three kids - car advice

[yellowduckredduck]

Hi all, hoping for some car advice as we welcome a third DS in 2025.
We will have three children all needing baby or high backed car seats, currently have a land rover freelander which we only bought at the start of this year, but current seats don't fit and it's broken down on us twice whilst on the motorway with the kids so worrying i've bought a dud and need to cut my losses.
Those of you with three DC, what cars do you own? We've never bought a car on finance before but wondering about doing this to get a great 7 seater which is safe and reliable. But obviously concerned about costs of this each month!
And then there's the electric car question, there seem to be some great finance deals on electric cars but are these good enough to be the sole family car?
All advice and experiences appreciated

There is a fair bit of choice out there , as you have seen don't get a LR reliability is non existent. What is your budget?

I think we have some flexibility but ideally not much more than £300 a month, which limits us. Obviously could get a used car but don't want to end up in the same position with our land rover and break downs again!

Have a look at a Dacia jogger , 7 seats and cheap finance.

I’ve three now teens/adults & had a Seat Alhambra for 11 years. It’s a cheaper version than the VW Sharan. At the time, Seat were doing 0% finance and it meant I could get the highest spec Alhambra or the lowest spec sharan for the same price. It’s been THE best car ever. The middle seat is a normal seat so you can get three car seats in that middle row. Also the two seats in the 3rd row are full size and fine for adults (or car seats). It meant g’parents could fit in too and DC could have a friend home each after school. Annoyingly they don’t make them anymore. It’s been such a work horse and despite being ancient I’ve never had a problem (touch wood). I’m loathed to get rid as it’s so handy! The problem with a lot of cars even big people mover types is that you can’t get theee car seats in a row. The middle seat is often weird! Why oh why?

We have a Ford S-max which is 15 years old and still going strong. They have stopped making them but you could probably get one a few years old.

I know these models look great but the finance on used cars is a bit heartbreaking. All these practical mpv models seem to be out of fashion now and cars are just doing 7 seater SUVs but they just aren't as practical!

It’s maddening the lack of practical vehicles for 3 child seats. Hence never replacing the Alhambra.

Ford Galaxy.

They don’t make Ford Galaxy anymore either.

Citroen Picasso c4 can get three seats in the back.

I'd recommend taking your seats to the dealership and testing they fit

We looked into this lots. The best options are a mpv like Seat Alhambra or the VW Sharan / Touran, or if you don't want an mpv then a Volvo xc90 is great. We settled on the xc90 and it's been so reliable and feels really safe. Bit more expensive on running costs, but it is an suv so..

The other 7 seaters we tried like the vw all space and the Audi q7 were no where near as big inside as the xc90. It can fit three car seats across the back depending on which ones they are, and can have some high back boosters in the boot row.

Also to say, we needed a lot of boot space too, hence not looking at some of the other models mentioned already.

Lease a good car. Get the maintenance package so it covers all servicing / tyres / brakes wipers etc. one guaranteed bill no hidden suprises

We had a Volvo XC90 for a couple of years on a lease scheme prior to purchasing the Seat Alhambra. Definitely a decent option. Good solid car, quite a big turning circle unfortunately and a tadge pricey BUT could be a good option for you OP. I enjoyed driving it. With 3 kids try to get automatic sliding rear doors and automatic boot as your hands likely always full and doors on these bigger cars are heavy esp for kids. Plus more space for parking if they slide (you’ll be careful not to bang your door but your kids may not be).

I've got an XC90 - number three arriving next year and will have three under 4. It's not quite as flexible as some of the others mentioned as there's no Isofix or support legs allowed in the centre seat (I've actually just had a useful thread about car seat options for it!), but if you've got some old enough to be in high back boosters that makes it much more workable than a smaller age gap. But as others have said, it's lovely to drive and feels very safe - mine is new-ish but planning on keeping it for many years ideally.

Personally I would get a people carrier, we had a Mazda Bongo when the kids where small it was fantastic

We had a Mazda 5 but unfortunately it was discontinued. Still worth considering if you can find one with loquat mileage as they are super reliable

www.multimac.com/

You could get one of these options where it's 3 or even 4 cars seats in one thing so you don't need as much room as several single car seats

I have a Skoda kodiaq which is great but you'd need to check re three car seats across the back, as it's a 7 seater SUV as opposed to a people carrier.

My brother has a Volvo XC90 which definitely fits 3 across. BIL has VW touran which also fits 3 across.

this is such a good point! I'm constantly shouting at my eldest to not swing his door open in car parks!

Peugeot 5008. 3 full size isofix seats in the middle row. Huge boot with rear seats down, but very handy to have the extra seats when you start giving friends lifts to parties, play dates etc (which won’t be as far off as you think!).

We got our current one at 3 years old, ex motability. Full service history, low mileage and spotless.

We have a Skoda Octavia and recently had our third child. We love our car, one of the main reasons we got it was the massive boot space, which with UK travel as a family of 5 we will very much still need! Due to this we decided we have no plans to upsize the car. It's not that often that all five of us are in it anyway. When we are, I now sit in the back middle between 3yo in a big Joie seat rear-facing, and 6yo in a high backed booster. 2 month old goes in the infant carrier in the front passenger seat with the airbags off.