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We are expecting our third child in March and have recently discovered that we cannot fit 3 carseats in our 2005 Subaru Outback and are consequently looking at purchasing a 7 seater. I am after some unbiased advice on a reliable, economical vehicle that is not a people mover!

That doesn't leave you with many options and in this price range you can consider the Mitsubishi Outlander (SUV) with seven seats.

Thanks Donovan. I spent quite a bit of time last night searching through the Trade Me and Auto Trader websites and have come across a 2007 Toyota Mark X Zio and also a Subaru Exiga that are around the $15k mark. Any advice on these models? I’ll also have a look around for an Outlander today.

Also, our budget largely depends on what we would be able to get for our Subaru, it has been well maintained and serviced every 10,000km, the cambelt was replaced at 123300km and it has done 133851km. Are you able to give a rough idea as to what we could expect to get for it, either as a trade in or selling privately?

Many thanks!

Hello
I myself buy and sell Subaru , and own 6 of them .
I'm guessing it's the 2.5 model if you done your cambelt. If selling to a yard you would be looking around $10,000 mark all depends on the condtion .
With the Kms round the 133 km mark is getting a bit high And would bring down the price .
But saying that if you sell privately you mite be looking at 11k 12k hardest thing will be to find a buyer with the cash.
Good luck with the sell

I would imagine a trade in value for a 2.5L Outback in average condition with 133000km on the speedometer should trade for around $10,000 and privately you might be lucky to get around $12,000 but realistically it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

The 2007 Toyota Mark X Zio and a Subaru Exiga aren't popular vehicles. We are not aware of any problems with regards to reliability but there aren't too many of them on our roads either so it is hard to know for sure - time will tell.

You should also consider how easy it will be to on sell the vehicle at a later stage. Try avoid vehicles that might be considered an orphan.

I was very interested in the toyota mark x zio but after doing some research found that they use a cvt transmission.2007 models may have improved this trans. over the earlier models but i would not take the chance.Very nice vehicle though.

Thanks everybody for your input, much appreciated! We are heading out on the weekend to look at a Toyota Wish, Honda Stream and the Toyota Mark x Zio (have spent quite a bit of time today learning about this CVT!).