Car for twins + 9 yr old

[SukiB32]

Hi!

I'm usually more of a lurker, but since having twins -1 yr old and having a 9 yr old we think we need to upgrade our car! As we are struggling with boot space for the buggy and shopping- absolute nightmare!!!

Ideally we want to keep the 9yr old in the middle of the seats with a booster seat. As we can then easily put the twins at either side- its easier to get in and out.

For the twins we were using a maxi cosi cabrio fix infant carriers but would like to use an isofix base going forward in the new car- as it will be safer.

We are looking at a car, fairly new ie less than 3 years old?

I have searched on google and not found any recent threads - can anyone out there kindly share their experience

Thank you in advance!

I have a Citroen Grand Picasso so it's actually a 7 seater but we don't use the two in the boot so boot is big!

Other options are Ford S Max, Vauxhall Touran, Volvo XC90, Skoda Kodiaq, Volkswagan Sharan.

If you keep your car for years definitely go for a 7 seater - then you can take a friend for each child in the car with you - thinking play dates after school etc.

We have a toyota prius plus (I don't think they make them now but it's still new to me) - we also looked at the cars listed above. Realistically the SMAX was our main choice - and it still wins on the boot space. But I like the fact my car doesn't feel like a tank. Previously we had a citroen xsara picasso - that was when we had 3 car seats - it was spacious and great - but didn't have the extra seats. The grand picasso looks quite big - but I didn't ever test drive one.

Don’t get a kadjar or a kuga!

Peugeot 5008 - has 3 full sized seats :) The versions made after 2018 have reinforced storage boxes so perfectly fine for car seat legs.

If you do have car seats with legs for the twins you need to be careful of storage boxes which appear in a lot of people carriers/estates.

If you are concerned about safety for the twins I would actually urge you to look into Swedish style rear facing seats up to 25kg. These do tend to use a leg and aren't isofix but they are much safer. Will give more shoulder space for your 9yo as well :)

Your 9yr old won't be in a booster for much longer so I wouldn't let that influence you too much.

I agree with pp, saying look at 7 sweaters where you can put extra 2 the back seats up and down, as it makes all the difference if you're able to share lifts with other families for dancing/football/parties. You don't want to be stuck in the position where your child misses out on something because you can't fit another child in your car.