USED Volkswagen Sharan MPV (95 - 11)

My car

I have had this Sharan 130 SE for two-and-a-half years now from new. I paid over £22,000 for it including cruise control.

I am highly disappointed with the vehicle overall. Within the first eight months, the wiper motor failed, and while that was in for repair, the front grill had to be refitted as it hadn't been fitted correctly. A part for the anti-roll bar was replaced at 8000 miles.

After a year and a half, the clutch had to be changed as the pedal was biting just an inch from the floor. The engine was ticking over eratically, for which the computer was changed at 16,000 miles (it was still the same afterwards).

At the last service (27,000 miles) the flywheel was changed and idle speed turned up to mask the erratic tick-over. Now when I go over any sort of bump there is a knocking from the front suspension - let's hope that's sorted before the three-year warranty is up!

Personally I think this was a Friday night car when everyone was in a rush to get home. THe cabin is quite noisy at any speed but the faster the worse it is. So why did I buy this car? I had a VW Passat TDI 110bhp SE for six years - it had 136,000 miles on the clock and drove like a dream and cost nearly nothing to maintain. I needed the space for three kids, two in-laws and mywife. Unfortunately the Sharan all said and done is just an expensive Ford Galaxy.

I will be cutting my loses in the next few years and buying a used BMW X5 3.0d, and the in-laws will just have to catch the bus.

My car

I rented one of these for a weekend away (as the lease company had not supplied me with a new RFL disc for my Espace).

I was really looking forward to spending some time with a direct competitor to the Espace. It was Carat trim, which I expected to be amazing. However, within half an hour of driving the car (on a four hour trip) I realised that it was a very poor car.

There was absolutely no power from the diesel engine, the gearbox seemed to be completely unaware of what my right foot was doing and the interior trim was so flimsy it reminded me of a very old Citreon AX my wife used to have.

All in all, I found it to be a hopeless car and I was glad to get my Espace back.

My car

The experts have covered most of the good and bad points with this car which I agree with, but I like driving this MPV. I like the high driving seat, and its feeling of power and space. I can accept all its minor faults except for three. The most obvious are the heavy rear seats - you need a trolley to transport them. Surely they could be redesigned? The car's high ground clearance would allow fold-in seating, which would be much more convenient. Second is the vulnerability of the indicator mirrors. I live in rural area and have many had scrapes and deep scratches from uncut lane hedges - I think I am going to lose a mirror at some point. The biggest whinge of all is that this £20,000 vehicle only gets a tape deck. The last time I had a cassette player in my car was in 1996. VW charges £170 for the optional CD player.

My car

This car is very good