AIBU to think my VW Polo will be big enough when the twins arrive?

[QueenOfThePumpkins]

As the title says really... we have only recently got a lovely VW Polo and then realised we were expecting twins

Money is going to be very tight so we are reluctant to replace it. Is there any way we will manage once the babies are here?

I have a friend with twins and she drives a Peugeot 107 - that’s smaller than a Polo. She manages fine, though she had to buy a very expensive twin buggy as the cheaper ones didn’t fold small enough to fit in.

I have a VW Fox, and that was fine for my two babies, just needed to get a small double buggy, had to check which ones fitted!

You'll have to buy the pushchair/carseats etc which work for the car, rather than whichever one you most want but you should be fine.

Unless your DH is 6'4" and baby# 2 means you have to buy a new car as he has to have the passenger seat practically in the rear of your current car not talking from recent experience at all

How tall are you and your DP? Our main problem was 6 foot tall Ex-H who needed to push his seat almost as far back as possible so that meant the rear facing car seat could only go behind me.

I had a toddler and a newborn and a Phil & Ted’s Sport tandem buggy in a Skoda Fabia, which I believe is the same chassis as the Polo. It was a Fabia estate though. As long as you get a pram that fits the boot, I think you’ll be fine.

The issue with the polo will just be getting a pushchair that fits in the boot. Apart from that you should be fine apart from holidays as the pushchair will take up a lot of your boot space. I struggled with nights away and holidays when I had one child and a similar car.

Agree with all the PP saying how tall are you both? I have always driven the "family" car because Dh is 6'3" and although cars get longer when you push that seat back into a driving position you cannot fit a lot of car seats behind the driver's seat.

This will be a case of what can you fit in the car. Don't forget that if this is your only car, a pram, travel cot, bag for the weekend all have to fit in the boot. We had a VW Polo which we loved, once we had bought the travel cot from Mothercare and put that in the boot we realised we were going to need a bigger car.

Once we had 2 children I had a 7 seater for the boot space with the back row of seats folded down. Welcome to parenting

We have 2 children in rear facing seats in a Polo. The passenger leg room isn't amazing but fine for me (5ft10). DH (6ft1) copes too, although he tends to drive on long journeys. We have a small buggy though as ours aren't twins. We do have to do some clever packing if we go away e.g. use several small bags instead of big cases.

We had a polo when DS arrived. It lasted until he was 5 months old. It was fine for daily trips, but if we were going away, or needed slightly more luggage than just the buggy and nappy bag, it just didn't work for us. No way would we have managed with 2.

You'll have to go to a baby shop and try out different prams in the boot. We had a VW Polo and a bugaboo Cameleon and we had to take a wheel of to fit it in. That was fine for us to do.

Car seat wise, rear facing on isofix will be fine and you will have plenty of room.

Congrats and happy shopping!

When DS was little I packed a holdall sitting inside the moses basket. Great use of space! We generally go places that have travel cots e.g. hotel, AirBnB. Also you buy them cheaply so much cheaper to buy one to store at relatives than get a new car!

I've got a polo, my partner and I are both average size, 5'7 and 5'9 and have one baby in the back, we find it ok and were surprised it felt almost as roomy as the golf we had before it.
Echo previous posters who say check the car seats and the pram. We've got a Joolz and have to take a wheel off for it to fit in the boot, so you'll probably have to get a small folding double pushchair

It depends what you use the car for, day to day stuff you might be fine but if you travel a lot to different places with luggage then no.

For day to day, It’ll be about the buggy and boot and your heights as others have said. My car is bigger than yours but my husband can’t drive it comfortably now we’ve got two car seats.

You’ll probably struggle for longer trips if you need travel cots and all the crap that comes with babies. A roof box might help.

I bought a CRV when I was expecting DS because my cousin advised me it would be hard on my back lifting his car seat in and out and a slighter higher up car would help.
I'm so glad I took his advice as I was driving a 3 door car at that point and my dodgy back would have definitely suffered.
So besides having adequate boot space, maybe think about comfort for getting them in and out.

We had a punto when our dc arrived which was fine but we did struggle when going food shopping with the pram etc. My dc are a lot older now and don't need a pram but we've still gone for a bigger car (kuga) just because we like the space

As PP have already said, the main issue will be how much space a rear-facing car seat takes up on the back seat. Make sure you test how far forward the adults in front will need to scoot the seats when the baby seats are in the recline-for-a-nap position. You may need to buy a roof rack if you plan on going anywhere for a night away, as 2 baby seats in the back plus a buggy in the boot, and the changing bag for nappy incidents in the small bit of space between the two car seats, may consume 100% of the available space with nothing left for luggage!

I have a polo and 2 under 2. It’s a great car but not great for prams- it was a nightmare trying to find a double which would fit in the boot.

We can just about fit our Phil & Teds Dot abc two spinning isofix car seats. Once we’re all in the car with coats and the nappy bag etc, there’s no room for anything else, so you can rule out doing a big grocery shop etc.

Getting extended rear facing and spinning car seats wasn’t easy either- DH is 5 10 and has to sit with his knees up round his chin to accommodate the seat behind him.

It’s fine for our needs as DH has a slightly roomier Dacia Ssndero, but I’d find it difficult as a main family car.

Like everyone else is saying, the main issue will be leg room behind drivers seat with rear facing car seat. They're massive things. You can buy a roof box/trailer to solve space issues for longer trips, scooters, holidays etc.

We didn't go to a 7 seater until baby#3!

Don't forget the rear foot well space for extra luggage space on a trip or when shopping, though you will need soft bags, not rigid or framed cases.

Do try out the boot/buggy fit before buying. Then you should be fine.

Congratulations - twins are great fun. The earlier you know it's twins and the more you rest and look after your nutritional needs, the bigger they will be.

A crowd of mine had twins, a bugaboo donkey and a Toyota Auris think it was, smaller than a polo anyway. She dismantled the whole thing every time she got in and out of the car. Seats, wheels, converted to mono.

We changed from a Peugeot 307 to a fugly Zafira when I found out it was twins but we have a dog too so he needed somewhere to go.

I think there's two perspectives on this -

We ran a Audi A1 (OH's car) for first few years of DCs, and it was fine - but the size of the pram we were gifted (Bugaboo Cameleon) meant we had to take the wheel off every time, and shopping bags had to be artfully packaged around the pram to the point where the boot was stuffed to the max.

I think the larger car we have now is better as a result, although as per my previous post last month, we haven't gone down the SUV route, it's a normal size car with a big boot.

The boots are very small on them, but if you can get a pushchair that folds down small enough, I don't see why you couldn't make it work?

We had a Fabia which is a similar size, with a baby, a toddler and an occasional 8 year old. We got a double mountain buggy which just about fit in standing up sort of vertically. My husband is 6'3. We do now have a 7 seater as it's easier, but it wasn't a necessity particularly.

We had a 307 convertible when I was pregnant with twins. We changed it for a Zafira pretty soon after for the size of the boot and height of the car for baby seats.