Any Zafira owners with 4 children?

[Ceolas]

What ages and how do you pack them in?

Trying to convince DH we'll need a bigger car but he's not buying it!

We'll have a 7, 5 and 4 year old when baby arrives, so need 4 seats.

Front seat has airbag.

Can't you have one of the rear seats permanently up? Or do the carseats don't fit? You could use booster seats instead of proper car seats. And it won't be for long because your eldest will soon be tall enough to be without a carseat.

But this doesn't help, perhaps you actually want a bigger car?

But think of the parking... I'm a big Zafira fan, wouldn't like to drive a bus, that the REnault espaces are, iykwim.

OK I can't fit 3 of them in the middle row without a lot of faffing. Too much hassle for everyday IMO. If I have 2 seats up in the back I have to find a pushchair that will fit in the boot with all the seats up. Difficult but not impossible.

I guess what I'm asking is if you have 4 children and a Zafira, how old are they? What sort of seats do they use and where do they all sit?

I have no problem with driving a bus, but Dh reckons it's perfectly do-able and we don't need to fork out for a new car at the moment. Not that it would be only once in a blue moon he would be driving them all

I have heard that about car seats touching before. Can't find anything on the ROSPA site. Can anyone link for me?

Could you not use the two outside seats for teh younger two, then use a booster seat in the middle for the oldest as that wouldn't be too problematic with the seat belts etc.
then middle child with a hi back booster in one of the boot seats.

that way you still have half a boot for buggy and shopping etc.

We used to go in friends one alot; toddler and baby in middle seats, same in the boot seats, mothercare citilite folded in the little boot space.And you can get the very back kids out over the top of the boot seats, so you donr need to access them via the middle row of seats.

My cm has one so has various ages etc. She has a britax stage 1 car seat in the middle, 2 britax super cruisers one either side and another stage 1 car seat in the boot.

I think a 7 and 5 year old on booster seats next to stage 1 car seat in the back would be easy enough?

Also you can get front air bag disabled which would make life easier anyway. I think she can use a m&p primo viaggo next to the stage 1 in the middle in the back without problem.

Why spend money if you don't need to? Roof box for the occasiona holiday trip away etc?

zafiras are pants for even 3 children I have found

get a Multipla

was overjoyed to see it as Tom and Katies wedding car

I know you are a big fan, Enid. What is the boot like?

smallish

Don't quite believe that about 3 seats touching. I had my carseat fit checked 14 months ago (by county saffety officer guy). He said nothing about seats touching. We have 3 sandwiched in on back seat of a Passat.

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I'd get a converted VW Transporter if I had the means.
I think the Zafira will be too small, especially if you take into account, eg shopping, suitcases, stuff in general, picnic stuff, overnight bags, bikes etc.

Agree Cat64. Mine are 8, 6 and 3 (next week) and they all fit in the middle row without too much hassle (apart from the usual squabbling that they do, and they'd do that regardless of car size! lol). I have ds2 in a proper car seat and the other pair on booster cushions. We keep one back row seat up most of the time, so we can separate them if necessary, but even if we had four, then they'd just have to make do. I love the flexability of the Zafira too - plent of room for all our bitsand pieces, buggy included.

Must admit, bikes would be tricky with four - we can take three on our carrier.

Agree, Spidermama, there's no way it will do for holidays. With 4 children and a pushchair there'd be no room for luggage at all.

DH however has a small car (Vauxhall Agila) which would become the luggage cart. Figure we're confined to home turf for the next few years anyway!

Out of interest, what do you have SM?

dont find it a problem
store shopping and folding buggies down the back of the front seats when all the seats are taken up

Ceolas we have two old bangers. One is a 1985 BMW which obviously doesn't fit all of us, but then it's not often we all travel together.

The other is an old VW camper van which fits us all but crawls along.

Both were cheap but we keep having to spend money on them. In retrospect I'd have forked out on a newish VW Transporter. They're very dependable and huge. My friend bought a Transporter commercial van and had it converted. I think it cost her £19 thousand though.

Our two vehicles cost uneer three grand for both. We've spent about a thousand on each.

We have three kids, one booster, one chair.