7 seater advice

[barleyteddy]

Hi I'm pregnant with number 3 and as such need to change my car. We will have 1 in Britax hbb, 1 in besafe isofix erf seat (which is bulky)and a baby in isofix baby seat. I therefore need 3 across the back seat, all isofix. I've thought about people carriers, thought a second hand s max or vw Sharon might work? We would use extra seats for going on holiday where grandparents might come with us, would back seats in these cars be suitable for adults? Are they safe( I've been Googling and reading about crumple zones...and freaking out....?) Any suggestions appreciated!

Anyone?!! Any advice would be appreciated.... Thanks

We have a Vw touran which I love but the rear 2 seats aren't good for adults. I know people with the sharan and it has full sized rear seats but not so good for folding down as they don't go into the floor.

I was coming on here to ask about car seats in the very rear seats. I've read that some makes and models aren't suitable for having the seat in the most rear seats and some are but its hard to find information about this.

My DM has an s-max and all the seats are suitable for adults. Tbh if I had the budget it would be my top pick (also pg with third children).

*child

The rear seats in smax are not suitable for adults travelling very far imo. The rear seats in the galaxy are much better and they fold into the floor. Can fix child seats into them but not isofix.
On my list if I were buying a new 7 seater would be sliding doors.
Otherwise you can't go wrong with a galaxy imo.

Hi,

I've been looking at 7 seaters as well because I'm now pregnant with my 4th I hired a ford galaxy for a week last year to try it out and I would 100% recommend it. I've driven smaller 7 seaters like the zafira and the seats in the back and boot space are rubbish.

I personally hate the look of most 7 seaters so I'm going for either an Audi Q7 or a BMW X5. They've both got great boot room and really good rear seats

I have an smax and do not think the rear seats are suitable for adults other than for short journeys. DS1 is about 6'1" and can go in the back but it is a little like human origami.

I do love my smax though.

We have a peugout 5008 3 isofix seats in the middle row. Back seats ok for kids/occasional use. But I wish we'd gone for one of the bigger ones like the galaxy as number 4 on the way now!

We have 5 kids and until just recently were driving a Ford Tourneo Connect. Loved it. The seat configuration is 2, 3, 2. We had car seats in every space with no difficulties. The rear seats are safe and comfortable. I sat in one to test out because I wanted to be certain of the room. Could still fit a Phil and teds tandem in the boot (not much else admittedly but it is still a reasonable space. The doors are sliding which is so handy and everything folds down almost like a van so if you have anything big to move or collect it's great.
We had the eco boost and it was great on fuel too.

I'm pregnant with number 6 so we've had to change for an actual van now otherwise we would have gladly kept it.

I have a VW sharan and would say the back seats are fine for adults. They are actually very wide seats at the back so that's good. We love this car, we had a touran previously. The sharan is much roomier and has sliding rear doors which are so handy! Also, when all the rear seats are folded flat the space is massive! Helped a few people move house etc.

An s-max definitely not take adults in the back row, we just changed car and went for something different as my 8 year old was complaining about lack of leg room.

You could put the kids in the back and grandparents in the middle when the kids are in HBB though? I really liked our S-max but we had kid no4 and the leg room became an issue.

We went for an XC90- the back seats are definitely big enough for an adult- my 6ft 2 H tried them out.

3 x isofix across the middle row is a bit tricky but the newer models of some cats have 3.

Also, if you would consider an XC90, they don't really have a crumple zone because the car shell is built to enclose the 3rd row.

Considering a used (cheap!) 5+2 type of car...Mazda5, Grand CMax, Peugeot 5008, Fiat 500L mpw...any ideas of how these handle in snow? Had awful winter driving experience with old Lexus (in a previous life before kids) and budget won't stretch to a 4x4... Any ideas or "don't buys" greatly appreciated.

I'm interested in this too, any more thoughts? Thanks

The Volvo XC90 is the best choice if safety is a major concern for you. They are designed to be one of the safest cars on the road. With regards to space, they are brilliant and yeah, there is enough space for an adult in all 7 seats

volvocar.club/2016/08/03/valkommen-volvo-xc90/

Make sure you check out www.reliabilityindex.com for quantitative data on car reliability.

I was thinking of buying a 4x4 7 seater, but was put off by their abysmal reliability (I went for a Renault grand scenic instead). The reliabilities for the true people carriers seems to be equally poor, the best ones are the 5+2 it seems.

IIRC all 7-seaters only have Isofix points on outer seats of second row. But Isofix seats can also be used without the Isofix points.

(Galaxy owner - excellent except for lack of sliding doors. 7 adult-sized and comfortable seats, huge boot space when rearmost seats folded down, still generous with all seats in use.)

We hired a Seat Alahmbra last summer. It was a great car.

This year we got a Nissan XTrail which was ok as a 5 seater but the kids were squashed in the 7 seats.