3 car seat (2 RF) cars - Volvo XC90? Something else?

[SomeSunnySunday]

I'm expecting number 3 and am looking for recommendations for cars which can take the following combination of car seats all across the back seat as our children grow (I don't want to have to use a third row routinely):

Isofix maxi cosi cabriolet + an extended RF seat (ideally a BeSafe izi combi isofix) + a high backed booster;

An extended RF seat (as above) + 2 high backed boosters;

3 high backed boosters.

A large boot is also important, for camping, buggies etc; an optional third row would be a plus, for visiting friends; 4 wheel drive is appealing as we live in a rural, frequently snow-hit area, and I have 10 mile round trip school run to do twice a day.

We tend to run our cars into the ground rather than replace them regularly. We almost certainly won't be buying new - probably, depending on what we go for, something around 2 years old with a low mileage.

At the moment I've come up with a Volvo XC90. And other suggestions?

Landrover discovery.

I think there's a BMW that has the optional third row too. As for boot space well we still have to have a roof box for holidays as luggage for 3 takes a lot of boot space.
Oh just remembered my friend has a ford think it's s max and had similar 3 car seat arrangement.

Thanks SecretSquirrell I shall add those to the list of vehicles to be looked at. We've got a big estate just now and need a roof box for holidays, so I think that's inevitable, but I suspect we need a roof box plus an enormous boot, due to our huge tent (and on a day to day basis, for buggies, golf clubs etc...).

Citroën c4 Grand Picasso. Ours is brilliant. Not 4 wheel drive but otherwise fits your requirements

I'd avoid an xc90. They are dinosaurs. They haven't been updated for 12 years now, but a new model is out next year so the value of the old ones will plummet.

Look at Ford Kugas, Hyundai ix35 (?), or Mazda cx7.

If budget allows, an Audi q7 or a BMW x5 will do the job.

Land rover discovery are good, avoid a freelander as they are one of the most unreliable cars ever!

And as must as I detest, and I mean DETEST Citroën, the new c4 grand Picasso is a fab piece of kit and an absolute bargain. Cheap as bloody chips brand new.

Depending on which seats you use, you can get 3 car seats across a honda CRV. I know because I did it

I had a maxi cosi infant seat (pebble? I can never member the names!) with isofix base, a Two Way Elite (ERF) in the middle seat belted in, and a high backed booster on the other side. Boot was reasonably large.

however once we had to move up to 2x hbb and a ERF seat it wasn't so easy, as I didn't want to be lifting the toddler across to the middle all the time, so had to change car.

I now have an XC90 . And dh has a Discovery. They both fit 2x hbb and an ERF seat. ( I have a Triofix, a Britax adventure - this is the smallest footprint hbb - and a maxi cosi hbb in the Volvo. Dh has a maxi cosi ERF (is it the Pearl?) and 2 x Britax adventures, and it is much easier to do up the seatbelts with the space saved by having the second Adventure...

We pretty much looked at all possibilities when changing cars earlier this year, and these were the only 2 cars which ticked all boxes for us (want 4x4 also, due to the stuff e get up to with our cars!)

The xc90 is old, true. But doesn't feel it particularly.

The q7 was a spectacular waste of space (literally) imo - virtually no room in the back seats, and I'm not tall!

You wouldn't get 3 seats across a Kuga, I don't think. I drove one years ago before we had dc3, and even then thought it was too small for us, so probably ERF wouldn't be easy either.

You are right, the xc90 doesn't feel too old. But I'd resent paying the tax on it, and knowing that in a matter of months the value will plummet. May be worth buying in 12 months. Just not now.

I won't hear a bad word against my the Q7. I LOVE it

The Kuga does fit three car seats. It's the same as the ix35. But always try it out before you buy anyway.

Ford S max. Not 4 wheel drive but fits 3 child seats in the combinations you want. I love ours, and wouldn't buy anything different even if we won the lottery!

Hi I traded in my discovery 3 for an xc90 last year, brand new. Interest free credit. It has a built in booster seat in the middle my 5 year old happily sits in. Other 2 seats are full size. Cheaper to run than disco but not as cool! Looked at every 7 seat 4x4 out there. Both the q7 and BMW 5 don't have have a proper middle seat. The Hyundai rear row seats are rubbish, the Kia had an ok middle seat but had an arm rest to pull down so not as comfortable. So far so good with the Volvo, miss air suspension and smooth ride of disco but we have an M class too for luxury! Actually that has 3 decent sized seats but no rear seats. Have you looked at the second hand GL class, though they are ridiculously huge! :)

Thanks, this is useful stuff.

I am quite keen on 4wd. Lifestyle wise it makes sense. We have a pony and although the DCs don't actually want to go anywhere with him, in time that may change and so being able to tow in muddy fields would be a plus. We also get bad winters quite often, and are 5 miles from the nearest town. I traded in my last 4wd right before the bad snow in 2010, and consequently was housebound for 3 weeks....

I care not one jot about cars feeling old! I really couldn't be less interested in cars if I tried, I just need one that will do the job. DH may not be of the same view, however. It's useful to know about the new XC90 and impact on values, although at the same time I would plan to keep driving a car until it really was on it's last legs - Volvos are meant to have quite a long lifespan, aren't they?

Also very useful to know about the Britax Adventure - I am going to need to swap our HBB anyway as it's an enormous thing with foam side-impact wings, so slimline looks like the way to go, especially as in time we'll need to fit in 2/3 of these.

If you can, I would always advise going to (or speaking to) the InCar Safety centre at Milton Keynes. They are brilliant, and so very patient (it took us about 3 hours to sort out 3x car seats for my CRV when I was pregnant with ds, and we didn't want to change cars immediately.

I just got an XC90 second hand. About 9 months old, and a fair whack off the price. Can't tell it isn't new. We will have it for 5 years+, by which time values stabilise (at not a lot ). I do a lot of miles (my school run alone is over 80 miles a day), so again that impacts on future resale value for my cars.

I prefer my xc90 to dh's discovery. But the discovery is ok too. Volvo has more comfortable seats, imo.

The GL had no leg room in the back (as in middle row) and has ridiculous mpg rates - would be extortionate for me to run! Dh was gutted but agreed it didn't make sense.

Not car specific but the jane montecarlo is another narrow hbb, we have an adventure too and the montecarlo is a couple of cm narrower when it is all adjusted to the smallest setting. It doesn't depend more on how the shapes interact that the literal widest point though when it comes to fitting three seats side by side.

We have two hbb and an erf in our Seat Ibiza so I know it can be done safely in very much smaller cars than were talking about here. Oddly it's not perceptibly easier to do in my parents' a6 or Mazda 6 than it is in our Ibiza. We also have a hbb, a booster and an erf in a 2014 hyundai i10 with all the belt buckles reachable. We had a hire focus at the weekend and it was harder to sort the seats than it is in the i10, belt positioning and seat shape maybe?

If I was looking at a big car I would without a doubt go for something with 3 sets of Isofix fittings like the disco, c4, galaxy, grand scenic etc.

Our 5008 is great for 3 seats across the back.

I had winter tyres on it this winter but typically we didn't see a flake of snow, so I can't say how that might have helped in bad conditions.

Thanks everyone for replies, really useful. Mumsnet is far better than Which? Car for this type of thing!

Yes, we have a Peugeot 5008 too and I agree, it's great for fitting 3 seats (one of mine is ERF).

It won't fit the BeSafe seats with a 'Y' shaped foot prop though, at least not on the two outer seats (I didn't try it in the middle seat). One side of the foot prop was in mid-air over the dip that the front seat runners sit in, so the seat was potentially not stable in the event of a crash. It also has the stupid underfloor storage compartments that complicate things when fitting car seats, I have a Britax Multi Tech II because the foot prop misses the lid of the storage compartment.

I've toyed with getting an xc90 for a while but I've decided to wait for the new one. I'm crossing my fingers it'll be worth the wait.

New XC90 is out in December, but it will be a lot more expensive. I love my XC 90. Last one did 200 thousand miles! This one has survived a head on collision which I walked away from. Tows a trailer with 2 horses, can fit kids, dogs in. Gets up hills in snow.

Can't wait to see the new one, but know I can't afford it. Am hoping for another 200k miles from this one

Another vote for the xc90. A 2/3 year old one with lowish mileage is a bargain at sub £20k and £270 a year road tax.

New I'd go for an S Max or 5008 but I am
Not sure I'd be happy with high mileage on either of those.

Our XC90 appears indestructible and is on ots way to 200k miles. Fingers crossed.
If it died now, I'd buy a similar age one to tide me over until
The new one is out, second hand values on the current model have gone south, and then buy a new "old" model.
Really can't imagine trusting our safety to any other car at the moment,

We have an S-max. DH tried our carseats (1 masi Cosi Tobi plus 2 Britax high backed boosters) in a Citroen Grand Scenic and a Renault. Neither has as much room between the carseats as the S-Max. Remember with high backed boosters there needs to be enough room between the seats for the child to fasten the seatbelt themselves. You need a car with three full width seats in the second row. My cousin has a Galaxy and it's fab and has lots more legroom if you are a tall family. We aren't so it's not an issue for us.

The XC90 isn't all that great on ice ime - my friend has one and we slid quite spectacularly it it towards a parked car on the flat...

Not 4WD but I would look at the S Max or C4 as already mentioned. We actually have a Renault Grand Scenic and it's been great - 7 years old and still going strong.

Shoewhore - ice performance is ok with winter tyres and or ice socks , and using gears properly - . In automatic with summer tyres, it is a 2 tonne car, it's gonna slide !