Motoring Discussion > Hiring a 7 seater Miscellaneous
Thread Author: BobbyG Replies: 23

 Hiring a 7 seater - BobbyG
Possibly looking at hiring a 7 seater to take 6 people and overnight bags down to a wedding in Bishop Stortford in June.

There seems to be a huge jump in prices between a Grand Picasso and the Galaxy size.
Does anyone know if a Grand Picasso would have luggage space (prob 4 x cabin bags) sizes?

Had a look at Citroen website but doesn't seem to show whether any cases can fit behind the rear seats or are they pressed to the boot lid? Would all bags need to go on the one folded down seat in the back row?

Finally anyone got any tricks / recommendations for cheap hire of this size?
 Hiring a 7 seater - bathtub tom
I looked at hiring one some time ago. Worked out cheaper to hire two separate cars, so we took two of our own.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Zero

>> Does anyone know if a Grand Picasso would have luggage space (prob 4 x cabin
>> bags) sizes?

Having had a poke around one in the citroen dealer, I'd say you wont get 6 people and 6 cabin bags in a grand picasso.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Zero
Edit, quick look says I could hire an 8 seater minibus from Glasgow for the weekend for 175 quid
 Hiring a 7 seater - BobbyG
>>Edit, quick look says I could hire an 8 seater minibus from Glasgow for the weekend for 175 quid

Friday to Monday? Where?
 Hiring a 7 seater - Zero
>> >>Edit, quick look says I could hire an 8 seater minibus from Glasgow for the
>> weekend for 175 quid
>>
>> Friday to Monday? Where?

www.amkselfdrive.co.uk
 Hiring a 7 seater - tyrednemotional
....looks like mileage charges on top of that though.....

TBH, with 6-up and luggage for a significant distance, a minibus would (IMO) be a better option.

My local Ford dealer (no use to you, of course, if Glasgow is the departure point) has always been good value on Van and Minibus Hire. A Ford Tourneo Custom 8/9 seater is £210 a weekend from them, all-in.

If my experience of the Transit Custom is anything to go by, this would be a good drive, and the potential for close on 40mpg.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Manatee
If you have two drivers, take two cars.

Other thought - Bishops Stortford is very near Stansted. Does Ryanair still fly there from Glasgow?
 Hiring a 7 seater - BobbyG
Yes, too costly for 6 people to fly
 Hiring a 7 seater - Runfer D'Hills
An Espace would be ideal. Not sure it'd make it there and back though...
 Hiring a 7 seater - Bobby
>>An Espace would be ideal. Not sure it'd make it there and back though...

saw what I assume to be the new Espace on French plates yesterday - the Initiale?
Thought of you......
 Hiring a 7 seater - legacylad
Presume you have looked at train fares with split ticketing? I'm looking at a 200 mile rail trip , and split ticketing more than halved the price.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Alastairw
We used Grand Picassos on the Olympics to transport referee teams. It was a struggle to get 6 adults in, even without luggage.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Boxsterboy
>>
>> >> Does anyone know if a Grand Picasso would have luggage space (prob 4 x
>> cabin
>> >> bags) sizes?
>>
>> Having had a poke around one in the citroen dealer, I'd say you wont get
>> 6 people and 6 cabin bags in a grand picasso.
>>

Having briefly owned a Grand Picasso, you could easily get 6 people and their overnight bags in one. Fold one of the rearmost seats down and there will be plenty of room for the bags, but make sure the smallest person is in the remaining rearmost seat.
 Hiring a 7 seater - WillDeBeest
What's an overnight bag? Enough for a toothbrush and a pair of pants? (Pants, of course, get bigger with the elapsed time since their owners' weddings.) Or is it a box, with wheels and a handle, of the kind that's too big for an overhead bin in a plane but is regularly stuffed into one anyway? And would either kind take a wedding outfit as well as the overnight gear?

Let's assume it's somewhere in the middle, and complies with the airline standard of 55x35x25cm. That will still require strict packing rules and gives a total volume of 289 dm3. More importantly, you'll need 1.5m of length (or 0.70m of length and 0.75m of width) to get all six into half the boot space in a single layer, which seems unlikely. Failing that, you'll have to stack them, which leaves two bags, of possibly 10-12kg each, sitting on top of the other four and next to the passenger in the sixth seat, so you'll need at the very least something to secure them.

And even if you achieve all that, you still have six adults wedged into a space designed for a combination of adults and children, for a minimum of six hours each way and potentially much longer. Even Ryanair sounds better than that!
 Hiring a 7 seater - Avant
I'm not sure that there's all that much more room in the back of a Galaxy with all 7 seats up than there is in a Grand Picasso. With one seat folded down, you could probably manage it if people took the smallest case or bag that they could (allowing for wedding suits / party frocks!).

If you can manage as you suggest with only 4 cabin bags you should be fine with a seat folded down.
Last edited by: Avant on Wed 6 Apr 16 at 00:14
 Hiring a 7 seater - WillDeBeest
Also consider whether you'd want to travel 400 miles in either vehicle. I made a rare trip from Gatwick in January and my heart sank when a Galaxy appeared outside my house early that morning.

That journey took barely an hour, I had the second row to myself but it wasn't pleasant. The seats are hard, flat, narrow and upright, I can't see out of the window without slouching, and the whole vehicle jiggles incessantly (it's much taller than the more civilized S-Max.) Six up for hours on end would be awful.

Haven't tried the GP recently but it's smaller, which isn't a good start. Pace Avant, you're going to need all the room you can get - and some to spare if you still want to be friends when you arrive. Two cars, ideally four drivers - or six train tickets - seems a much better bet.
 Hiring a 7 seater - Runfer D'Hills
Got to be two cars hasn't it? Been even handier if your new one was an estate though... ;-)

Or one car and a couple of you fly or something.
 Hiring a 7 seater - WillDeBeest
You won't be travelling in those shoes, will you, Bobby? If so, perhaps one car for you and the baggage and one for everyone else.
};---)
 Hiring a 7 seater - Runfer D'Hills
Yes indeed, remember the Febreze for the car with your shoes in !

;-)
 Hiring a 7 seater - Falkirk Bairn
Do not know your dates BUT Ryanair to Stansted is about £75 return - leave Friday night back Sunday afternoon.

In round figures £450 + parking in Edin for 2 cars and taxis to Bishops Stortford - so rough minibus hire + diesel for 800 mile round trip and a lot easier for everyone not just the driver.
 Hiring a 7 seater - BobbyG
Dont you love it when you ask a question on here and threads go off at tangents??? :)

The background, to explain my question, is our family can go down in my Honda Civic and the fuel bill will be about £75 roughly in total. Thats for 5 people.

That then leaves my 84 year old, cantakerous, obstinate dad to get down himself. Which he will do. He will drive his automatic Nissan Note all the way there and all the way back himself and does not understand that this will give the rest of us heart failure.

My brother is flying down and he offered to pick dad up, take him to airport, fly with him and drop him home again on the return but "that is to much hassle and hanging about" for my dad! Grrrr!!

One or both of my kids could maybe travel with my dad to keep him company but he will refuse to have middle ground on the music and they both hate his driving (ultra safe and cautious).

My dads fuel will probably cost him around £100 so my thinking was we get a hire vehicle, he contributes his £100 and I pay the rest and I then feel safer that he isn't driving down and back.

Thus my original question!

Re the link that zero posted, they are not far from my work so I might go in and just ask them the costs, the mileage costs, see the vehicles etc. (If I went for the 9 seater there is probably another family member that would come as well instead of flying).

 Hiring a 7 seater - rtj70
I can't comment on the MPVs listed but once had to travel with colleagues after a flight. There should have been 6 of us so a Zafira was the hire car (previous model). In the end there were only 5 of us.

I thought it was an idea to volunteer to use the rear seat so we could all spread out a bit. Two of the other passengers were over 6 foot. Well I can tell you there was no leg room in the back of that Zafira for an adult. I managed. But the journey was only 1.5 hours.

No way would I do that again. And the rearmost seats in use meant very little boot space.

I'd say mini bus or a 9 seater MPV is the answer.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 6 Apr 16 at 23:56
 Hiring a 7 seater - Avant
You can just see how this is going to pan out. Bobby goes to a lot of trouble and expense to hire the most suitable MPV he can find, and on the day Dad looks at it and says 'I'm not going in that thing' and sets off in his Nissan Note - which is what he'll have intended to do all along.

In the immortal words of P.G. Wodehouse, "It's not difficult to tell the difference between a ray of sunshine and a Scotsman with a grievance".
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