7 Seater That Seats 7 and has a boot

[van22cam]

Seems almost impossible to find a car that seats all 7 of us (we have 5 who are 11 and under inc a newborn) whilst still having any form of boot.

We currently have a 15 Grand Picasso which fits a pushchair if dismantled and no other boot space and a Grand Voyager which fits everything but is terrible on fuel, not great to drive and is starting to fall apart a bit due to age. We've been through an Alhambra, old style Galaxy, Smax, FRV, X5 which have all been snug but doable when there was only 6 of us as you just had one seat down but now with 7 i can't see how they would work at all.

Looking around, there seems to be no "cars" that have a boot like the voyager if the seats are in use. We would prefer not to end up with a van. Any ideas? Need to replace the voyager sooner rather than later.

From what i remember, when looking at a Ssangyong Rexton that still has a boot when all seats are in use

How much boot? I had a Landrover Discovery - with all 7 seats up - you had a bit of boot. You could get a pushchair or shopping in but not much more.

Have you looked at a Volvo XC90? You still have reasonable boot space when all 7 seats are in use.

Yeh enough for a proper pushchair and a 2-3 school bags for school run. We have a roof box for trips away.

C4 Grand Picasso only takes the pushchair if dismantled and person in third row holds it whilst the boot gets shut.

Main issue with SUVs (we've had an X5) are the middle seat tends to not be a proper seat or independent. All 5 kids are in child seats or baby carriers still. So access to rear becomes a problem if the middle row isnt 3 separate seats and also so does buckling in car seats.

Have you got one? how easy is third row access? Could you do it with a child seat sat on the middle row? the eldest two may be out of seats soon but we've got a few more years before no 3 would be so will have at car seats in all of the middle row.

I had a 7 seat hyundai santa fe, 7 individual seats and enough room in the boot. Pretty sure they stopped making them but might be an updated version, or a decent used one.

I have an XC90.
You have to tilt the middle row outside seat forward to get to the third row. For me it meant that I couldn’t access that row from the side that had the group 1 isofix seat on it, but the older one’s high back booster was fine - I just pulled it forward a bit and then tilted the seat no problem.
you wouldn’t get 3 high back boosters across the middle row though, but the middle seat has a build in booster cushion which is very handy.
I love mine!

We have a Toyota Tarago (Estima) and it has a lot of space. Its an 8 seater. I can lift the floor of the boot for more storage.

Have you looked at the VW caddy maxi life or the ford grand tourneo connect? I think the VW is pretty good on boot space with all the seats being used.

Had the same dilemma.

look at Galaxy, XC90 and Q7.

We went for the xC90.

We have a Mercedes V class. 7 full size seats plus decent sized boot. We have 4 DC and it works brilliantly for us. We know 2 other families with 4 kids who have the same as us.

VW caravelle....... If they still make them🤔 had mine for over 20 years and love it still, I dread it failing its MOT

Ford galaxy! The third row of seats are proper adult size, and you can get 2 suitcases in behind them. Best car ever and a pleasure to drive.

Nissan Pathfinder

The new Land Rover defender 130 fits 8 people with proper seats for each, and still has boot space but it’s an £80k car with quite a waiting list.

We are 7. Currebtly have an xc90 but all but thw 2 year old are out of giant car seats. Caravelle or similar is what you need whilst still in big car seats. Ideally with electric doors that you can open before you get to car. I found getting in and out of the car dangerous when they were that age (as so many of them hanging about waiting their turn) so liked the fact they could just all get in easily and quickly.

We had a Nissan El Grand. Bloody lovely. They're all Japanese imports so all the inside dials etc are in Japanese, but it was a fab car. You can change all the seat layouts to face forward or backwards, and it's an 8 seater so you'd have lots of room. They're really cheap compared to other cars of the same size, but they use a LOT of petrol (as do lost cars of this size I guess)

Yeah I think you're in van or Japanese import land here. Nissan Elgrand, Toyota Vellfire/Alphard. Mercedes Vito or Viano, VW Caravelle or maybe a Caddy Maxi Life.

That new Dacia Jogger seats seven, and is relatively compact, but I don't know how much boot space you'd have will all seats occupied.

Hyundai i800

When I have people in the back of my 7 seater, I often find it easier to put them in via the boot 😂 saves moving the middle row all the time and (as it's usually kids) they think it's great fun getting in and out of the boot 😆

Thats as shame, we have 3 still needing help to get in/strapped in inc one in a baby seat still so would need the full row in the middle. seems like that is off the list.

are parts ok to get hold of? We've had a FRV in the past and that was a nightmare and so is the voyager as they werent very popular and long discontinued.

Feels like it may have to be a van based solution which we were hoping to avoid but we were hoping to find a car that ticked the boxes but responses so far don't look like we will.

They do it’s called a multi van, Mental money now. Plus there’s the new buzz coming out which looks very cute.

For what it’s worth and if it was my money I’d go XC90 and hybrid if your budget stretches. Great car, decent build quality and decent dealer backup