Rear leg room question - need lots of it.

[octanegirl]

I've got an Audi A6 Allroad. It's HUGE. We just put a new rear facing car seat in it (the type that takes them up to 4 yrs old) and now the passenger seat is very far forwards, to the extent that we both have our knees touching the dash (6ft and 6ft 3). The 73cm baby takes up more room than us!

Question - is there anything out there, German, Swedish or maybe Japanese, with more rear leg room than the Allroad? Or are we doomed to be uncomfortable for the next 3.5 years?

And before anyone suggests getting a smaller carseat, that ain't going to happen. It's a bigger car or sore knees but safe carseat stays.

Thanks!

I'm mostly going on the wheelbase figures compared to the A6 (but depends on the exact age/model) which may not directly translate to more legroom.

The BMW 5 series has a longer wheelbase than the A6. Alternatively, try the next class up (or a long wheelbase version of it): Audi A8/A8L, Jaguar XJ (SWB or LWB), BMW 7 series (SWB or LWB), Lexus LS (SWB or LWB).

It sounds like the Mondeo has a large rear cabin, but again I don't know how that compares (I'm usually sitting in the front).

Other option is to look at tall cars - older Mercedes A class apparently had more rear legroom that their flagship S class.

Or, get a 7-seater and take the middle row of seats out: Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra, Citroen C8, etc.

Hi Octanegirl. Assuming you know roughly what kind of car you want/like, you can find the actual amount of front and rear legroom for any car currently in production by clicking through to the What Car? specs pages for each car from Mumsnet Cars. Go to Mumsnet Cars' Car reviews, choose 'What Car? review' for the car you want and scroll down to the bottom of the review for a link to the specs pages. Choose any version of the car to find layout drawings and dimensions (under 'Size'). As it happens, we're in the processing of uploading the latest dimensions for the A6 Allroad (if you wanted to compare your car with others) but you should be able to go by the A6 Avant in the meantime.

Have a look at a skoda superb - massive rear legroom

The best rear legroom of any car on a reasonable budget is the Skoda Superb. There is about as much room as in a Merc S-Class in there - probably more. They are HUGE. And not bad cars either.

We've just got a Superb. With the passenger seat right back, there's at least a foot's leg room between the back of that and the back seat.

And the boot's still huge.

I wouldn't go for taking out the middle row of seats on a 7 seater. The back row is in the crumple zone

Which seat have you got? We just got a Cybex Sircona in the back of our Golf estate and 6 ft 4 DH is reasonably comfortable in the passenger seat in front of it. I know some of the ERF seats do take up a lot of space though...

Skoda superb. My mum and dad have one and it is HUGE in the back.

which seat do you have?

i've had a besafe izi combi and a britax 2 way elite in a renault scenic, volvo v70 and a vw caddy maxi life and not had a legroom issue with any of them.

We had a similar issue as the dses got older, and persistantly and deliberately grew taller. With three of them, legroom was a real issue. Dh and ds1 (petrolhead, car geek) did a lot of research, and we ended up getting a Mercedes E240 estate, which had oodles of legroom, but an unfortunate rust problem, due, I gather, to Mercedes using some cheap steel for a year or so. Other than that, it was a wonderful car, and I still miss it desperately.

We now have a BMW 5-series estate, which has the same dimensions as the Merc, and is just as good for legroom, but isn't about to dissolve into a pile of cornflakes on the drive.

Tbh, whilst I would recommend either car, I would get a Merc, if I could be sure of getting one that wasn't made of the substandard steel - it was a wonderfully comfortable car, and so easy to drive. But either is good, and both have lots of legroom - more than any other estate car on the market, if ds1 is to be believed.

I've got a BeSafe Izi Combi. Trouble is DP and I both 6ft plus.
Also the headroom is an issue with the seat. Its very hard to get LO in and buckled up without hitting his head and mine on the roof.
I fear a 4x4 is on the horizon in the not too distant....

do look into the amount of space the seats take up vs the space in the cars. I think what car website gives this data..

Not all 4x4 will give lots of space..

Good luck

Whatcar does indeed. I must say I now see why people buy people carriers and Discoveries....

Hi . I was just going to suggest a Discovery. Best family car. Lots of room, goes anywhere and seats 7.

For whoever is interested, I just tried the seat in a Discovery 3, BMW X5 and Audi Q7. The Discovery was by far the worst. The front seat was almost as far forwards as it would go to accommodate the seat and I had to sit sideways!
I'm going to try a Cybex Sirona as it seems to be about 8cm smaller, which might be the difference between comfort and not...

another vote for the superb, it is limo-like in the space in the back seats. VW were going to bring out a super-size passat based on the same chassis but never did. My parents loved theirs, though sadly my mum finds it a bit big now it's just her.