bigger car/ car seats/boot space- any advice welcomed!

[tab]

Hi, this is a bit of general message. WE currently have a nissan micra which we are now finding a tad too small with ds and travel cot and buggy and bags! We were looking maybe to trade up to a Renault scenic or similar if we can afford. Weve recently bought a maxi cosi xp car seat for second stage, ds is almost 1. car showroom people really not very clued up on car seats. Any views please on space in scenic or other similar cars and does anyone have a maxi cosi in a scenic. Such difficult decisions! what about bikes and stuff later on? Is anybody trying to make a similar decision?

Having travelled in a friend's Scenic, I didn't think there was much boot space actually (then again, I'm comparing it to a Laguna, not a Micra ). I can't remember what car seat they had I'm afraid.

tab, 2 previous threads on people carriers - lots of comments on the Scenic:

here

and

here

Ooops - the second one is the wrong thread - this is the right one!

been staring in the window of every people carrier I've seen lately. I think toyota previa looks biggest boot-wise, but with only 1 child, do you really need a people carrier, or are you planning another 5 in the next couple of years?

If you want a big boot, why not consider an estate car rather than a people carrier?

Yes, made that mistake!! Had a Saab, could not fit a second stage cosi carseat in it, so changed cars. Bought a Freelander, fine until number 2 came along and then double buggy, 2 carseats, changing bag, travel cots etc and no room for us! Now, I have a Chrysler Voyager, perfect! Lots of room for both kids in second stage Cosi car seats, lots of room for us, loads of luggage space and double buggy fits when all seats are full!

Did use a cosi in a scenic, it was OK, but you could not fit 2 others in the back with baby.

Estate cars aren't very good for bikes though - you need the extra height for them. I would have thought that with only 1 child a Scenic would do at the moment - you can leave a seat out or keep one permanently slid forward for extra space, can't you?

We've just done a 2 week driving holiday in our Scenic 4wd which has slightly less boot space than regular Scenic and with rear seats in forward position accommodated both kids (one in Maxi Cosi Rodi seat and one in Britax Freeway Excel), 2 rucksacks, holdall and cool box plugged into socket under rear seats, comfortably. In boot also had 2 large hard suitcases, travel cot, Quinny 3 wheeler buggy, holdall of toys, bag of swimming gear and walking boots tucked into the cubby holes, plus an assortment of other bits and pieces. In Winter we also added a toboggan to that lot!

For skis we have a set of roof bars, but they would also fit with the middle seat folded forward, and we have had both ds' bike and dh's (wheel removed) in the back easily. If you are that keen you can always get a rear rack.

Our friends have a regular Scenic and have both kids in Maxi Cosi Prioris and have also had either a child on a booster or adult in between, as we have also.

Hope this helps give you a feel for the potential capacity. One day we may even reinstate the rear parcel shelf

monkey, what happened about your lease? Can you get out of it early? (And how are your little darlings today?)

Janh - don't you put bikes on the roof of an estate car? Isn't that why they have roof bars -(and for extra luggage boxes of course)

Oh, yes, you can do that of course, but I was thinking of just short trips out for the day with the child's bike in the back - you couldn't get adult bikes in, you would need a rack or a rear carrier for that. (Very fiddly though - we have a rear carrier and that's quite awkward, how do people get them on the roof? Stilts???)

thanks for asking, janh. Dh much too busy to get involved, so it is now my little obsession, plus i drive the car 80 - 90% so it affects me much more.

Anyway, to terminate the lease early, we'd have to buy the car, then sell it back to them (at a loss of course!) It's not as bad as I'd feared - about 3.5 k. Still a lot of money in anyone's book, but for a year's aggro....

I've spent the last few days (plus 2 hours with an extremely patient lady in the local baby shop) trying every combination of child seat, and there is no way we'll get 3 car seats in the back, so our choice is

• cough up £3500 and change cars (slightly dodgy imo, but the same garage sells Toyotas & he seemed to be saying they'd only buy our 'old' car off us if we take a Toyota Previa, which doesn't seem too bad), or we'll have to see if another (non-BMW) garage will buy it. Blackmail or what!

• 2 kids in back, baby in front, then when we're all together, me or dh will have to sit squashed in back bwn 2 car seats. For a year. I've checked & we have to order some part or other to get the 2 passenger air bags switched off. More money!

Dh is inclined to go for option 2, with possibly changing in about 6-9 months. I think we should either stick with it till the lease ends, or change before baby gets here.

So, what would you do??

boys angelic - me being good too, ta!

monkey, would the Toyota also be leased, or would you be buying it this time? I don't really know how leasing operates, how much you've paid in already etc, but compared with how much you lose in depreciation when you buy a car, £3500 doesn't sound too bad. I would definitely go for option 1, but then I'm a bit of a loose cannon when I want something!

If you do go for option 2 then I think your DH should be the one squashed in the back between the car seats! Don't understand the logic of going through all the airbag business etc now and then changing with only 3-6 months of the lease to go - that doesn't make any sense.

Is the £3500 loss if the Toyota dealer takes the BMW? Could you sell it for cash to a BMW dealer or would that be impossibly complicated? I have heard before that Toyota dealers are very canny with part exchanges...but it would be the easiest way for you. (We've always done it that way even though it's more expensive.)

Anyway - I would get the Previa right now!!!

(Glad you are all being good today )

Hi,

have a look at mazda's - last year (pre twins) we were looking at scenics etc and plumped for the mazda premacy - similar size, less gimics, cheaper and more reliable. This year (post twins) we wanted something bigger, looked at galaxy/sharan etc, and previa, but decided on the mazda mpv - as big as the previa but cheaper and nicer to drive, also preferred the seat options.

Both cars comfortably take 3 car seats across the back and have large bootspace (the mpv is enormous if you take out the 3rd row of seats).

Mazda also seems to give really good deals, and come out very well on the reliability tables.

Not an MPV but my friend has the same Maxi Cosi car seat and she has an S reg VW Passat. There is plenty of leg room and a HUGE boot with tons of space for baby stuff.

We have a new Merc C-Class estate(having gone from a 51 reg VW Golf 4-motion - tiny boot and no legroom at all) which is a bit smaller but stil has plenty of room for our 3 children (11, 9 and 11mo).

If you've not got your heart set on an MPV (not sure it's possible ). I'd really consider looking at an estate.

The Passat is also an estate, just realised I forgot to mention !

Toyota also a llease. We don't actually pay anything (well about a tenner a month) to lease the car - paid for by dh's company, but we would have to pay to terminate early. The Toyota would simply be a new lease. The BMW & Toyota garages are part of the same garage company, so that's why they're saying they'll only buy the BMW if we take the Toyota.
if this happens then we only have to pay the difference ie the 33.5 k. If we want, eg a Citroen, we'd have to try & flog our BMW to a Citroen garage (maybe they wouldn't be as interested? but in doing this we'd have to stump up lots of thousands cash to buy the BMW & wait to receive the money, even if it's only a few days, it'll be much more difficult. I feel really strongly either before baby or sit out the lease. Like you, I can't see the point in going through the aggro for a few months then changing anyway. (Sod it, if you don't have the hard cash in your hands it's only numbers anyway, isn't it??) Dh is much more, well, the loss would be much less in 6 - 9 months time than now blah blah. Men!

I'm dreaming of people carriers.....

obviously 3 thousand 500, not 33 thousand!