Family car - 3 DC under 4, 7+ seats

[mummyofthreeunder4]

We have 3 DC ranging between 6 weeks and 4. All in car seats or high backed booster.

Want something Diesel, 7 seats, large boot space, cheap to run. Won't cost the earth to buy second hand.

Basically - spacious, reliable, practical and economical.

I read on a previous post that sliding doors would be a god send which I hadn't considered (as we were looking at an smax) but do now tend to agree.

Any recommendations?

Ford S max

Seat Alhambra has sliding doors and this is indeed very helpful as kids can't whack your door into an adjacent car. It is huge though. But you are in huge car territory with three kids.

Look at the higher specs of you can afford it for parking cameras / parking assist etc.

We've got a Ford cmax with 3 under 7.
It's great, and handy for fitting others in when needed.

Seat Alhambra ticks all your boxes. It's got a massive boot, still big even when the back seats are up. 6&7th seats easy to put up and down. Sliding doors compensate for the size of it so can still fit in normal spaces.

I love my Zafira! Ticks all of your boxes, and mine gets used hard and keeps going.

Costs me £18 or so a month for tax, insurance isn't much more than my smaller hatchback was, and it averages £50 a month on fuel. Its a 1.9cdti too so it's pretty quick and nice to drive on the motorway.

We have a Ford galaxy we have 4 kids so wanted a proper boot seat but with 3 if you aren’t going to be using the boot seats regularly or for long journeys then a smaller 7 seater should be fine.
The Galaxy/ Alhambra have a big boot but depends how big you need we use a roof box too when we go away.
Sliding doors nice if you can have it but I haven’t had an issue as I either parked in parent and child or find a double space further away if necessary.
One downside is parking it can be harder especially in tighter spaces.
I’m not sure second hand prices but I know there was a shortage of some 7 seater cars during covid that pushed prices up.
Our diesel Galaxy currently costs approx £120 to fill from empty which is a bit eye watering but overall it has served us well.