Luxury car for 3 children

[supercalafragilisticexpealidocious]

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old and another on the way.

We need a car that will fit 3 car seats. I would like a car on the luxury end of the scale as we will be using it a fair amount and I've never had a decent car before. I also don't want to feel like the Von Trapp family with a very unsexy mumsy car. (Don't judge me please!).

We will be buying second hand and have a budget of around 30k.

Requirements are:

• needs to fit 3 car seats (ideally isofix I'm guessing given age of children)
• needs to have potential towing capacity for horse trailer in future
• good boot space
• feel "nice"
• we are going to be living in a village so need something that can potentially cope with village roads in winter

So far I've come up with the Land Rover Discovery, the Volvo XC90 and the Audi Q7. BUT I've heard the discovery is horribly unreliable and doesn't fit 3 seats across the middle so would require one of them to be in the third row of seats (not necessarily a deal breaker), the q7 is perhaps not substantial enough for village life, the xc90 doesn't have 3 isofix points so our oldest would need to be in a seat attached with a seatbelt which doesn't feel ideal.

Any opinions or advice and any personal experience would be much appreciated.

haha yes this. I've had to do this several times just in the last week. See also refusing to take SUV slightly 'offroad' onto the mud at the side of the road to allow other cars through in the opposite direction.

XC90 would be my choice from your list OP.

Car seat wise I'd get the baby a besafe stretch B (birth to 7 years), the 2 year old an Axkid move or minikid. Not sure on options for 4yo as we're going straight from ERF to HBB and I think a 4yo would still need a harness.

also just to add we have an (old) Audi A6 quattro estate which feels luxury despite being old! so a newer one I'd imagine would be nice. it's got lots of boot space and is 4wd.

Those with GLBs how did you make the car seats work? We're about to pick up a GLB this week. We currently have a 2yo and newborn - haven't ruled out having a 3rd yet but for now we'd like to use the extra seats to give lifts to family (very close support etc so often go out together). But from what I can work out to access the 3rd row of seats we need to put one of the seats from the second row down which makes it tricky putting a car seat in those seats as it would need to be removed every time? We could put the car seats in the 3rd row as they've got isofix points but without having a play around once we've got it I'm not sure if they will fit as they're big car seats. Also not sure if a pushchair will fit in the boot once the 3rd row of seats are up? Not a massive issue for now but could be a problem if there was a 3rd DC.

Think this is a problem with a lot of 7 seaters - they're ok for older kids but for little ones in car seats and with pushchairs needing to fit in the boot it limits your options a bit. So it might rule of the GLB in your circumstances with a 3rd baby due OP.

XC90

Please don't put your 4 year old (and other kids obviously too!) in a FF harnessed seat. You're risking internal decapitation in an event of a frontal collision. Google it. Child's head moves forward with horrendous force, while their body is held back with the harness, and their spinal cord snaps. Lethal injury.

Much, much safer to have them RF until they're tall enough to go in a HBB.

Also make sure that whatever car you get, it actually allows a child seat in the middle seat. Check the manual as many don't, even if it technically fits size-wise.

I'd go for the Audi Q7. Land Rover's are hell to insure due to theft and have a huge security problem. My friend parked in the high street, returned to his car and unlocked his door. Only it wasn't his car, his key had unlocked another Range Rover. Not worth the hassle imo.

I have a Porsche cayenne which is so comfortable.. but my kids are adults now so looking for a smaller car.

we have had 2 x5 and they have been most unreliable heaps of shit i've ever come across. too much technology for own good. somethings always going wrong. our range rover was much the same but not as bad

Totally agree @strugglemama so nice to see other mums clued up on car seat safety

My 7 seater is not luxury at all and more of a minicab 😄. However it is wide enough to fit 3 children across the middle row leaving the boot big enough for the pushchair and all the other stuff we transport around. If you are using isofix seats you really aren't going to want to use the back row regularly as it's such a faff taking the seat out in the middle row to access it. My oldest (5 when dc3 was born) didn't like being in the 3rd row either as they felt left out.

One other thought is everyone I know who has 3 DC and uses their car a lot has ended up buying a second smaller car within a year or 2 for when it's 1 parent and the DC as it's easier to drive and park and the "big" car is for weekends only. It might be worth thinking about that before you make a big investment.
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We’ve got small 5 year old, 3 year old and will have a baby v.soon and bought the Peugeot 5008. All three seats fit in back and are isofix’d in. Not super posh but looks more like a SUV than a mini van! Also has 2 more seats in boot we haven’t tried yet for when we take other kids etc

We've got a second car already (an electric) but it's only a large hatchback so wouldn't fit three across the back. I could probably put the baby in the front seat with the other two in the back if I really needed to. Although having said that I probably won't need to transport all three of them very often as my oldest will be at school from September.

Tbh car seats are looking like even more of a minefield than the car itself. I'm spending a huge amount of time trying to navigate all the advice and different standards.

Yes, car seats are a minefield. We got the 7 seater Mercedes eqb electric. Weirdly, we can fit 3 across the middle row , but 1 isn't isofix. So we use the 7 seats (with 1 sear doen in the rear) with all isofix for long/motorway journeys and just use 3 across the middle row if I'm popping a mile down the road. Hasn't actually expected 3 across the middle to fit. We have rear-facing for baby (besafe izi go) and ff for the older boys (5 and 7). They love being squished into the middle with baby.

We've looked at all of these as options but are actually going to go for a new Skoda kodiaq. They've come a long way and look really smart, plus having everything we need in a car for 3 children. My husband is very picky about cars but even he is really happy with his choice.

God, not a LR. I silently judge all LR drivers (unless they are equestrians or have some similar sort of excuse).

We had an XC90 and it was a nice car to drive.

The people I judge are the ones who judge others for ridiculous things like what car they drive.

I mean, imagine being so superior and self important that you believe your own opinions and preferences to be fact and everyone else’s to be wrong, or stereotyping people for their preferences. How very narrow minded and dull.

Q7 owners, what car seats have you got that fit 3rd row? We need a third row seat, rear facing preferably and not finding it easy. We have 2 cybex on 2nd row and have just purchased axkid minikid 2 for 3rd row, we checked the website and spoke to axkid and this is what they recommended but it's not fitting.