Best used 7-seater cars

Start with the third row. Reviewers rate the back rows of the Ford Galaxy and Seat Alhambra as fit for adults, and several more take adults on shorter trips. Most other used 7-seaters are really five-seaters with two extra seats for children.

Then the boot. Space behind the third row varies hugely, with 89 litres in a Chevrolet Orlando against 300 litres in a Ford Galaxy, and sources often disagree, so take a pushchair or your usual bags to the viewing. For new cars, see our 7-seater boot space comparison.

Count the Isofix points. For three child seats, check how many Isofix points the car has and where they are. The VW Touran has five, including both third-row seats, while the Ford Galaxy, Ford S-Max, VW Sharan and Citroen Grand C4 Picasso have Isofix on all three middle seats.

Pick the fuel and gearbox with care. Auto Express steers low-mileage drivers of the Ford Grand C-Max and Seat Alhambra towards petrol engines rather than diesels with particulate filters. It also rates the Alhambra's DSG automatic as less reliable than its manual and says the Ford S-Max's PowerShift automatic needs careful maintenance. The Toyota Prius+ and Highlander are hybrid-only, and the Mercedes EQB is fully electric.

The ranking uses DVSA's anonymised MOT test results for Great Britain, which record each test with the car's make, model and date of first use. For every used model on the site, we take the latest full year of results and count first tests only, leaving out retests after a fail. A car counts as a pass if it passed outright or had its faults fixed at the test centre during the test. Groups with too few tests to be meaningful are left out, and the figures update once a year when DVSA publishes a new year of data.

What it cannot tell you. A pass rate is not a full reliability score. The MOT checks safety and emissions items such as brakes, tyres, lights and suspension, so a gearbox or electrical fault that does not cause a fail never shows up. Age has a big effect: older cars fail more often, so a model sold new until recently, with plenty of young cars on the road, starts ahead of one whose newest examples are a decade old. DVSA also records model names rather than generations, so a long-running name such as the Galaxy can mix more than one generation.

For a fairer view, open a model's page: where the data is available, it shows pass rates by year of first use next to the national average for cars of the same age.

1. Recalls. Ask a franchised dealer, or use the GOV.UK vehicle recall checker, to confirm recall work has been done. Some used 7-seaters have long lists: Auto Express counts 16 recalls on the second-generation Tiguan, which includes the Allspace.
2. MOT history. The free GOV.UK MOT history check shows past results, advisories and recorded mileages for cars tested in Great Britain. Repeated advisories for the same part, or gaps in the mileage record, need explaining.
3. Every seat and belt. Fold, slide and lift out every seat, pull out every seatbelt and find the Isofix points. Third-row seats that fold out of the boot floor, as in the Kia Carens and BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer, should rise and stow without force.
4. Doors and tailgate. Work the sliding doors and the tailgate several times. Auto Express reports a temperamental tailgate release on the Vauxhall Zafira Tourer, and the top Seat Alhambra trims have electric sliding doors.
5. Automatic gearboxes. Ask for proof of servicing. Auto Express says the Ford S-Max's PowerShift needs careful maintenance, and Honest John reports automatic gearbox trouble on the Renault Espace.
6. Previous use. Ask how the car was used. Auto Express warns that plenty of Ford Galaxys worked as private hire cars, so look for worn suspension and brakes and heavy cabin wear.
7. Cambelts. Where the engine has a timing belt, check when it was last changed. CarGurus gives intervals of 5 years or 125,000 miles for the Citroen Grand C4 Picasso diesel and 6 years or 60,000 miles for the petrol.