Car help from those with 4 or more children please

[E&L's mummy]

Im really not sure where to put this, scanned up and down the forums and here seemed as good a place as any.

we are expecting baby number 4 and been looking at 7 seat cars. our budget is small, we will have 3 of the kids in car seats (newborn, 15mth old, and 3 year old, eldest is 9 and TALL lol)

any reccomendations??? Anything we should stay away from???
thank you in advance for your help. x

 

[Lucy22]

My friend has a Renault Scenic, she finds it quite a good car. It doesn't eat petrol and its spacious on the inside. Opal Zafira is supposed to be a nice car too, but goes through petrol really fast!
Sorry I can't help more, I'm not exactly a car expert

 

[going_crazy]

I've got a diesel vauxhall Zafira and love it........... however it is one of the smallest MPV's on the market, and when all seats are up, there is no 'boot' space! We had to buy a roof box (which aren't cheap!) for when we want to go away, and even for days out!

We used to have a P-reg (1996 I think) Renault Espace and this was my absolute favourite car, ALTHOUGH, the reapairs on it were sooooo expensive (and it wasn't great on petrol either)! The renault espace is extremely roomy, and has got plenty of boot space when all 7 seats are in.

When we had the renault, we had all 3 in car seats (they were newborn, 1 & 2yrs) and there was still plenty of room! I am unsure if all 3 seats would fit comfortably in the Zafira. Also, the 2 back seats of the Zafira haven't got much legroom. My 9yr old who is extremely tall fits in fine, but an adult would be squished!!!

The Ford Galaxy's are on the lines of the renault espace's (size wise) and I think they are a fairly good car. We used one not so long ago and it was quite roomy and it drove nice too!

HTH a little! xxx

 

[E&L's mummy]

thank you for your replies. we are now looking at Fiat Multipla. it seems to tick more of the boxes with 3 adult size seats in the back and boot space is not bad at all. taking one out for a test drive at the weekend to see how it feels. will let you know how we get on. x

 

[BabyBumm]

Hey, just noticed this post.

We bought a toyota lucida 8 seater (I have 4 kids)
I love it! We went for a weeks holiday and fitted everything in! Buggy, 4 big bags of clothes, baby stuff, and a huge 5 foot teddy (my son's lol) and soooo much more!

The seats in the middle turn round, and the seats at the back go up, and all the seats lie flat to make a bed and - it has CURTAINS!!! lool!!

Don't know how I managed without it!

 

[clarebo9]

Hey, just noticed this post.

We bought a toyota lucida 8 seater (I have 4 kids)
I love it! We went for a weeks holiday and fitted everything in! Buggy, 4 big bags of clothes, baby stuff, and a huge 5 foot teddy (my son's lol) and soooo much more!

The seats in the middle turn round, and the seats at the back go up, and all the seats lie flat to make a bed and - it has CURTAINS!!! lool!!

Don't know how I managed without it!

Sorry dont wanna barge in but was wondering if you had trouble insuring the Lucida?
We sooooo very nearly bought one but couldnt get insurance for under a grand!?!

 

[xxembobxx]

We have a Vauxhall Zafira which as going_crazy said is quite small for seating in the 6th and 7th seat and the boot space is then non-existent. It suits us as we have two teenagers so it's not often we go out altogether, only holidays and special days out.

Mileage works out at 20p per mile which is similar to what my Toyota car did. Ideally we'd have a LandRover Discovery but we couldn't afford one of those