Cars for four!

[Chaosonthehorizon]

In a few months we will have four children and due to the DT’s need to upgrade our car. Volvo/Audi or VW Caravelle?! Currently have on street parking so whilst we would love something better for the environment than a diesel it would be tricky to charge (not to mention the extra up front cost). It seems from which that the Volvo is tricky to get baby seats into the very back which is where we plan to put them. Any thoughts? We have ruled out MPV’s due to the lack of boot space with all seats in use. Thanks

We have 3 and considering 4th, and are looking at upgrading our car to a seven seater. My kids are 9m, 5 and 6 , so only one in a car seat and the other two in hbb. We’ve narrowed it down to a Volvo XC90. The isofix points are on the two outer seats, where we’d have 9m old and potentially if we had another then they would be on the other side. Volvo do their own branded hbb. Or if you buy brand new you can get a family pack (it’s called something along those lines!) which means the seats confert into a hbb, by pulling up part of the seat. It’s pretty clever. The safety issue was a huge plus point for us. The boot is still good size (big enough for double pram) when the back two seats are in use as well.
We looked at the discovery and discovery sport but the boot was tiny. The next option was a people carrier like a alahambra or a ford s Max. But my husband was keen to go for a car rather than a people carrier.

We have an XC90 with 4 kids (now 11, 10, 7 and 4). We bought the XC90 when we had DC4 and have loved it- the 3rd row has the most comfortable seats of the larger 7 seaters we saw and the boot space is still good with all seats up. Ours is an older style one.

We have the Mercedes GL 350 which is similar in size to xc90. Again chosen for the boot size mostly.

I'd say don't fart around with a 7 seater, go straight for a Caravelle/Viano/Tourneo. Otherwise you are messing around with boot space and car seats and not being able to access the third row of seats easily.

Completely agree with the post above. 4 kids here and don’t listen to anyone who says a 7 seater will be ok - you can put one in the boot. It’s rubbish!

We have 2 cars. A ford grand c max. Perfect for taking 6 people with no luggage (as kids can walk through the middle)z

And a ford tourneo custom which is the family car (van)

We have a Zafira we got when we had our third, now #4 is on the way, we are thinking of getting a multimac to enable us to keep the boot space, and I don't feel comfortable with having a child seat in the back. It's much cheaper than buying a new car!

We got a Ssangyong Turismo - it's the largest 7-seater car you can get that's not a van-style. It's also pretty affordable. It has a really large boot, even with all seats in use. I recommend looking at it if you're in the market.

Just wanted to come on and update incase anyone looking for an answer, as I was a few months ago! We ended up going for a Mercedes v class. Really really like it, comfortable, 6 individual seats in two back rows 4 of which have isofix. Back row of 3 can be removed for even more boots space. We have 3 at the moment age 6,5 and almost 1 and they all fit in middle row. We’ve kept back row seats in as handy if they have friends or if we give anyone a lift. Still ample room in boot for pram, bikes shopping etc. Honestly for a family with 4 or more kids I wouldn’t muck about with fold down seats and go straight for a mini van.