Car Rental - 2 Boosters & 1 Car Seat: Advice Needed Please

[gmason17]

Hi,

Hoping for some advice please.

We're from Scotland but live in Canada now. We have 3 kids (almost 8, almost 6 and almost 4) and are coming over for a visit. We need some car rental advice please.

We'll have 2 boosters and 1 car seat given their ages/weight, I would think.

Looking at car rental options, Arnold Clark is by far the best in terms of cost. However, they don't have any of the people carrier (6/7 seater) options and booking those elsewhere are astronomical.

I have chatted to them and they're quite confident our setup of seats would fit in their SUV options across the back, but I was wondering what people here think. I've listed the different rental suggestions below and the potential cars it could be. One thing to note though is that specific models are not guaranteed as it completely depends what they have on the day. They did commit to making it work though and giving us the biggest option for our family that they have in that range.

SUV:
Most common options: Kia Sportage (2WD), or a Nissan Qashqai (2WD)
Other potential options: Audi Q2, Jeep Compass, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, MG Motor UK HS, MG Motor UK ZS, Nissan Qashqai, Peugeot 3008, Renault Kadjar, Seat Ateca, Skoda Kamiq, Skoda Karoq, Suzuki Vitara, Vauxhall Grandland X and VW Tiguan.

Large:
Most common options: Vauxhall Insignia, or a Skoda Octavia
Other potential options: Skoda Octavia, Skoda Superb, Volkswagen Passat, Vauxhall Insignia & Citroen C5 Aircross.

Estate:
Most common options: Skoda Octavia, or a VW Arteon
Other potential options: Skoda Octavia, Skoda Superb, VW Arteon and Vauxhall Insignia.

The "SUV" and "Large" options are the same price. The estate is more expensive (another £160 over the course of our rental).

I gather the C5 Aircross would be the perfect option as it has the 3 full seats across the back, but again no guarantee we'd get that. So if we didn't get that, would we still be better with the "Large" category vs the SUV?

Like I said, the person I spoke to at Arnold Clark seemed quite confident we'd be able to fit all 3 in the back row of the SUV (we didn't actually talk about the large and estate) and assured me they'd make sure we were fine. He said if it were 2 car seats and a booster, we'd have a harder time, but with 2 boosters and a car seat we should be fine.

I have looked up the Qashqai and Sportage, and am cautiously optimistic it'd be ok. It's hard to find results specific to our situation.

We will have a reasonable amount of luggage between the 5 of us too. I realize it probably won't all fit in the boot, so either it can go on top of us for the short journey, or our relatives will meet us there and take some. But if you think the "Large" options will give us more space for luggage and just the same amount of room for car seats, we can go for that.

Our other option is a place offsite where my brother-in-law would have to pick up that rent a Hyundai i800. We've used it on a previous trip and obviously loads of room. It's just a bit too big for Scotland! Too long for most parking spaces at shops, it isn't a nice drive and a few hundred more expensive than the Arnold Clark prices. If that's our only safe option for fitting our family of course we'll go for it, but I'd really rather avoid it.

Thanks so much for your help!

Large sounds much better than SUV TBH. A lot of the SUV types don't have a proper seat in the middle, so you'll struggle to fit three car seats into one. Skoda Superb is apparently amazing, but it's very long so if the Hyundai was an issue that might be too (but I don't know how long the i800 is).

The Quashqai in particular is a total nightmare for car seats.

Do you need car seat recommendations too?

This might help with the external dimensions, doesn't help much with internal, but in terms of parking and such.

https://www.carsized.com/en/

By the way, when you say boosters, they are probably thinking of backless boosters. If you want proper high backs, which I assume you do at those ages, particularly for the 5yo, they are larger.

This is probably why the guy thinks that you can fit 2x boosters and one car seat no issue - he is thinking of booster cushions.

So you'd go for a skoda superb (could be the octavia, they can't guarantee) over either of the SUV options? Ie pick the large category (not SUV or estate)?

They did mention when I called that the large category is typically the octavia or superb and they're committed to making sure we fit.

Those ones won't be a concern with length. The hyundai was 3 rows with a large boot. It was basically a van.

Thanks!

A friend of mine has an Octavia with two child seats in, that would be a squeeze TBH.

The "Large" examples seem bigger to me than the SUV examples. Most SUV type cars are just high up, they aren't any bigger internally.

VW Passat and Insignia are good for getting 3 across.
Citroen C5 Aircross fine.
Octavia might be a bit of a squeeze. Superb is bigger, so fine.

I don't know as many of the SUV examples but the ones I do know:

Quashqai no chance. Sportage is tricky.
Peugeot 3008 - we had this - we just about managed Gr1 seat + infant seat + teenager. 3 across would be tricky.
The Tucson I'm sure we looked at and discounted due to the middle seat being tiny.

VW Arteon looks roomy (I don't know much about it).

I can't really tell what the difference is between Large and Estate.

This is a little bit old now but car seats haven't changed hugely in size since this, but they have listed a load of different brands/models. You will struggle if your Group 1 seat is isofix, because the isofix points on these cars tend to be placed further towards the middle seat. You'll be best off if you can get a belt fitted seat for your 3yo. It's not like North America where you can choose between Latch and seatbelt, most EU seats are isofix only or seatbelt only, rather than having the two options.

https://erfmission.com/car-seats-3-across-in-the-backseat/