I'm now tasked with finding another car for my daughter. She has a Kia Picanto at the moment so now needs a larger car for her growing family.

 

She will be completing her second year of driving so her insurance whilst still high is not bad, around £550-£600 ish for her first policy two years ago.

 

So she wants something with a smallish engine 1.4-1.6ltr petrol and is looking at one of these small MPV types. The must above everything else apart from reliability it must be able to fit three child seats in the rear, well for the moment anyway. She has a new born and a six and four year old. The six year old at the moment needs a proper seat or something firm to hold her in as she is autistic, so a booster type seat is maybe not good at the moment although she will out grow a child seat soon I guess.

 

So we were looking at Citroen Picasso, Renault Megane Scenic type vehicles. Anything over that sort of size will be too much for my daughter to handle and for where she parks it. My question is can these types of MPV handle three child seats ok, anyone had one and done this?

 

I suppose her budget is limited too, max £5k that's including her px. So what's out there that can do the job/can fit the seats in?

 

Or a smallish estate car, again that can accommodate three child seats arcoss the rear. 

I think most small estates aren't wide enough to get three child seats across the back, so I think you're limited to an MPV or bigger type car really.

What about a VW touran? not to sure on this sector what cars are about but they seem fairly nice cars?

I can get 3 (2 proper seats and a booster) in my optima. My wife has a ford c-max which has no problem. We used to have a Renault scenic (2002 year) and had no issues in that either.

it will have to be an MPV rather than an estate car to get 3 proper seats in a row.

 

I have spent a few months looking for something similar but have decided on an Alhambra in the end

C max 1.6 petrol, can't see many better cars out there in that range.

SIL has a diesel c max, she likes it.

not many cars big enough for 3 seats across, iirc even a passat /superb wont accomodate them.

What about a VW touran? not to sure on this sector what cars are about but they seem fairly nice cars?

Plenty about depending on the spec and engine combo.

 

Auto's & 1.6TDI's are pretty few and far between

Another vote for the Touran.

Whilst I've not tried 3 seats across the rear, they are full sized, fully removable seats.

I see your thread now. Slightly different requirements and still no obvious answer.

I don't think you can get away from it. Either 7 seats or 3 child seats across the back needs a big car - 1.8m+ wide and typically 4.4m+ long. The Fiat Multipla for instance appears to be only 4.1m long but not sure about the width thing although it is a little wider (50mm or so) than similar cars.

A friend who wanted a not too big car with room for three child seats went for a Toyota Corolla Verso, it's not one I see mentioned very often but she's been very pleased with it.

 

John

We were in the same position as your daughter a while ago when we needed three child seats in the back.  We've moved onto two child seats and a booster now but I spent a lot of time looking into this.  I found that larger external dimensions of the vehicle didn't always equate to increased internal dimensions across the rear bench.  My quest became an obsession and I tried the three seats in the rear of a wide range of cars before conceding that my desire to have a fast family car would have to put on hold until our eldest was able to sit on a booster seat rather than have the full child seat.

 

I found that some of the larger cars that I thought would be perfect had less room than some smaller vehicles.  It was all down to the design of the bolsters on the outside edges of the rear bench and the design of the door cards.  The Superb estate was one car that I tried on the same day as an A6 Avant.  Neither had the required room as the lovely, sumptuous, sculpted rear seats meant that the child seat had to sit further into the middle than I wanted.  There was wasted room on the outside edge of both seats which was annoying to say the least.  I looked at a range of cars and in the end we went for the Honda FRV.  It worked really well as it fitted the three seats in perfectly.  The boot was noticeably smaller than that of the Octavia I traded in but the children fitted much better.

 

As soon as our eldest could sit on a booster seat we moved onto a nice sensible family hatchback with a big boot.

Edited 1 December, 201510 yr by skinnyman

Multipla is roomier and cheaper than FR-V.  Staggered seats give more shoulder room than the Honda, whole rear row adjusts fore and aft independently so you can have 2 seats with kiddy legroom and one with limo legroom if you wish.

 

It doesn't feel too wide when you drive it and it's dead short and easy to park, SWMBO had one for years and also a Galaxy and found the Ford harder to manoeuvre.

 

So the Multipla was a hit with her indoors and the kids, but I didn't like to drive it, except on motorways. the driving position was too high for me.

Edited 1 December, 201510 yr by camelspyyder

 

So the Multipla was a hit with her indoors and the kids, but I didn't like to drive it, except on motorways. the driving position was too high for me.

 

My sister had one from new - one of the facelift versions.  She totally loved it and it never gave her a moments trouble in the three years they had it.  She was gutted when her husband traded it in for a Grand Scenic as it wasn't as versatile, she said it was crap to drive and bits fell off on a regular basis.  They eventually traded that in for a Fiat Freemont which she really likes.

Vauxhall Zafira.

 

Cheap as chips and the classifieds are full of em'.

Vauxhall Zafira.

Cheap as chips and the classifieds are full of em'.

"Burn baby burn"

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Vauxhall Zafira.

 

Cheap as chips and the classifieds are full of em'.

 

You won't get three child seats across the middle though and have to use the third row of seats, my friend that had the Verso had a Zafira before that and found the Verso much better for child seats as it can take three in the middle leaving the full boot space.

 

John

Some have managed it.

 

Quite a few threads over on the mum forums.

 

The money saved on buying a Zafira would likely pay for three new car seats.

Edited 1 December, 201510 yr by silver1011

Multipla is roomier and cheaper than FR-V.  Staggered seats give more shoulder room than the Honda, whole rear row adjusts fore and aft independently so you can have 2 seats with kiddy legroom and one with limo legroom if you wish.

 

It doesn't feel too wide when you drive it and it's dead short and easy to park, SWMBO had one for years and also a Galaxy and found the Ford harder to manoeuvre.

 

So the Multipla was a hit with her indoors and the kids, but I didn't like to drive it, except on motorways. the driving position was too high for me.

Eh? I can only assume you know nothing about an FR-V to recommend a Multipla over one!

 

How is a Multipla roomier than an FR-V? The FR-V does everything the Multipla does and more.The boot is bigger, seats more flexible and more comfortable, the engines are just phenomenally better, reliability is better, build quality is better, image (you have to be quite thick skinned to drive a Multipla I reckon :P ), refinement is better, spec is better. etc etc. 

 

FR-V - http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/facts-and-figures/honda/fr-v/hatchback-2004/36164/

 

Multipla - http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/facts-and-figures/fiat/multipla/estate-2000/33846/

 

The only benefit of the Multipla is the cheap entry price, but once you factor repair costs etc into the bargain then they make less sense imho.

 

We love our FR-V, and we have 4 kids so need all the seats. We had a 2007 Galaxy and don't miss it one bit. We were dead set on a Multipla too, until we saw the FR-V that is.

 

As for seating arrangements - you can stagger both rows for optimum leg and shoulder room - the below pic isn't even at the extremes of adjustability.

 

 

Our 3 year old loves the middle seat at the front. There is plenty of leg and shoulder room for everyone and her seat is far enough back so she can't reach the controls. With the middle seat in the rear all the way back there is still a massive boot. It isn't a physically big car, and feels smaller to drive than it is. The middle front seat has ISOFIX which is a great bonus too. The seats fold flat indiviually in the FR-V, in the Multipla they are bulky things you need to take out of the car.

 

The FR-V in 5-seat mode is great too, with the picnic table / arm rest arrangement up front.

 

Plenty of good ones in budget, infact £3k gets something quite nice. Massively underrated cars imho.

If those central seats are full size my ****s a kipper.

 

The Multipla can easily seat 6 adults on its 6 full size seats. - it's not a 4+2 which your picture makes blatantly obvious the FR-V is.

 

 

 

 

I don't like either of them to be honest - I'll never buy a big FIAT again even if SWMBO really really wants one, and friends have passed on too many horror stories about their modern Honda's expensive problems for me to ever buy one of those either.

Edited 2 December, 201510 yr by camelspyyder

If those central seats are full size my ****s a kipper.

 

The Multipla can easily seat 6 adults on its 6 full size seats. - it's not a 4+2 which your picture makes blatantly obvious the FR-V is.

 

 

 

 

I don't like either of them to be honest - I'll never buy a big FIAT again even if SWMBO really really wants one, and friends have passed on too many horror stories about their modern Honda's expensive problems for me to ever buy one of those either.

 

Modern Honda's expensive problems? I'd love some insight into that... unless of course you mean modern diesel expensive problems?

 

Multipla is a great car for the price, but I just think the FR-V is better.

I mean Accords barely out of warranty with abs failures, sat nav failures and sundry other electrical issues. unbelievably expensive to fix too. Uk built Civics in the last 10 years dont always seem to have had the anticipated build quality either.

Mind you, all 4 acquaintances unsatisfied with Honda went to various VAG brands in the last few years.

Out of the fire...eh?