FAMILY CARS
It’s easy to forget how futuristic the BMW i3 still is. Carbon-fbre construction, pillarless coach doors, either battery-powered only or an electric car supplemented by a two-cylinder petrol range-extender generator.
Yes, the haphazard robot guinea pig styling has scared of some fat-Earthers, but if you can get past the challenging looks and range conundrum (that’s what the range-extender option is for), the i3 is a landmark EV. Chiefy because it oozes desirability. The space efciency of its cabin, its materials, plus its efortless turn of pace and sorted chassis… it’s got an answer for everything. No longer are EVs whiney, city-confned fbre-glass oddities.
Used i3s are now half price, starting from £15k. Though the cabin won’t have the great slabs of wood reserved for the Loft design model or the most intricate alloys, the core brilliance of the i3 – and its 100-mile realworld range – remains. Range-extender versions will get you 160 miles in total, but you’re always in the comforting catchment area of a fuel station.
Now, time was that a boxy MPV was the four-wheeled sign of a lack of petrol in your veins. Now, generic crossovers occupy that style vacuum. Meanwhile, a couple of seven-seat vans with windows are teetering into obscure classic status. Our picks for the family that’s outgrown a standard hatch are two of the more obscure members of the set. In the avant-garde corner, the gigantic
Renault Espace. Our favourite is the boxier-than-a-shipping-container-flled-withRubik’s-cubes original, but they’re ultra-rare now. Anyhow, the huge third-gen Espace is now safely into sub-£1k territory, a huge amount of frumpy car for the money. But given the new crossovery Espace isn’t built in right-hand drive, the last of the Espaces may be a future classic. Perhaps.
If you’d like your MPV as socially unacceptable as possible, we must journey back to a time when Vauxhall decided it should VXR every model in its range. The Zafira
VXR attempted to transmit the wayward Astra VXR’s 237bhp turbo nutter of an engine through its front wheels, with predictable results. Too uncomfortable to be an MPV, and too tall to be a hot hatch, it’s not a car we’d ever recommend. Except you can get ’em for sub £4k now. And it might be impossible to transport seven people faster for less.