do you own a mercedes, volvo, audi or toyota estate???

[fingerwoman]

if so, can you fit 3 car seats along the back?
is it expensive to run?
how do you find it in general?

£25 to use congestion zone soon. (the volvo estate)

And it sucks up petrol

congestion charge not an issue (thankfully lol)
but sucky on petrol eh? which version do you have? v70?

Have an Audi estate (A6). Now 5.5 years old.

There is no way you could fit 3 car seats in the back. We have 2, and a tiny gap between them. We've tried fitting 3 (2 big ones and a booster, various types belonging to cousins) and it couldn't be done. You can put one in the front seat (airbag can be switched off easily) if need be.

Our Audi has been a PITA and a money pit. It is forever going wrong. In the past year it has had steering realignment (twice), new brake pads and discs (twice), new key fob batteries (twice - £60 a go just for a battery, compared to £4 for a Ford one), complete set of new tyres, something expensive done to the suspension whatsits, etc. At the moment it also needs the electric windows replaced (approx £600), a new parcel shelf (old one broke - £400), and has gone all sluggish inthe past couple of weeks (no doubt big £s involved). It is in and out of the garage all the time.

We've decided to call it quits and trade it in for something altogether more reliable and cheaper to run, but still an estate.

Audi parts and labour charges are very expensive, and the staff at our local dealership are quite rude and patronising (say things like 'shouldn't you run this by your husband' when I go in).

Rant over.

thank you MM, v useful advice.

dp has now decided we need a jaguar

£400 for a new parcel shelf? Blimey. Is that the roller blind thingy?

Oh dear Muffin - we've just ordered a Audio A6 Estate.
I won't be mentioning this thread to DH.

can't imagine you'd fit 3 car seats in a jag - i can just squeeze between the two in ours (kids are 4mths and 16mths btw)

Still bitter eh Muffin .

Take no notice of her ladies - our A6 was totally reliable and needed very little spending on it.

Which Audi dealership are you going to MM? Hitchin are a bag o shite, but the newish one at Hatfield is a fair bit better.

We have a Mercedes R class, but you couldn't fit 3 car seats across the back for the simple reason that there aren't 3 seats in a single row! It has 3 rows of 2 seats, so you can fit 4 car seats in absolutely no problem.

I absolutely adore it. Does about 28mpg on average (ours is diesel). Had it a year (was a year old when we bought it) and the only thing we've had to spend on was new tyres (it had done 30,000 which is standard for a set of tyres).

oh dear, he is doing a spreadsheet now lol
actually it will come in useful I think.

CSWS, is your merc an MPV? he def doesn't want mpv, we're getting rid of the renault scenic and want something a bit sleeker.

I think the mpg might make it rate low on the spreadsheet thingy too. he has almost discounted jag as it only does 27mpg as compared to the volvo which does 49!

we have an audi A4 but you can't fit 3 seats across the ack.

3 car seats ? Something to tell ????????

ahh not yet wheelybug, but planning lol
had such a fab birth last time that I wanna do it agian. yes, I am crazy lol

are you still ttc atm?

oh yes.... STILL....its kind of become a way of life.

Have appointment in a couple of weeks at the failure to conceive clinic (or whatever they call it). Here's hoping they can sort something out.

I will cross my fingers for you!
must be meant to be though I reckon, there is some reason you need a big age gap between dd and the next one.
perhaps she is going to do something fantastic :D

LOL ! Thats what I tell myself - that there's a reason for it... that I will be pleased with a big age gap etc etc.

She's been having some fantastic strops at the moment - does that count ??

Mercedes class it as a 'luxury tourer', whatever one of those is . Decide for yourself....

We used to get about 26 mpg from the A6 Avant (2.4 petrol), as a comparison. Most of our driving is pootling around country lanes if that makes a diff.

back to the subject though - I have a friend with a Mazda 6 who can get 2 baby seats and a booster across the back although I don't think she could have got 2 baby seats and the middle seat across (she had twins 2 years after DS1 but thankfully DS1 was tall and heavy !).

I have a toyota corolla verso which can have 3 car seats along the back. Also the boot has 2 pop up seats (though not much boot left if they're up).
I have the 2.2l diesel. T spirit or T3. Something like that.
Anyway - has a good high driving position without being an SUV. Is no longer than the Volvo V40 (which dh has). Not much (if at all) wider.
I like it.

www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/generic_editorial.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1264821710.1206138324@@@@& BVEngineID=cccgadedjdjlhfdcfngcfkmdfkidfgh.0&navRoot=toyota1024root&portal=null&nodiv=TRUE&fullwi dth=TRUE&forceText=%3cnone%3e&edname=CV3exp&catname=%2ftoyota1024root%2fmainnav%2fpageTopNav%2fZ one+Corolla+Verso&menuid=87864&zone=Zone+Corolla+Verso&skin=-1undefined&id=CV3exp
here it is

Have you considered the Multipla btw, or is it not 'high end' enough for you?

Nice short and snappy link pooka .

hmm i quite like that CSWS.

am also liking the mazda, but dp says no.

pfft, what does he know? at this rate we'll be dragging along car seats to garages to try them out lol
oh, and the pram. they're going to love us aren't they?

I know!
Am amazed that it worked TBH

well, though I have heard good things about the multipla I just hate it. it's a bit marmite isn't it? you either love it or hate it.

dp travels a lot for work and wants something that's nice and smooth on the motorway, and a bit prestigious I think.