Safest way to carry 4 children in car?

[TiaTheTulipFairy]

Have 3 DC and currently a normal 5-seater car; weighing up whether to change to a 7-seater, which would be useful for school lift-sharing as well as when grandparents etc visit.

However I really don't like the idea of driving a huge thing (Galaxy/Sharan sort of size), nor would budget stretch to that anyway, so would be looking at 5+2 cars - Zafira/Peugeot 5008 etc. I'm just concerned about the safety of the rear two seats, being so close to the back end of the car.

So, on balance, which is the preferable place to put a child on an occasional basis - in the rear-most row of a 7-seater, or in the front seat with airbag switched off?

I thought that generally you only need to worry about airbags-in-front-seat for rear-facing infant car seats. In some cars, it's fine for an older child to be in the front seat with air bag so long as they are in a correctly fitted car seat (you need to check with the manufacturers of your car and car seat but there are combos which are absolutely fine).

If you are only talking about occasional use when you are liftsharing or have visitors, then I would go for a 5+2 and would not worry about the last 2 seats being further back - they are safe, just not quite as comfy as the normal seats.

So, tbh either option will work fine and be safe, so choose the car on the basis of other criteria of what is important to you.

Thanks for replying. Yes, thinking in terms of occasional use, as long as I can get 3 car seats side by side, and not too much kerfuffle with the seat belts every time!

I've just looked again at the question of airbags and older children because I couldn't remember the details. If the link works, there's an article about it on netdoctor: www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/childrencar.htm I now realise that since current car has side airbags I shouldn't have her in the front, ever, in any case... So that really does support the idea of needing to change the car if I'm to be able to share lifts ever.

Try to check the manuals for different car types. Eg my manual says no child under 140cm should sit in the front seat (even on a booster/in a car seat) if the airbag is switched on. (My dd1 is 10 this year, and above average height, and she is still only 135cm).

FWIW, I wouldn't be happy using the rear seats if they are in the crumple zone. And sometimes, booster seats don't sit well on the occasional seats.

Good luck searching for a car - we found it quite hard to find one which would fit 3x car seats across and still be able to do up the seatbelts... (The slimmest hbb seat available is the Britax Adventure, btw. Switching car seats also had to happen alongside finding a new car!)