TAKE SEVEN SEATS WITH SEAT Many people might imagine, as I did, that if you were looking at the identical Seat Alhambra and Volkswagen Sharan then it would be the VW that held its value better. Just the cachet of the VW badge should be enough to keep the Sharan’s head above the murky waters of depreciation but a check in Glass’s Guide, which the trade use to value cars, shows that the Seat does best. I compared a Sharan SE PD 115 bhp on a 56 plate with a 55 plate Alhambra SX using the same engine. The VW cost almost £20,500 when new as opposed to less than £19,000 for the Seat. Yet in Glass they both list at £14,475. It makes the point that seeming budget makes are not always the cheapest option, but on the other hand the lesser depreciation on the Seat means you might not lose quite so much on it in the long term. Both cars have been around since the mid-90s and shared their design with the original Ford Galaxy, the first of the three to launch. But Ford went its own way last year leaving the other two to struggle on until they get replaced, probably next year. I don't think anyone quite believed when people carriers first hit our roads how well they would take off in sales terms. It helped, of course, when we stopped calling them people carriers and started calling them MPVs, or multi purpose vehicles. It was then people with active lifestyles realised that here you could have a car with seven seats that also doubled as a capacious van if you whipped out all or most of the seats. And even as five seaters, they still offered more load volume than your average estate car yet frequently took up less road space. In the early days, not all the cars came with the seven seats you might expect so it’s always worth checking what’s out the back rather than just assuming. Later models, after the facelift in 2000 which saw the Alhambra considerably improved, do get the proper seven seat treatment but there’s always the chance one or two could be missing, so still check. Cars with only five seats are worth £250 - £400 less than those with the full complement and price guides set their prices assuming all the seats are there unless they say otherwise. If you are regularly going to carry small children, it’s also worth looking out for child seats built into the main outer centre row seats. These are really useful and save carrying extra child seats. You just pull a tab and the seat base rises to the correct height for a child. They are not suitable for small babies, though, so bear that in mind when you buy. Air conditioning is also a virtual must for these cars. Later cars have it but earlier ones did not. There’s so much glass that the interior soon heats up in warm weather. In cold, damp conditions it all mists over, so again you need air con. These cars feel bulky at first but they are very easy to drive everyday. Go for one of the excellent diesels if you can, unless low annual mileage makes a petrol car affordable to run. Diesels will be easier to resell and avoid the 2.8 V6 petrol at all costs as it can be really heavy on fuel. Service intervals on diesels, which can manage up to 44 mpg, are variable but on the petrol cars they are 10,000 miles Insurance starts at Group 11, rising to 15 for the V6. You can pick up a seven seat 2.0 petrol Alhambra on an 00W for about £5,000 with the pre-facelift diesel on the same plate at the same money. Late plate cars are also good value, with 55 plate diesel S at £13,250, a saving of almost £5,000 on the new. Maurice Hardy