Our touran 2ltr was excellent towing our 1200kg, I would agree the boot disappears with all seats up but that is the same unless you go for Galaxy sized car I would say. I was worried about not having a proper spare and even bought one to take in the boot when towing but never actually took it as it took up too much room.
I tow with a Touran 5-seater (did have a touran 7-seater previously) but there are only two of us. Would not recommend Touran (or any similar MPV) if you have got to use seats 6 and 7 for passengers. Rear end weight with the addition of the caravan would be quite high, and towball max. load is only 75 kg. I would suggest at least something like the Sharan or Galaxy - I believe they have towball weights of 100kg. You do need to check the weights of the passengers and how you intend to load what's left of the luggage space. Apart from max. loaded weight of vehicle, you need to ensure that the permissible rear axle weight isn't exceeded when the caravan is attached.
How about a Seat Alhambra 2.0 TDI SE 140 i think you can have a spare tyre for this we have a ( Seat Altea XL and there is room for a spare in ours) i think this is good on juice .........
We have a ford transit tourneo . It has nine seats but only does around 33mpg. We did have sedonna but the trouble with all seven seaters is when you are using seven seats, there is no boot. Hyundai i800 is a good car with reasonable boot. I wouldn't move away from our tourney now. Had it for years, done 110,000 miles and just had to replace clutch, £800. Also the Renault traffic or vauxhall vivaro are the same. The best bit is with three rows of seats you can separate the fighting little angels. !!!!!
Quote: Originally posted by stroake on 14/1/2013
We have looked at a few options but considering an LPG vonverted Mazda Bongo as it can be used as a day van for visit to beach, an MPV for school runs, etc and also as an extra sleeping space on Caravan holidays. Has anybody else had experience of Mazda Bongo?
we looked at bongos (as a fully converted camper) but wanted to be able to get from the cab to the rear without having to clamber over the engine etc or having to stop and get out, so we discounted them, eventually we stumbled on (and yes it was more luck than design) the honda stepwagon - though i was really drawn to the nissan elgrand. if its purely a people carrier and towcar etc as opposed to the camper, take a serious look at the elgrand, top spec, fully loaded etc