Best seven seater in snow

[Thinkingofmyfabfour]

hi all
I'm looking to get some opinions on 7 seaters which can handle icy weather.
My current x3 is great in snow, we have a mulitmac to fit everyone in, but we need to change it as developing some problems.
Plan is to put multimac in dhs car and get a proper 7 seater for me. We live rurally in north Scotland so I need something reliable in the snow.
Obvious candidates would be Volvo xc90 and discovery, any other suggestions? Would love to hear how these cars are in terms of practicality, space and reliability.
Thanks for your help

We have a Discovery 3 and I love it. Drives brilliantly in all weathers, and we have Scorpion ATR tyres on it which have given great traction in the snow, though surface water is more of an issue for us.

Loads of space, and getting the seats up and down is dead easy. The main passenger row is comfy for an adult to sit between two children in full car seats, and I can get three across.

The one downside is that repairs are fairly costly (and don't ask about tyres), but we've got a great local landy specialist who is a lot cheaper than a dealership and v honest about what will need doing when.

Thanks dibbler
did you buy it new or 2nd hand. We can only afford an older one so I'm a bit nervous of buying a whole heap of trouble! Has yours required a lot of repairs or mostly just maintenance/ replacing things as they get worn out etc?

There are some fantastic offers on the XC90 at the moment, as there is a new model out this year or next.

We had a look (didn't get as far as test drive), but it seemed great for our needs. Easy movement of seats etc. There wasn't as much room in the back 2 though, as the Discovery. Boot space was excellent.

Having said that, I think both cars are renowned for going on for years, so don't think you'd have a problem buying second hand.

We have an Audi Q7 7-seater which we're very happy with. We do put on snow tyres in the winter for when we go to the mountains (we live abroad) and spikes for the snow chains. So far we've been pretty much ok with just the snow tyres.
I'll need to ask DH if you want more (technical) details though!
HTH!

And you asked about reliability and space. Well space wise, it's great. The two seats right at the back are proper seats (as opposed to little bucket seats). I normally have one seat up at the back and one down so the boot space is fine then (can get in a big buggy like a bugaboo easily plus other stuff).

. If we have both seats up at the back, then obviously the boot isn't huge but it's fine for day to day things. Just a bit of a problem for holidays. We normally have one seat up and one seat down (If we go on holidays and need to take big stuff like skis too, then we use one of those luggage holders than goes on the top of the car (sorry not sure of the English word)).

Reliability has been fine too.

Toyota Landcruiser? They are bullet-proof reliable and fantastic in the snow.

BIL has a Nissan Pathfinder which seems to fit the bill.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll do some more research on those tonight

Our Landy is an 07 plate, and we've had it 2 years now. No breakdowns or malfunctions, but we have had the known issue about the parking brake binding (annoying squeak) and the lock release cable failing on the boot (refused to unlock the boot, 2 minute job to replace iirc).
The good thing about Discos is that the Disco 3 forum can tell you exactly what you can expect to happen to any particular model.

Ah didn't know there was a forum about discos! That's really useful, thanks dibbler

New X5 has a 7 seat option. XC90 also very good (Jeremy Clarkson has one!). I love Landcruisers also. The vehicle of choice for exploring the outback!