Anyone who has 4+ children, what car do you have??

[sparklygothkat]

We currently have a Zafira, which is fine with 3 children. But with baby due in november I am worried. DS has a wheelchair which takes space, plus a buggy, and its not all going to fit with the 6th seat up. So what car do people recommence??

We have 4 children and I use a Zafira, two 2nd stage babyseats with a booster between and then use one of the back seats with other one down.

It is not our 'family car' though although as a family of 6 we have all been in it.

Our other car is a Citreon C8 which suits us down to the ground. Again we have removed one seat so the rows are 2, 2 and 2, not much boot space but space inbetween seats to slide things in and would imagine that would include a folded up wheelchair.

HTH

what about suitcases etc when you go away? Do the kids get cramped up? I hate looking for cars..

I had a zaffira and found it was a nightmare to get kids into the boot seats as you can't pull the middle seats forward if you have car seats strapped in. Fine if you only use 1 boot seat but hopeless else. We now have a landrover discovery because unlike alot of other cars were you have to remove and then stofre the boot seats,these flip up to the side.

We 'only' have 3, but were looking at MPVs recently, so have some ideas. We fairly quickly discounted all the smaller MPVs as the 3rd row seats are all suitable only for children (not much use if you expect to continue using the car well into teenagerhood). Also the middle seat on the smaller MPVs is often smaller than the outer two, which can be a problem for carseats, and will, again, be a problem when you have a car full of teenagers and friends.

We went for the Galaxy, because we liked the idea of having 7 full-size seats available all the time, while still having a large boot with tonneau cover. You can fit seven adults in the Galaxy and still get a Quinny Speedi in the boot. It doesn't fold down very small! I would have thought a folded wheelchair would probably fit in the boot, certainly it would with all the seats pushed forwards to minimal leg space adequate for children.

The dcrawback to the Galaxy is that it doesn't have sliding doors. The Peugeot 806 (which is virtually identical to the Citroen C8) hs lovely power-assisted sliding doors which make access to both rows a complete doddle. But you'd find you had to leave one 3rd row seat out permanently, and not be able to isolate the luggage compartment from the passenger cabin IYSWIM. But, OTOH, that might work well if you have a wheelchair that doesn't fold and would sit next to the last seat.

We didn't test-drive the Renault at all, because we didn't like the seating arrangment.

HTH

we have found that too. Its hard work if their carseats are in the car...

we have a VW transporter !! LOVE IT!
do you know what the sex is yet Sparkly?

thanks PC. Its a mobility car, and we have decided that we really need to change the car, but have no idea what we are looking at. We are off to wheelchair clinic soon, just hope they don't give DS a huge one this time

no, don't know the sex yet. find out next week!!

We have a VW transporter EXCELLENT we will never have anything else!!!!!!!!!!!

We can fit a double MB un folded & a single MB folded in the boot

Holidays its great lots of space

can fit 9 adults very comfortably in mine

no mum75 we wont either!!
last night we had a fride in it plus all 8 seats!

We have a Chrysler Grand Voyager. We got it 4 years ago and I can tell you that 4 years ago it was the largest MPV available - I know because dh works in the automotive industry and he had insider knowledge! That said, it is expensive and horrendously expensive to service, so you might want to go for something else. If we had not got the Chrysler, we would have probably got a Grand Renault Espace.

The boot space never looks much in these cars, but actually the Chrysler has never let us down. You can move the back bench forwards (and it still has loads of legroom - more than most saloon cars) and of course you can pack the boot up much higher than normal cars. When we go on holiday though we have a huge roof box.

i love the vw trasnporter

I just had to google the transporter. I have seen them, but DH thinks they are too big!! Are they like driving a van??

yes they aer like a mini bus

but face it wtih 4 kids and wheelchair you may as well drivea bus

my friend has one and it is so good

All MPVs are like driving a van! You get used to it though! The Chrysler has rear parking sensors which helps hugely (until I get into dh's saloon car and forget his car does not have sensors and merrily back into something!)

not at all!

I dreaded mine arriving and was all nervous but i love it
i hated grand voyager it felt all ...well.....long! but the transporter is car like such fun to drive - i really enjoy it and also have never known a transporter owner to moan
it makes travelling with ( in my case ) 5 kids so easy

DH said he would go down the bus yard where FIL works and see if they had any old buses for us lol He did say that it might be a minibus for us now, so I'll look at the transporter.

i have parking sensors on mine !

We have a Bongo, don't laugh, it's the best car we've ever had and if you search the threads with my name you'll see lots of information on them. It actually has 8 seats, so we can take the children's friends with us for days out too, www.bongofury.co.uk.

The Caravelle is "based on" the Transporter but this says it's OK to drive.

It is very big! V expensive too, would you get one OK under Motability?

the advance payment on a transporter is £4100 on motability! [gulp]

oh I love the bongos too

The caravelle is £8500 advance payment!! [another gulp]

the caravelle is like the 'flash/plush' version wendy

How about the Ford Tourneo? It's like the Caravelle, 8 or 9 seater, might be cheaper though.

Queeneagle has one IIRC and she has 5 kids?