Volkswagen Sharan 2.0

...
I have a Volkswagen Sharan 2.0 SE 5 Door Estate. It has a petrol engine and 5 speed manual gearbox. At least that’s what it says on the sales slip. We bought this car in February 2001, and I have used it as my main vehicle for the last 17 months. It cost us about £11000 from the Volkswagen dealer in Louth and had 19385 miles on the clock, with one previous owner. It’s also got a full service history. Now I don’t know if that was a good price ...
...

**WHY VOLKSWAGEN SHARAN?**

Well, we had an expanding family. Isn’t that the main reason people have to buy larger cars? My husband was all for buying a large second hand Mercedes but 3 child seats just wouldn’t fit in the back!

So we started looking around, unfortunately MPV’s were very thin on the ground in Lincoln. No private ads and none in the second hand dealer showrooms so it was off to the main ... more

This is my first car opinion so please look kindly upon it. It will also probably be my last; after all, there aren’t many people who have the luxury of two cars for everyday use, are there. It’s not going to be very technical either, I’m afraid, mainly because I don’t need to go messing about under the bonnet of my Sharan. I leave that to the mechanics and people who know what they’re looking at.

I have a Volkswagen Sharan 2.0 SE 5 Door Estate. It has a petrol engine and 5 speed manual gearbox. At least that’s what it says on the sales slip. We bought this car in February 2001, and I have used it as my main vehicle for the last 17 months. It cost us about £11000 from the Volkswagen dealer in Louth and had 19385 miles on the clock, with one previous owner. It’s also got a full service history. Now I don’t know if that was a good price or not, perhaps some kind person out there could put me out of my misery!

**WHY VOLKSWAGEN SHARAN?**

Well, we had an expanding family. Isn’t that the main reason people have to buy larger cars? My husband was all for buying a large second hand Mercedes but 3 child seats just wouldn’t fit in the back!

So we started looking around, unfortunately MPV’s were very thin on the ground in Lincoln. No private ads and none in the second hand dealer showrooms so it was off to the main dealers for us.

My husband fell in love with a Chrysler MPV that had an all leather interior and fantastic radio. But I didn’t like the seating arrangement. We also looked at an ageing Toyota Previa, but the side sliding door and bench seat were a complete no-no. My husband liked this one because of the price! We checked out a Mercedes MPV which looked like a converted van and several other models including the Vauxhall Zafira. None of them fitted the bill. If you’re going to be spending that amount of money on a vehicle, then it should be the right one. Anyway, we eventually came to the Ford Dealer and looked at the brand new Galaxy in the showroom. Very nice! Just the sort of thing we were looking for but there were none available second hand and the nearest one in the Midland region was in Leicester. The prices were also rather higher than we had bargained for. So we hot footed over to the Volkswagen dealer and found the Sharan. Same chassis and wheels as the Galaxy, but the Volkswagen name just has that bit of extra cachet, don’t you think?

**EXTERIOR**

Our Sharan is black. Not an ideal colour because it shows every speck of dirt, but we didn’t have a great deal of choice at the time. It has tinted rear passenger and back windows and looks pretty cool parked outside Tesco’s!

I like the shape of the Sharan, a smallish bonnet or nose that sweeps up nicely to the roof. The windscreen is huge as are the side windows. We like all the visibility, the kids can see what’s going on and the driver’s view is excellent. The only problem with the sweeping bonnet is that it’s difficult to know where the front is when you’re parking the thing. It also has all the usual lights, bumpers and four wheels (nice trims, though). Oh, and a sun roof.

**INTERIOR**
For me, this was the most important part of the car. We had to be able to travel comfortably with 3 young children as well as all their paraphernalia. We might want to go on a touring holiday in Europe for 2 weeks, but the least we would have to do was spend several hours driving to the south coast to visit the rellies.

I am pretty pleased with the interior (not the colour though, grey, yeuch). I think that the Sharan’s seating is very flexible and there are some useful features included.

It has 7 very comfortable seats that can be adjusted in all the vital directions; up, down, back, forwards and the front two can even spin round to face the rear! The arrangement is 2, 3, 2, with all the seating in place, but we rarely have all the seats in. They are ridiculously easy to remove but weigh a ton. The middle seats can fold down to become mini tables with cupholder indentations and there are pull down trays on the back of the front seats. You can easily have a picnic inside this car! Each seating area has a small personal reading light and the seat belts are adjustable. The newer models of Sharan can be purchased with in-built child car seats that can be folded away into the back of the chair, which is an excellent idea. There are also lots of large storage pockets and cup holders. The very back seats are not quite so comfortable as the rest and the ceiling is also lower here.

The driver’s area feels very spacious. The seats have fold down arms, the sunvisors both have vanity mirrors (just great for checking your lippy at the lights) and there are lots of useful nooks and crannies for storing bits and bobs. I really like the front visibility. You feel like you are on top of the world looking out at everyone! The steering wheel is also adjustable and there’s a huge expanse of space under the windscreen (what on earth do you call this shelf? The name escapes me), which is totally useless because everything slides off when you go round a corner! The handbrake is also a bit far down to reach comfortably. There are two airbags but we have had the passenger side disabled by the dealer because I wanted the baby to use that seat. Oh yes, and there is a cracking Sony radio/cd player.

The control panel is fairly easy to see from the drivers position, the speedo, rev counter, petrol and temperature gauge are all pretty standard, but the Sharan also has a neat warning lamp section. This is a little picture of the vehicle, it lights up when any of the doors are open or haven’t been closed properly and it also tells you when bulbs have failed and where they have failed. Underneath you get another 7 or 8 other warning lights.

Another feature that I really like is the climate control. You can set this to economy or AUTO. Basically in economy you don’t get any air conditioning and thereby save an awful lot of petrol. There’s just one little thing bothering me at the moment and that is the exterior temperature indicator. It went up to 37 degrees C this morning, unheard of in Lincoln I should think, and it caused the air conditioning to go into overdrive! I think that it was probably a result of sitting in traffic for 10 minutes and hot air wafting up from the engine.

One last interior gadget, which I like, is something called the multifunction indicator. It’s a small LCD screen that sits at the bottom of the rev counter and at the flick of a switch it will tell you how long you’ve been driving for, the average fuel consumption (my best is 37mpg), average speed, distance driven on this journey and engine oil temperature (?). Pretty neat, huh?

**DRIVING**

Yes, I know what Mr Clarkson says about MPV’s. Well he’s wrong.

As soon as I took the Sharan for a test drive I knew it was the car for me. It’s not just that feeling of open space that you get in the drivers seat! I really felt like I was driving a car and not some monstrous bus. I really enjoy driving it; I have confidence in its ability to cope with traffic, motorways and long haul journeys.

It is pretty nippy pulling away but also feels like it needs another gear between 4th and 5th. because the engine revs like mad even at fairly sedate speeds (60ish)! I’m not afraid to overtake other cars on the road or to get into the right hand lane at traffic lights because I know that the Sharan can handle it. Cruising along the motorway is no problem at all. The ride is pretty smooth and cornering is OK if you don’t throw the car around. The visibility out of the back window is not too brilliant when the rear seats are in place, but I rarely have these fitted. It’s extremely comfortable and easy to manoeuvre, although parking can sometimes be a bit of hassle because the spaces are a bit tight.

The fuel tank takes a bit of filling up and the most I’ve managed to get in is £47 worth at a Jet garage. Around town the mpg is about 18/19 and at cruising speed or during steady driving it hovers around the 35 mark.

With all the seats in place there is plenty of space for passengers but not very good for luggage. When we went to France, 2 adults and 3 young children, we had the 3 middle seats plus the two front seats in place and this left the rear area for all our camping equipment and luggage. We didn’t need a roof rack, although it was a close thing.

Since I’ve had the Sharan the silencer has had to be replaced, I don’t know if this is a general fault or a unique instance but it cost £100 to replace. We’ve had one service so far which cost about £140 from the main dealer in Lincoln and another one is due fairly soon. The children have managed to destroy a speaker cover on one passenger door because they inadvertently kick it on the way out/in. The carpet is fairly easy to remove for cleaning, should you spill 6pts of milk all over it, like I did last summer. It doesn’t even pong now, you wouldn’t believe it!

Overall I really love my Sharan, it suits our family very well because of it’s versatility and it’s nifty little extras. Next time I want the 2.8 V6 Carat version!

So that about wraps it up, how did I do? All comments gratefully received.

 

...less