What car to buy.................. help................

[raindroprhyme]

So those of you with 3 or more how do you transport your brood.

DH on Auto trader now and asking for some MN wisdom.

Cheers.

ps (not even pregnant yet)
pps (proper planning prevents piss poor performance) apparently

Just after we had our 3rd dc, our other two were 4.9yr and 21 month, so we could not fit 3 car seats in the back of our scenic, so we bought a honda shuttle, which is big enough and they get a choice of were they sit which they all love! we did not have a lot of money hence having a P plate car, but it had low mileage (60000) so was worth it. it is worth looking around for.

hth mt3 x

I am going for an ancient toyota emina because i like the seat arrangement, I just hope they are a good car too

do not

do not

do not

do not

do not

do not

do not

do not

do not buy a Renault. I have just got rid of my Grand Scenic (04 plate, 7 seater). It was a money pit. Cost me £1600 in 11ish months on various jobs large and small. Hateful things.

I have 3 kids (17, 15.5 & 6) and have a Focus now. Much better. Still roomy enough (although admittedly only 1 car seat and that is a booster).

DH has an Audi RS6 saloon (510 bhp, total monster).

DH's car is massive and has loads of room. The A6 is the non peel your face off version and if you get the estate there is stacks of boot space too

Have recently had this dilemma, could not get 3 car seats into our focus cmax, so have upgarded to a 7 seater kia sedona which although like a bus is absolutely FAB, also looked at galaxy/ alhambra/ touran/ c8 etc

You need to make sure that when seats are in they are not too close along the row otherwise there is a risk of "buckle crunch" from a side imapct ( seat hits buckle nxt to it and buckle flies open releasing seat)

Good luck and enjoy

Galaxy is great for our three (9 years, 2 years & 4.5 months), and you can get friends in too! It also does around 44 mpg, which is pretty good I think?

Can you tell I love my new car

We have just bought a Ford S-max (have three children aged 3.2 / 1.4 / 1.4). Not actually got it yet (waiting weeeeeeeeeeks grr) but it seemed the best for our situation as can fit three car seats on middle row of seats leaving the two extra seats free for friends / family / more luggage space.

Have discounted Zafira, Sharan, Picasso, SMax, Verso, SMax, Grand Scenic, HRV and probably a few I've forgotten, we've narrowed our choices down to the Ford Galaxy and the Volkswagen Touran for practicality.

Obviously we really disliked the SMax to discount it twice!

Hi

We have 5 yr old and 4 yr old twins, so 3 booster seats in a row!! Had the Ford Galaxy which was fine but when it died we bought a Kia Sedona. Really roomy, and sliding doors fab in a car park, but drinks fuel (we have a diesel) and is very wide (tho I got used to driving it quite quickly)

C x

we had emina, also ancient. Lasted 2 years but just be warned, when they start going wrong, (big stuff) noone wants to touch em cos they're imported, and get expensive to fix. They do come in 8 seats too without losing space.

Got Nissan Serena now, same seat arrangement as emina. loads boot space. Looks a bit crap but goes well, and very reliable. (if a bit noisy, )

I have a friend with a Galaxy who doesn't like it (not sure what reasons though). For us it was a toss up between Touran and S-max and they were very similar on size / boot capacity / fuel consumption etc (so DH tells me) but chose s-max as prefer the look of it to Touran.

Heated dare I ask why you discounted the s-max (twice )?

we have a mazda mpv (big) and a volkswagen touran (not quite so big). 3 kids, 2 dogs, occasional grandparents or friends.

thank you for your responses.
i fancy the peel your face of Audi, but doubt i would ever get to drive it.

Hi Egg, sorry it's taken me a while to see your post.

Have owned Fords very happily and the Galaxy is still in the running, but found the SMax a harsh ride, especially at slower speeds - the salesman described it as 'robust'. Maybe just the model we tried, but enough for us to favour the Touran.

Thank you Heated! I cornered a family with the identical model to the one we have ordered (we went for Titanium as I needed park assist and DH wanted tinted windows ) and they loved theirs. The dad said he chose it as it was the least like a bus .

Raindrop do you mean this one???? Slightly cooler than the 7-seaters .

Audi Q7 - SIl has one - beautiful, nippy and v roomy (too pricey for us

I have 4 kids ages 8, 6, 2 and 8 months and we got a Honda Frv 3+3, the reason i love it is because i can park in tight spaces and its fun to drive.

I Nearly have 3 (due in 3.5 weeks)

have a volvo v70

def egg when i win the lotto i will have 2 and DH will not be allowed to drive either.

I've got a Renault Grand Scenic which is 'OK' it's a petrol and is a real fuel guzzler. I've had a fair few problems with it, but thankfully I bought an extended warranty for it. We're expecting baby No 4 so are going to have to get a bigger car!!

We have 4 dcs and the big ones are bigger than me now. Thought about the s-max and touran, but really we have to have a least 6 adult sized seats, so after 11 years of a faithful galaxy we replaced it with ....another galaxy. Love the fold away seats and it's much quieter than the old one...and doesn't leak in the rain. Not sure about all the automated bits yet. Don't really need a silly bleep to tell me I'm reversing into a tree/car when the dcs are quite well trained. Am enjoying all the fuel consumtion guage; now I can prove to dh that I drive much more economically than he does.