13 used family cars for a lot less than Audi’s new £100k Q9

Audi has just priced its leviathan new Q9. A car ostensibly designed for the American market, it’s sized as such, packing three-row seating (American English for ‘it’s a seven seater’) into its enormous 5.3m-long frame. It’s the biggest Audi of all time – and to no one’s shock, one of the most expensive too. Prices start at £103,900, snaring you a 3.0-litre V6 diesel with a whisker under 300 horsepower.

It’s plonked firmly on Land Rover’s turf, attempting to nick sales from both the Defender and Range Rover, not to mention its arch BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS rivals. TopGear.com is ever the contrarian in such circumstances, of course, so allow us to guide you through a list of much cheaper alternatives…

One of our favourite three-row cars of all time. Ford was in its pomp with the mighty S-Max, and not just because it scored a European Car of the Year trophy. It launched in the mid Noughties when the Blue Oval was in its ride and handling pomp, driving with nearly as much verve as the smaller Fiesta and Focus while offering room for all the family.

Used examples start below £1,000, and the most thorough classified combers might unearth one of the rorty five-cylinder 2.5-litre versions. But what you truly want for a fuss-free family travel is this 2.2-litre diesel with a full service history, a fresh MOT and a tolerable tax rate, all for £3,749. You’ll struggle to put down less money on a Q9 deposit.

Seven seats one too many for you, but five not quite enough? After the Fiat Multipla solved that particular conundrum with nary a concern for style, Honda had a go at rethinking its formula with a lighter, more conservative design touch. The FR-V packed the same two rows of three seats into an almost square package. Each chair is distinct – sliding, shuffling or folding to your heart’s content – and prices match those of the Audi Q9’s enormous 23in wheel option, slew of FR-Vs available for £1,500 or less.

Like this neat, silver 2.2-litre diesel replete with a bougie wood-trimmed dashboard to impress your two front passengers with.

You can spend a similar sum of money on the original three-row car, at least as far as Europeans are concerned. Quick history lesson: British car designer Fergus Pollock thought up the Espace in the 1970s while working for Chrysler, his idea eventually being manufactured by French firm Matra on Renault’s behalf in the mid Eighties. So it’s technically a British design icon, not to mention the pioneer of the people carrier movement.

A shabby original whose bodywork “needs attention” is yours for comfortably under two grand. The family might take some cajoling to fill its seven seats, though.

Much like the Q9, this was a car sketched and engineered with American soccer moms (or dads) in mind that was allowed to occupy (a very large portion of) UK showrooms. The Pathfinder launched in the US way back in the Eighties but took twenty years and three generations to make it to Britain, looking not unlike a Navara pick up with a few extra seats and a longer roof. Looks good in this dark green though, right? And with sat nav, a reversing camera and a six CD changer it has all the mod cons. For 2006…

A lengthy MOT should sweeten the deal at a nice round £3,000 – just mind its near £800 annual tax bill…

Oh, you want us to get serious? Here’s what’s colloquially known as a ‘half-price hero’. The Kia EV9 possesses the same bulk and blocky aggression as the Q9, plus the same seven seats across three rows and similar horsepower from its pure-electric drivetrain. Its enormous size is about its only major sticking point for us; the EV9 is otherwise a bit of a TopGear.com favourite. Not least in dazzling blue and for half the Audi’s asking price with only a year and 3,000 miles to its name.

A fistful of notes under £50k can get you a friendlier giant in the cute, retro shape of the VW ID.Buzz. There’s a bunch of options, from panel vans and five seaters up to six- and seven-seat options with an elongated wheelbase, prices having tumbled well below £30k. Such is the EV way. You’ll need a mite more for the full family bus, though; this is about the cheapest seven-seat Buzz that we could find yet it was registered a mere year ago and wears just 3,000 miles. Cheerier than the Audi, no?

Heard the one about the seven-seat Bentley? Yep, Crewe’s expansion into the SUV sector brought with it an open mind to both propulsion and seating. The Bentayga has been offered with petrol, diesel and hybrid power plus four, five and seven-seat layouts across its decade on sale. Picking up your kids and their mates from five-a-side with a big B on your bonnet is certainly a flex – and its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 power ensures their extra ballast won’t lengthen your journey home. Just mind their messy boots on its carbon side steps.

Don’t need seven seats? A family of five can clamber gracefully up into this Aston Martin DBX for less than £70k. Not a bargain per se, but it’s about half Aston’s original asking price and a mere two-thirds of the Q9’s confident entry point.

Great things, too. How well the styling cues of a Vantage were interwoven into a bulky SUV body is up to its beholder – but there’s no quarrelling about how absurdly well it shimmies through corners or puts the 542bhp of its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 down. Don’t forget its stint as the official Formula 1 medical car, too…

The Audi Q9 packs seven seats into its 5.3 by 2.2 metre footprint. This classic, 2003 Land Rover Defender 110? An almighty ten seats into just 4.6 by 1.8m. Sure, its crumple zones are slimmer and those seats won’t be heating, ventilating or massaging their occupants. Well, not unless the coolant’s gone awry, there’s a hole in the chassis or the ground underfoot is sufficiently rough.

Reliability reports on its 2.5-litre TD5 diesel engine differ online, but with just 60,000 miles to its name this example should have several hundred thousand more in its future with some astute maintenance. All for under £30k. Maybe teach the kids a bit of a mechanical knowhow, though, just in case…

A mite more sensible. And a whole heap quicker. This twin-turbodiesel Kodiaq was once the torquiest Skoda in history, packing 240bhp and 370lb ft to hustle its seven occupants from 0-62mph in around seven seconds. It’d grip and handle well, too, while offering modern Skoda’s deft mix of luxe and practicality inside. A steal at £21k, then.

Oh, and Queen of the Nürburgring – the late, lovely Sabine Schmitz – once hustled one around the Nordschleife in a whisker under 9m 30s, a production seven seater record which still stands. Perhaps not so sensible after all.

Lexus will currently sell you a brand-new minivan for a similarly eye-watering, six-figure price as the Audi Q9. We celebrate Lexus’ bravado and welcome the LM’s oddness, but you can have enjoy similar JDM jollity for considerably less cash thanks to this £6,750 Nissan Elgrand.

Eight seats, four-wheel drive and a 3.5-litre V6 engine heavily related to the Nissan 350Z muscle car not enough for you? It’s ULEZ compliant, too. And those seats are all upholstered in red leather. Yikes.

We’re at the very depths of the British classifieds now. Buying a car for under a grand takes some gumption, but Zafiras appear to rule this scary (but affordable) used-car plain, this smart black example offering seven seats for a mite over £100 apiece. Which makes it an entire family car for the price of the Audi Q9’s optional rear window blinds. It’d be a leap of faith for a family trip to Cornwall, at 15 years old and with a bulky mileage to match, but it has eight months of MOT left. Feeling lucky?

Those still adamant their three-row family car needs the four rings of Ingolstadt on its grille need look no further. Prices for the original Q7 start below three grand if you’re happy to take a punt; this 4.2-litre V8 FSI asks just £4,000 and possesses a nat-asp engine related to the one you’ll find in a contemporary RS4 or R8 supercar. Its 345bhp can hustle your family to 62mph – via a notable volume of fuel – in 7.4 seconds. Road tax is high, too, but what a thing to roll around in.

Or there’s a rare, 6.0-litre V12 diesel for sale at a slightly plumper £50k…