Eighteen thousand four hundred and fifteen of them, and almost nobody searches for them. The index holds 18,415 seven-seat MPVs and van-based people carriers right now — a third more choice than the seven-seat SUVs — and the median one costs £4,100 less than the equivalent raised-hatch version of the same idea.
The stars of the used file are unfashionable in exactly the way that pays. The SEAT Alhambra and Ford Galaxy own the £8k–£14k band: van-based, sliding doors, a boot that swallows a week of family luggage with all seven seats up. The Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer owns the band below, and the S-Max still has the only third row an adult can use twice in one day.
What you give up is badge value and, in the van-based cars, a little fluency on a B-road. What you get back is measured in millimetres and pounds: a real middle row, a third row that folds flat, and a price the SUV section of the index cannot match. The family car market forgot these exist. That is precisely why they are cheap.
