cabin in the woods tomorrow for Easter in our Polo and on the way we shall further ponder the options. The one attraction going MPV, is obviously not the 7 seats, but the large load capacity and the slightly van like feal, especially in the Touran.

I tend to do a lot of DIY...if you can call it that, so carting around lengths of softwood and sheets of ply is not uncommon. 

I will book a test drive for the S-Max after Easter to see how that works. By the way HH, the Octavia is not a pretty carriage, did it come free with your SU

Jason.

Hi Loki,

I  did take a look at the 4 wheel drive estate options, but here in Norway all Volvos tend to be highly regarded and command very good second hand values, probavly more so than in Uk. so The XC60 seems to be a little out of our price range.

Jason.

Oh, sorry! Not wishing to lay further debt at your feet.

Humph! Well, it's better looking than a Touran...... 

Different tastes, but as I mentioned earlier, Octavia is a very good choice if space, power (depends on motor of course) reliability and loss of value is important. They are popular and quite easy to sell also.

Both S- Max and especially Touran have low aftermarket value and that's for a reason. With all respect to possible owner's in here, again different tastes. Neither max or Touran would be on my list, I agree with HH in this matter, but I'm not the one to choose this time.

You may be right about the cause of salesvalue. Maybe a combination of availability and quality for some models  When it comes to choices, it's like hi- fi actually, personal taste and preferences.

I do come from and live in Norway as well, so my findings are based on local experience.

Ultimately, as previously mentioned,it is personal choice - as with most things.

You've obviously done a little research and as you can see, the status symbol cars aren't always all they're cracked up to be. Whilst it has it's own merits, one of the most unreliable, expensive and over-rated (in my opinion) cars I have used has been BMW.  Others rave about them, but I would never recommend them to a friend. Go test drive loads and see what you enjoy and what suits you.

As for the above comments on the S-max, yes it is a big old bus, but that's the point!  But for a seven seater that will house most your house, it still manages to feel like a car and you can have some fun in it with the right spec and engine.  

Let us know how you get on.

I'm not sure what the finances are like in Norway however, one comment I would make here in UK is that this market segment suffers from very significant depreciation.  As a result, I would never contemplate purchasing either vehicle you are considering new - irrespective of finance on offer.  The losses over a 2-3 year period are crippling!  I would also make sure I had a decent warranty maintained on them.

A couple of leftfield suggestions for you - Maxda 6 or Honda Civic Estate.  The latter has just been released here and offers tremendous flexibility/ load volume capacity for this market segment.

Peter

Hi Jasonf

2 interesting choices you have there.

The S Max is much more enjoyable to drive, really a much better driver's car.

It is a clear size up in both length and width from the Touran, which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.  We used to have a Ford Galaxy, which was the most reliable car we have ever had until we bought the Skoda Yeti.  The Galaxy, like the S-Max, is a superb load-lugger and the kids love them for their space, comfort and excellent visibility for those in the back (which helps to prevent any tendency towards travel sickness.  

The Touran is like a claustrophobic black hole of Calcutta if it has a dark interior, so go for a lighter interior colour if you can (though this will show the dirt more...)

As someone who works in the car industry, I see the customer satisfaction & reliability figures for most makes & model of car.  VW's reputation for better reliability than Fords is not supported by the facts, though interestingly, Skodas are much more reliable than VWs. They ride better too.

So, if you need a large, spacious family car, then the S-Max is really not a bad choice.  The Volvo XC60 is a super car if you sit in the front seats, which are the best in the industry.  The XC60 is poor, very poor for rear leg room.  It also feels enormously wide on the road, much wider than it really is.  Thirsty too.  The boot is unimpressively small too.  It is in effect an anti-Tardis; huge on the outside but mid-sized inside. 

One final but important consideration; do check to see what it is like to place kids into the rear seats and to get them out again.  If you have young children and have to lift them in & out, ease of access is really important.  This activity is a very common way for parents to rupture a disc in the lower back, as you are twisting the spine while also lifting a number of kilos of wriggling child.

Hope this helps, FT

p.s. I'm not an employee of any car maker or dealership.  Our company is independent and engineers lots of them for the car makers though.

Hi Jeramy Clarkson calls my honda accord an ok car it's well build  very reliable ,Being an ex got all the toys a merc or BMW  would cost as much but have no toys, It does not rattle it is a ex detec salon tried them all this one is the best regards.

I still can't understand your posts.

Hi what I mean is there are lots of different makes cars top gear  what car and some others don't give a fair comparison  Regards.

Okay!

This is one boring post, an antidote to the more controversial threads currently underway.

We want a little left field here and after some test driving what we planned, we ended up buying something not originally on the radar.

The 1.6l TDI Touran, left us a little cold. Nice clean airy interior, simple layout and pretty economical to run, but not very exciting to drive.

Drove the S-Max 1.6 TDI and this was a much better drive in everyway although slightly sluggish. The 2l would be better, but we felt a little too big in size and engine for our needs. We thought we would be niggled by the annual running costs. 

Despite what I said regarding the external appearances of Skoda's, we also drove the Yeti as it has very good reviews. Its slightly awkward looks suit this kind of SUV off roader IMO. Although we have no real need for a 4x4 (we occasionally drive to the mountains to go to the Hytta during the Easter snow period), we gave it a go. A very nice car in general, we both liked it, but we felt we should try out the 2 wheel drive, as again the extra running costs for a 4x4, although minimal would annoy, so the 1.6 TDI was on the try list.

Then we considered that the MPV type cars maybe more than required and my wife was keen to try out some estates, which are very popular in Norway, due to luggage hauling and ski carrying facilities. First up came the Golf Estate, very stable, well put together car with a reasonably good load capacity, we both thought it was a fine car. But I have been taken by the higher driving position of the MPV's, so sitting lower down again felt slightly negative. We also tried out a Ford Focus Estate as a comparison to the Golf. Quite similar to the Focus, but with a much fussier interior layout. I also did not like being low down again. Personally, I am not over enthusiastic with estate cars due to the excessive length.

So, I considered that if the MPV's were a little too big, and the estates were a little too low and long, what about a Golf Plus? I really like the Golf Plus, well made, nice quality feel and quite spacious...but for my wife not spacious enough. And trying to find a car on budget with a sunroof is very tricky, especially for any of the German makes as you need to go higher up the spec ladder.

So then appears a wild card, the Peugeot 3008. More of a SUV but without 4 wheel drive. Raised floor , high roof, slightly wider than a normal car and with a bigger boot than a Golf a Plus and with its clever boot floor system that can be raised up and down, the total volume was pretty much on par with the estates mentioned above. It has a very good quality interior and a massive glass roof, lots of space in the rear and front and a very comfortable ride, better than any of the above. Apparently the 1.6 L HDI engines are pretty economical too.

So, if anybody has any horror stories on the 3008...bloody keep them to yourself please

So we pick it up next week, a 2010, 50,000km 3008, let's see how we get on.

Jason.

p.s. The best in car entertainment system is in the s-max titanium....IMO.