Seating arrangements with 4 children

[claireinmodena]

We gave dc aged 10.8 and 7.2 am aldo expecting twins in a few weeks.

We both need to changd cars, dh will get a company car snd we were thinking abou a peugeot 5008 or a sharan fir dh (will be used for family trips), and a touran or zafira for me (i will mistly need 4 seats but occasionally will use the extra two for playdates etc).

Just wondering what thd best seating arrangements would be?

Is my eldest safer in front seat (airbag disabled) or third row?

Hos would you arrange them all?

Many thanks

Congrats on the pregnancy! Properly safest in the front the pushchair can be under the parcel shelf. If you put a child in the 3rd row make sure pushchair can't fall on them by putting the belt round it. I would put the middle 7 year old in between the babies as this will be easier for getting them in. When the big ones are not in the car don;t forget to secure their boosters so they don't fly around the car if you even had a accident.

Out of the 2 cars you suggested I would get the touran as the zafria has a bench seat so is less flexible with seating. With the touran you can move in individual seat forward and backwards which may make it easier to get them all in as they all get bigger. you could also put 2 in each row and get them in easily

Thanks "notfar" I hadnt thought sbout the pushchair flying around. I do prefer the touran, but if we get the zafira would be because uts cheaper....

Bump?

Last try!

i have been looking at the sharan as we need to upgrade. 3 rows of seats and a decent size boot, so no worries about tethering the pram

we had a vw sharan when we had 4 kids and now that we have 5 we have a citreon c8 which we love, slidey rear doors!!

the sharon worked great, i really dont like zafiras with the seats in the boot, the sharan and our c8 have proper full sized seats, they all come out and you can put them in different comfigurations etc plus they are all comfortable for an adult, with 4 growing boys we wanted seats they would be comfortable in as they hit teen years, our eldest is 12 and taller than me. we were happy wiht out sharan and our more than happy with the c8, you just need to watch engine size etc or you can get stung on your tax, we got a diesel for this reason :)

we put adult/s in the back row of our zafira occasionally - it's not exactly comfortable but as long as they're not very tall it's ok

back row seats in Sharan, Galaxy etc are actually just as close to the tailgate as the Zafira (even though they're proper seats)

it is true that the old Zafira's middle bench seat is inflexible, although they have just introduced a new model with separate seats, yay if you can afford it-

Mazda5 or Ford S Max might be good for you

(congrats on the twins btw. I always thought it would be fab & fascinating to have twins)(although the extra energy required would probably kill me )

We have a c8 and have twins in the back (nearly 5) ds3 (3) behind the driver and ds1 (8) in the middle of the middle row. Dh and I in the front. I don't drive with the seat behind the passenger unless we have a play date, as I use that super fantastic sliding door to load them all in. Pushchair in boot which I rarely use now. But had the double pushchair in there no problem.

I had a picassco before ds3 arrived and had ds1 in the middle with a twin either side.

ponders, i disagree, the sharan has got a much deeper boot space than the zafira

i would need to measure it to be sure on that, as it's based purely on looking at a hundred million used cars today lol

thisisyesterday i agree the sharan has a deeper boot, dp drives a zafira at work and having had a sharan ourselves he says the sharan is def got a bigger boot and having proper single seats is important for comfort and for ease of fitting carseats, like i say my 12yr old is taller than me and wouldnt be comfortable in the back of a zafira, he was fine in the sharan and is fine in our c8 :)

someone go & measure them

I'd be very surprised if the difference is more than 2-3 inches

it's a challenge! and i accept lol

am actually interested to see how much they differ anyway, and want to get whatever has the biggest boot/gap between window and rear seats... so I will take my tape measure next time i'm at the car supermarket and measure them all and report back

all i can find online is that the zafira has a luggage space of 1820 litres and the sharan has 2297

but sharan could be taller. hmm

sharan is quite a bit taller, although I don't think they measure luggage space to the roof, just to the top of the back seats

it will be wider too

I will await your report with great interest

We love our Ford S Max, plenty of room for kids, dogs, pram & luggage!

Thanks all!! I hadnt realised people were still responding to my thread

I like the this would my car for work school run, so will only need 5 seats, and do not want a huge car, also smaller = cheaper. Cant really afford the sharan! Need to have a look at the mazda5 and ford s max.

Thanks for all the advice!

Consider a Fiat Multipla for you too.

Individual seats, good boot space and not too enormous to drive. Ours works for us - we have 4 kids too, including twins!

Best of luck with it all