Is there a 5 seat car that supports 3 baby seats and 2 Adults???

[FoRahman]

My wife and I are expecting twins later this year (at which point our first child will be 2 years and 3 months old) and is currently using a harness back supported booster seat. I am currently looking for a car that has 5 seats as I would rather avoid purchasing a 7-seater.

My options are BMW 5 Series Estate, E class Estate, BMW X5 or a Mercedes ML (all 13 or 14 plates). Anyone know which of these cars will be best to support our family and whether we can or cannot (space-wise) use two ISO-fixes for the twins with any of these cars and then an infant seat or adult in the middle rear seat?

Why avoid seven seats?
We had an 8 seat Mazda Bongo, it s van but the same foot print as a car, it was fantastic.
I feel a Van type vehicle would give you more boot space as before you know it they will be growing

We had the same problem and the only way you’ll know for sure is to take all three seats and put them in to try. We have an s Max for this purpose. We did find it hard to find a car that was not a 7 seater to take three seats

Thanks, problem is we have not purchased the car seats yet...still not sure whether we should buy the iso fix for the 2 or not.

Do you have 3 on the read iso fixed on the S-Max?

Would rather have a 5 seat for now if I can avoid 7 seats...be an estate or a 4x4.

Multi Mac.com

We couldn't find one and bought a Smax. Got rid of that after a year as it kept cutting out.

We went to 7 seater as soon as we had 3. If you are buying a new car anyway, it makes sense to think a few years down the line and plan ahead. You’ll be transporting all the gear for whatever activity/ packing for holidays/ giving one or more child’s friend a ride somewhere, visiting grandma and taking her out for the day, and someone is going to want a dog.
A five seater with three kids is a short term choice that doesn’t make financial sense and isn’t future-proof.

Volvo XC90 seems to be the choice for your situation round here when parents want a higher end car.

I have an Atlas now. (Not sure what it’s called in the UK) and I love it.

3 kids. If you have 3 in the back of a 5 seater when they are a bit bigger it's a nightmare to do their belts up and it's all tightly fitted high back boosters.
S max for us. Having decent boot space is great. I use the extra seats occasionally when they have friends round

Used to have a Honda FRV for this. It’s a 6 seater, 3 across the front and 3 in the back. The middle front seat folds flat so mostly it’s a 5 seater and, if you want 6 seats, the middle front and middle read slide back a little so have 6 ‘airline style‘ seats. I think you can only get them second hand now. It was fantastically useful.

Have you thought about a multimac?

@SimonJT - Sure I have but it works out to be almost 2k which is fine because I would save money by being able to get a cheaper 5 Series estate, however the issue is that it weighs 37kg and is not exactly easy to take in/out if we ever had to esp given that we live on a higher floor in an apartment.

@nachthexenachthexe - Excellent point re kids friends etc and other people we may want to also transport.

@Amicompletelyinsane I do like the sound of the SMax and has been a popular suggestion by all here but my wife thinks its not a nice looking vehicle.
BTW all this matters because we like to think of ourselves as young lol well young-ish...early 30s. My friends are yet to have their first baby and some drive M3's, M5's...so when we meet there will be me turning up with a Coach/Bus!

Based on my suggestions (BMW 5 Series Estate, E class Estate, BMW X5 or a Mercedes ML) - Would be we able to fit three seats in any of those cars at all?

X5's can have 7 seats.....

I don’t think you’ll get three across in any of those tbh (DH has had most of them as company cars before we had three kids).

We squeeze three in an XC90 but we’re using the slimmest seats on the market (diono radian 5, and two high back boosters) and it’s a squeeze.

Maybe a discovery would work if you wanted something high end?

You’d need to check you can install one of your seats in the back row of an X5 because there’s no way you could get three in a row in the middle. Often baby/toddler seats can’t be installed in seats 6 and 7 so might not work until your kids are older.

Have heard the Skoda superb is very roomy but possibly not quite the kind of think you’re looking for. There’s an excellent thread in the car seat advice UK group on Facebook (think they have a website too) on this exact subject

@ArfArfBarf what if we have no iso fix seats, surely I could get three acoross then?

So two rear facing belted, wife in the middle rear seat, forward facing front seat toddler on an X5, would that work you reckon?

@Hotpinkangel19 True, I will take a look at the 7 seat X5s

@sofiathe2nd Brill, will take a look at thier fb page

I think you need to go and look at the X5 in a showroom. From memory the middle seat is virtually non-existent when you have two car seats either side. You lose so much space because the outside seats are so sculpted.

It’s not just the isofix, it’s that many nice cars really only have 2.5 seats in the back.

Back seat (or middle row if 7 seater) of X5