There’s little to beat the practicality of sliding rear doors when you need to get people in and out of a car’s back seats in tight spaces. The clever design of these rear doors offers superb access to the rear seats of these MPV people carriers, and you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them. There are plenty of new and used cars with this style of rear door, so there’s one to suit every budget and you can also find anything from a five-seater all the way up to those with eight seats. Here’s our pick of the best cars with doors that roll back to reveal their cabins.
Best Cars with Sliding Doors 2024
- Citroen Berlingo
- Citroen Spacetourer
- Ford B-Max
- Ford Grand C-Max
- Ford Tourneo Connect
- Mercedes V-Class
- Peugeot 1007
- Seat Alhambra
- Toyota Proace Verso
- Volkswagen Caddy Life
- Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle
Citroen Berlingo
The Citroen Berlingo started out in life as an unashamed van with windows and seats, plus sliding side rear doors. It made for a brilliant, affordable alternative to most people carriers and offered plenty of space and comfort. As the Berlingo and its close relatives - the Peugeot Rifter and Vauxhall Combo Life - evolved, they gained more glitz and equipment, but it has always remained a fundamentally practical, useful car for shifting passengers and luggage with the minimum of fuss. The latest model is the pure-electric E-Berlingo that uses battery power, while those looking for a keener price will find a broad spread of older cars on the used car market from as little as £2,000. They all come with a plethora of cubbies to stash your odds and ends, and the ride is always very comfortable. The sliding side doors combine with a huge hatchback-style tailgate to offer incredible versatility when carrying bigger items.
Citroen Berlingo Review
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Citroen Spacetourer
The Spacetourer is Citroen’s riposte to the Volkswagen Caravelle. To tempt buyers away from the German offering, Citroen came up with a range comprising three lengths, ranging from 4.6-metres all the way to the 5.3-metre model. This means you have a choice of five-, seven- or even nine seats in the Spacetourer, so it can cope with even the biggest family outings if required. Most use the Spacetourer as the version with seven seats, since the sliding side rear doors and fold down outer middle-row seats make it easy to get into the third-row chairs. A range of efficient diesel engines power most used Spacetourers, while the new model is an all-electric people carrier. Only a small boot when nine seats are fitted marks down the Citroen, which still manages to offer a supple, car-like ride when fully loaded.
Citroen Spacetourer Review
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Ford B-Max
The Ford B-Max may have arrived too late to make serious in-roads with buyers, who by the time of its 2012 launch were mostly looking to SUVs for their fix of practicality. However, the B-Max makes a sound family car thanks to its sliding side doors that make it so easy when loading kids into the rear seats. A latch mechanism holds the door open when it’s fully back on its slider, but be careful as it comes forward that your hands are out of the way, as it can close with a thud if the front door is closed. With both doors open, the B-Max’s party piece is the huge open entrance it offers as there’s no central door pillar, so climbing in and out of the second-row seats could not be simpler, especially compared with other small cars.
Ford B-Max Review
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Ford Grand C-Max
The world may have already gone potty for SUVs when the Ford Grand C-Max arrived in 2010, but there were still those who saw the benefit in a cleverly designed MPV. Within its compact dimensions that are similar to the footprint of the Focus hatchback it shares its diesel and petrol engines with, the Grand C-Max is a 7-seater car and the sliding side doors make it that bit easier to access both the middle and rear rows. The sliding doors are not heavy to push back, even if the car is parked on a slope. The boot is small when all seven chairs are occupied, but there is the compensation that the Grand C-Max is very nearly as good to drive as a Focus and comes with a wide range of powertrains and trim levels, including the popular Zetec and Titanium versions.
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Ford Tourneo Connect
Ford saw what Citroen, Peugeot and Renault were doing with their van-based MPVs and emulated the formula with its Tourneo. The resulting Tourneo Connect can carry up to nine people within its surprisingly compact exterior dimensions if you choose the longer-wheelbase version. It’s quite a basic interior and misses some of the clever storage options you find in the Berlingo, but the Ford comes up trumps with the way it drives. Most earlier models have a trusty 1.8-litre turbodiesel engine, but later versions gained the excellent 1.5-litre EcoBoost turbo petrol in varying power outputs. What is common to all are the sliding side rear doors that make this one of the most versatile, flexible MPVs around. An all-new version of the Tourneo Connect came out in 2022, which was a joint development with Volkswagen that also resulted in the latest Caddy Life, and both vehicles compete with passenger-carrying versions of the Mercedes Citan, Renault Kangoo and Nissan Townstar, all the result of another joint-development venture.
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Mercedes V-Class
If you want to feel like a celebrity turning up to the red carpet, arrive in the back of a Mercedes-Benz V-Class and make an entrance through its large sliding rear door. It’s a measure of how classy, luxurious and comfortable the V-Class is that it’s become a replacement for many luxury saloons such as the BMW 7 Series or Audi A8. This is easier to understand when you step through those large rear doors and see the sumptuous seats that can be arranged in a variety of ways. Up front, the driver is also treated to a wonderful environment, although the diesel engines can become quite vocal when asked to work hard. However, the ride and refinement do a great job of making you forget this people carrier’s van origins.
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Peugeot 1007
On paper and, no doubt, in planning meetings, the Peugeot 1007 seemed like the perfect solution to city drivers’ needs. Based on the Citroen C2, it was compact and the tall-sided styling made the most of the space for its four occupants. The crowning glory was the sliding doors that meant you never had to worry about parking in even the most congested spaces. The 1007 certainly lived up to its promise, with almost unrivalled access to the front seats through the electrically operated sliding doors. Getting in and out of the back was trickier, though, and the 1007 just didn’t drive that well with its firm ride and top-heavy handling.
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Seat Alhambra
The large MPV class once looked like a serious threat to big SUVs, but time has seen the likes of the Seat Alhambra and its Volkswagen Sharan cousin recede to the margins. For many, these commodious seven-seater people carriers are still the best cars for family life as you have unrivalled access through those sliding side rear doors, while inside you can move the rear seats back and forth individually. You can also fold them down to provide the sort of space more usually associated with a commercial vehicle. There’s nothing so base about the way the Alhambra drives, though, as it’s smooth and quiet, and the engine line-up consists largely of frugal diesel engines. With keen prices for the Alhambra, it’s a canny choice for carrying the family in comfort.
Seat Alhambra Review
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Toyota Proace Verso
The Toyota Proace Verso uses the same underpinnings as the Citroen Spacetourer, so you get a choice of three different body lengths. New models only come in the Medium and Long versions with nine seats, so the main difference is how much luggage you can carry when all of the chairs are filled with people. In the Medium model, you get 550 litres of cargo capacity, while the Long version ups that to a very useful 980 litres. In all Proace Versos, the sliding side doors give unhindered access to the back seats and make it a doddle to use this large MPV even in densely packed car parks. Up front, the driver enjoys a broad spread of features including cruise control, air conditioning, and steering wheel buttons for most of the infotainment functions. And, being a Toyota, it also comes with a warranty package that’s generous enough to put even Kia to shame.
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Volkswagen Caddy Life
The Volkswagen Caddy Life has developed its own devoted following much like its larger Caravelle and Transporter siblings. It’s easy to understand the following for the Caddy when it comes with twin sliding side rear doors that give brilliant access to the rear quarters, which can seat up to seven across three rows. The Caddy is also popular with Motability customers and many have been converted to carry wheelchairs securely and safely. The Caddy Maxi Life offers even more room thanks to its longer wheelbase.
Volkswagen Caddy Life Review
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Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle
There’s a long huge selection of Transporter variants from Volkswagen spread across the generations of its evergreen van-based MPV. The Shuttle is the one most family buyers will be interested in as it can carry up to nine people plus their luggage. Much of this practicality is made possible by the sliding side doors that permit quick access to the second and third row of seats. Thanks to the VW’s width, there’s room for everyone and you can even fit in luggage behind the third row. Another big draw for the Shuttle is it hides its van base very well in the way it drives, its performance and its refinement. Strong engines are another feature, and you can have the Shuttle with a DSG twin-clutch automatic gearbox. New Transporter Shuttle models are pricey, but PCP lease deals help to offset this, aided by strong residual values.
Volkswagen Transporter Review
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