Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Larger families

Find out all about large family cars, holidays and more right here.

Original poster

Those with 3 under 3: tell me about your cheap, reliable car!

12 replies

Linguaphile · 16/12/2014 12:19

We're hoping to have a baby next year and need a car that will seat 3 car seats in a row to accommodate two year old twins and a newborn (and later all the booster seats). What's the cheapest 7 seater we could go for that is reliable enough to take on road trips (we only really need a car for going to visit family and going on holiday)? Need a massive boot as well to house the double buggy.

What works for you? The Renault grand scenic looked like it might be our best bet price-wise, but I've heard terrible things about Renault reliability... Is there a particular make/model that is better for this?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
SophieBarringtonWard · 16/12/2014 12:26

Watching with interest. Am pregnant with DC3 and need to get a new car to fit one high back booster, one stage 2 and one baby seat. We drive a fair bit to see family etc too.

nottheOP · 16/12/2014 12:30

Fiat multipla
VW Touran (most reliable)
Citroen Xsara Picasso
Toyota Avensis Verso

Original poster
Linguaphile · 16/12/2014 12:32

nottheOP - how much would each of those run secondhand? We can't really spend more than 2k... :(

OP posts:
Towanda · 16/12/2014 12:35

We have an ancient (W reg) ford galaxy that's like a workhorse. We had a much older one when dd3 was born but swapped to a renault espace when that would have cost more to repair than to replace - we had the espace less than a year and replaced it with the current galaxy.

We have 4 so we have all the seats up but if you can find one with 3 full belts in the middle row you can either lay the rear seats down or remove them completely which would give you a massive boot space.

nottheOP · 16/12/2014 13:19

There are examples of all the ones I mentioned on autotrader for 2k or less but the VW and Toyotas had very high mileage. There are hundreds of Xsara Picassos - there's only 5 seats but as they are individual seats you can get three car seats in the back.

I think that the Vauxhall Meriva is the same but you'd need to check

Original poster
Linguaphile · 16/12/2014 14:42

What's the boot space like in an Xsara Picasso?

OP posts:
Borttagen · 16/12/2014 14:56

We are about to have our third under 3.5 and all 3 will be rear facing. We have a Kia Ceed SW so only 5 seats. I'll be in the middle at back hopping over newborn maxi cosi base to get in and out, one toddler in front rear facing with airbag off and the other in the back. Once baby bigger we reckon we should fit two Britax two ways rear facing either side of max way so all in back.
Ceed is really wide across back seat. Not sure about price. Boot decent size for double buggy and we are planning to get a roof box for car trips on holidays.

AgentAlice · 17/12/2014 10:02

You should be able to get a Citroen Xsara Picassos for 2k, I thought it was a great car for the money.

The back seats are separate which is great for booster/baby seats, they also come our...this proved very handy when one of the DC's was sick. I took the seat out to clean and then dry in the sun! The car also had little compartments in the floor in the back where I used to keep spare wet wipes etc. The boot was pretty big too.

Auto trader is good for looking at loads of photos. The other car that is pretty cheap (and there always seem to be loads of them) is the vauxhall zafira. They have pop up seats in the boot which is handy for later on if your DC's have friends round or if you eventually go on to have a 4th DC!.

Jenny1231990 · 17/12/2014 18:50

We bought a Renault scenic not long after I discovered I was preg with baby number 3. It's an older one but seemed to be really well looked after. It has 3 full sized seats in the back and a massive boot.
I loved it until my other half was driving on the motorway and the sunroof literally exploded while he was driving covering him in glass. Scary. Never heard of it before I googled it and has happened to a few other people. Just a heads up. We are now getting rid of the car. Lucky non of our babies were in the car. And we still don't know the cause was x

sockmatcher · 28/12/2014 07:53

Bear in mind the storage boxes in the touran, scenic and Picasso have storage boxes. This makes using car seats with a leg prop - is infant carrier bases- a problem as the prop needs to either miss or extend all the way down ( and most don't have long enough legs)

You can buy fillers for fords and vw but the other manufacturers don't do them.

Borttagen. I'll be interested to see your ERF pics as and when you manage it.

Frikadellen · 29/12/2014 17:22

Not a 7 seater but we drove a Citroen Picasso when we had 3 under 4. Absolutely loved it and it took a double buggy in the back.

Moved on to a C8 when dd3 (our 4th) arrived. Would also highly recommend.

Later on when kids were older we had a Ford Smax Loved it too however not exactly cheap as a car.

Would stay well clear of Renault Scenic we had one and I hated it. Lots of issues poor drive and visibility.

Also dislike the Nissan Qashquai huge blind spot and not a pleasant drive at all.

My friend drove a Fiat Multipla for years with 4 children and loved it. (then had baby no 5 and moved to a C8 - also loves)

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread