Suggestions of ‘occasional’ 7 seater?

[whyismykid]

We recently moved 300 miles away from most of our friends and family (for a job, we quite like them all really!) and we are finding that most people fly to see us so having room to drive visitors around would be really useful - as well as carrying around DCs friends in the future. We only have two DCs (and we are done) so could cope with something with ‘pop up’ extra seats. Any suggestions for a car with occasional
Extra seats that would be good for either Adults, or isofix high back booster / extended rear facing car seats? (We could put either our kids or visiting Grandparents in the back row)

We have a Renault scenic with pop up back seats. They aren't great for adults but the kids love sitting in the boot! Lie perfectly flat when not in use and the boot cover has a nifty slot to keep it when seats are in use.

Not sure if you want 4wd or not but I absolutely love my Volvo XC90 - I don’t use all 7 seats all of the time but they are so handy and quick to put up if my girls decide to have friends over after school and we end up needing more than 5 seats. They’re fairly economical on fuel compared to some 4wd (I get 31 mpg average doing a mix of short runs and long journeys).

We have a Toyota verso with pop-up seats in the back. It’s fantastic, really reliable and we can fit 3 car seats in a row in the main back seats.

We love our Ford Grand C-Max and the Mazda 5 we test drove before buying the C-Max seemed pretty good. If you want something that still has a little boot space when the popup seats are in use, maybe an S-Max?

Avoid the Qashqai +2. The popup seats in that are a bit of a joke.

VW Tiguan has an extra 2 seat option. They felt big enough for occasional use.

DP's Mazda 5 has been excellent. We've had it 5 years now and it has great boot space when the seats are flat and can fit 7 comfortably.

Cruel I disagree with you.
We have a quashqai +2.
It's great!
We sat in a few occasional 7 seaters & this had the most leg room & comfort.

We have a ford Galaxy and you can fit car seats in the back but as they are pop up seats they don't have isofix. Plenty of room for adults and children.

Land Rover Discovery or Discovery Sport. Lovely to drive, very capable and pop up seats in the boot for occasional 7 seat needs

We have a VW Touran and use it exactly how you describe your needs. Would really recommend it- great boot for everyday but good to pop extra people in!!! Only issue is if your guests come with a lot of luggage as once seats in the back are up you have very minimal boot space .

We've got a Citroen c4 grand Picasso exclusive and it's fab. The little cooler box thing in the front blew my mind

We have a Landrover Discovery Sport and I would suggest not looking at this option if you intend to put grandparents in the back row occasional seats!

They aren’t designed for adults and there isn’t a proper leg room set up....so you’re almost sitting in a ‘floor sitting’ position.

We use occasionally but even now DS is still only 13, it’s not a particularly comfy journey for him if he has to sit in the back.

Our old Volvo XC90 however, had proper back seats, where your legs could properly bend at a 45 degree angle...which they can’t easily do in Disco sport.

Why would you need to sit grandparents in the back down anyway though? If you needed back seats to be used, surely just put the kiddos in them?

Thanks for the suggestions- I love the Volvo XC90 but it’s out of our budget 😥- the cool box in the Picasso sounds amazing Itwentinmyeye.

Verbena - Grandparents would need to go in the back if the seats can’t take car seats - not many back row seats have isofix by the looks of it - option to put car seats and kids in the back row would be ideal - (especially a small it’s likely to be me in the backseat and Grandma in the passenger seat if not!)

I think we are looking more SUV than MPV now - anyone have a Nissan X Trail?