What Car? Used Car of the Year - MPVs

Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 Life AC
Price from £10,000 Year '06/06

The original Vauxhall Zafira is no stranger to What Car? awards and, since 1999, it's set the standard for seven-seat MPVs.

However, prices are now so low for the second-generation model that's it an absolute steal - and our winner.

For under £10,000, you can buy a 1.6-litre model that's less than a year old and has only covered 12,000 miles. Given that it had a new list price of more than £15,000, that's quite a saving.

Flexible friend
The petrol engine is a little small for this size of car, but acceptable for the money. Inside, the clever seat-folding system can cope with almost anything: from transporting a five-a-side football team to moving house.

The Zafira is rewarding to drive, with accurate steering and a comfortable ride. It's also remarkably refined and, although the two rear seats aren't massive, it's still comfortable for seven.

There's also a fair amount of luggage space with all seats in use. Our judges' favourite, the Life, isn't the entry-level model, and comes with air-con, a CD player and ISOFIX child-seat mountings.

Multiple choice
One of the reasons why the Zafira is such good value is that there are so many nearly new low-mileage cars on sale.

Car supermarkets are the best place to find them, but dealers also have fairly priced cars - most in desirable metallic colours - so haggle hard.

Curtain airbags were a £200 option when new, but some cars did have them fitted, so they're worth looking out for.

It may not be the most accomplished seven-seater, but take age and value into account and the Zafira is hard to beat.

Buyer's guide
Power: 104bhp
Fuel economy: 39mpg (average)
Insurance: Group 5
C02 g/km: 180
NCAP rating: 5 stars
Reliability rating: Too new to be assessed
Service intervals: 1yr/20,000 miles

Also consider...

Up to £4000
Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 Club
'00/X £4000

Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.6 SX
'02/51 £4000

£4000-£8000
Ford C-Max 1.6 Zetec
'05/05 £8000

Ford Galaxy 1.9 TD Zetec
'02/52 £8000

£8000-£15,000
Ford Galaxy/S-Max 1.8 TDCI Zetec
'06/06 £15,000