Which seven seater and how to pay for it

[SurpriseTwinPregnancy]

As my username suggests we recently found out I am having twins. We already have two children, aged nearly 5 and nearly 12 months.

My current car is a Kira Niro and simply isn’t big enough to fit them all in. I have it on a lease via salary sacrifice and luckily I would only have to pay about £700 for early termination, which is good as I’ve got over two years left on it.

Now I’m left wondering what car to get. We’ve had company cars for years, until mine was taken off me so I got the salary sacrifice. So we are a bit spoilt in terms of always having good, new cars and having all costs paid for us (insurance, servicing, repairs etc).

Since relocating and moving to WFH, I have only done 8,000 miles in 18 months. My mileage is unlikely to increase. The car would mostly be used for short journeys.

I am minded to buy a second hand car using a personal loan, and run it into the ground. My BIL is a mechanic so we could get advice from him about reliability etc. We have some investments maturing in a year’s time which will leave us with plenty of money to repay the loan early so we won’t pay too much in interest.

DH isn’t keen and thinks we should keep my car (which categorically will not fit enough car seats in) and just “make sure we are organised about who needs the 7 seater each day” (he has ordered one as a company car will arrive in good time before their arrival). I am minded to have two 7 seaters as it’ll be easier, we can be more flexible and frankly it’s just one less thing to worry about (as if we won’t have enough to worry about with four children under six!). We definitely do need two cars as DH does a lot of driving for work and I’ll need it for school and nursery runs as neither are walking distance.

Never done PCP/HP so keen to avoid, unless someone can convince me otherwise? Or is leasing the way to go? How would you buy a car and why?

Any particularly good 7 seaters? Particularly ones available second hand that aren’t absolutely enormous. The prices are eye watering so I’m really keen to get the purchase right if that’s the way to go.

No, you don't need 2 7 seaters

We have four (had 4 under 7 at one stage) and have had a VW Sharan for years...essentially same car as the Alhambra. It's been big enough to have them all in seat, with a double pram etc. We do need a roof box when we have long trips away though!

We also looked at a Ford Galaxy and would have bought one had one come up first.

I would also say it's madness to have 2 seven seaters.

Good luck OP, it's chaotic with 4 little ones at that stage but I loved it 😊

Avoid the multimac. Doesn't allow for ERF, no side impact protection, the children on the sides are closer to sides and more at risk in a side on collision. It isn't tested to most recent standards so won't be legal to buy anyway.
If you have 3 or 4 kids you will need a big car to keep them safe.

I have four kids. Through the car seat years we have had a VW Touran, SEAT Alhambra and Volvo XC90 7-seater cars.

The Touran was fine. Bit space a bit small if rear seats up, so check what double buggy you want before you choose the car unless DH's car is roomy enough in the boot for double buggy when 6 seats in use.

SEAT Alhambra (VW Sharan is the same) was hands down the best. Massive boot even if all seats up, and best of all - sliding doors! So so so much easier to not panic about doors opening in to walls/cars during the primary school years!

Volvo XC90 (older model) - hated it. Like driving a tractor.

Congratulations on the news of your twins. I love our large family, and twins is a wonderful experience mostly!

I’m hearing you all that two 7 seaters isn’t necessary but I do think we should upgrade the Niro to a bigger five seater car that can get three across the back with a decent sized boot. We need the flexibility for pick ups and drop offs as we don’t often know day to day who is doing which and that’s with just two kids! We often get stuck on work calls or in traffic or whatever and we don’t have much in the way of family help for emergencies, so I think we do need two “kids cars”, but only one needs to carry two adults.

I would have been tempted to see how we get on with the new 7 seater (it’s a Kia EV9 aka a tank) and the Niro, but the rules of my scheme mean I only have a short window to return at this price (I’m only allowed to due to going on mat leave, otherwise it would be thousands for early termination of contract) so if we don’t take this chance and come to regret it, we won’t be able to afford to change cars until mine expires in 2027 - we’d be stuck with it basically.

Avoid multimac, they're not tested to recent standards and have no side impact protection.

We have 3 kids but have a 7 seater as often need to transport an extra kid or so . Agree with PP, you need to work out what car seats you'll need and go from there. Very few SUVs will fit 3 car seats across the middle. You also often compromise on boot space with 7 seats. Really don't think you'll need 2 7 seaters, most families manage fine with 1 bigger car and 1 smaller.

We know a few families with 4 kids and all of them have got bus/van vehicles - mercedes v class or similar.

And yes I do agree it's probably best to have a decent size second car - again, if you're going to need 3 car seats across the back then you'll need to shop around and maybe be flexible what car seats you use.

You can't beat estates for boot space - we used to have a skoda superb and the boot space was amazing - very useful when carrying all the clobber that comes with 4 kids!

What's the budget?

At least that 7 seater looks very suitable. But your Niro won't work if you need to have the kids in it at any point ever, absolutely no chance you'll get 4 car seats in there.

We have four children and only ever had one 7-seater.

Things that were important to me:
sliding doors in the rear
boot space
full seats, not little tippy ones.
head room (as they got older)
most important: safety rating.

We had a Peugeot 807, now sadly discontinued, that was perfect. We now have a Mercedes V (executive taxi style).

Honestly I’m not sure what to spend as I’ve only bought a car once and that was a Seat Ibiza about ten years ago!

£15k is a comfortable place for us in terms of affordability (we’d be no worse off than my salary sacrifice). I would of course prefer to spend less but equally could probably stretch to a bit more for the right car. What’s most important to me is reliability, must be an automatic, and must have a rear parking camera. Something not too expensive to insure would help. Other than that, I’m not sure.

Hi, we also have baby twins and a three year old, we ended up getting a Seat Alhambra which has been great. Our second car is a fiesta which we have a seat in for our older daughter and acts as the run around for my husbands commute.

When I return to work we'll have to be organised but we work on the premise of whoever needs to transport the twins uses the 'big' car.

We have a Peugeot 5008 (2018 plate) which is a 7seater. Has three full sized seats across the middle row (all isofix) and then two seats in boot which will take belted car seats. Middle row is on rails so fully adjustable depending on how much leg room needed in the boot. And will also take a rear facing car seat in the front passenger seat with the air bag turned off.

If back row not in use then the boot is huge, and still a really good size with only one seat up in boot. I've been really pleased with it and it works great for us (one ERF and two in HBB) but we could easily manage another ERF in the front passsnger day to day. Plus because the middle row is full sized seats it will take 3 HBB when we get to that point in a few years time.

Bigger bonus is it doesn't feel like an unwieldy bus to drive and as we chose top spec (didn't buy from new) it has all the bells and whistles and feels really smart.

I agree with the person who said start with the car seats and work backwards. Perhaps ask in one of the Facebook groups. I remember seeing someone once post that they bought a bigger car but actually it didn't accommodate the car seats they had or needed. Quite an expensive mistake! Obviously you'll need to think about what combo of carseats that'll be (ie if you'll get an infant carrier etc)