7 seaters

morgyporg

Lucyadams184 wrote: »

6 would do but there will be 3 car seat as my children are 4 and 5, but as long as they are a decent size it would work.

I don't know about the Multipla, but we've got an FR-V and it's got Isofix points on the outside back seats and the middle front seat. All 6 seats are normal size, so 3 car seats should be fine. You can't put a rear facing seat in the front of the FR-V because of the airbag (Honda don't allow passenger airbags to be turned off), but forward facing is fine - the middle front seat slides further back so your child doesn't get smacked in the face by the airbag.

Jamie_Carter

squeakysue wrote: »

We had to move the middle row forwards to get the boot seats up which meant that if the child seats were fitted on the middle row the seatbelts would stop the seats from moving forwards so we would have to unhook them. As I said ours was a 54 plate so they may have improved since then but it was really annoying. Also the boots space when the back seats were up was tiny.

My brother in law has a galaxy, the boot is quite big even with the seats up.

I agree the boot space is small when using all seven seats, but the OP only needs six.

A Galaxy is a bit of a bus though, isn't it?

Beachview_2

You've already got a Rav, so what about a Toyota Verso?

daveyjp

A number of mum's at our daughter's school are childminders. Their cars of choice are the Galaxy or the Kia Sedona. The Kia Sedona is favoured as it has electrically operated sliding rear doors, very handy if there are car seats.

Both are 'buses', but they all realise that if you want a 7 seater with boot space the Zafiras of this world do not do the job.

Jamie_Carter

daveyjp wrote: »

Both are 'buses', but they all realise that if you want a 7 seater with boot space the Zafiras of this world do not do the job.

I suppose it all depends on what the OP's priorities are.

WestonDave

We've had 2 car seats and a booster across the backseat of a Zafira often enough - it would be a squeeze with 2 car seats and an adult but you can get 3 kids across (06 plate so newer shape). Changing the seat configuration is a bit of a faff as you do need to slide the back seat forwards (which does indeed mean some car seats have to be unhitched) however its not something you do every five minutes - if you have 4 kids you'd set it up for them and only change it if you had a reason to do so.

Boot space with all 7 seats up is limited but you have some vertical height on it so we've taken a pushchair and a couple of folding beach chairs in there. To some degree if you are running it in 7 seat mode with kids in the rear seats you will have a fair bit of foot well space behind the drivers/front passenger seat to put bags like changing bags etc.

Obviously if you want more formal boot space then you have to go for the bigger floor pan to create the length for that space. It is a trade off - the short wheelbase on the Zafira size, or the next size up which whilst better for boot space is longer.

Bean_Counter

morgyporg wrote: »

I don't know about the Multipla, but we've got an FR-V and it's got Isofix points on the outside back seats and the middle front seat. All 6 seats are normal size, so 3 car seats should be fine. You can't put a rear facing seat in the front of the FR-V because of the airbag (Honda don't allow passenger airbags to be turned off), but forward facing is fine - the middle front seat slides further back so your child doesn't get smacked in the face by the airbag.

Another vote for the FR-V. We have one and think it is a brilliant, very flexible seating, decent boot size and about the same size as a normal car.

Of course with it being a Honda it is very reliable.

Jamie_Carter

Bean_Counter wrote: »

Of course with it being a Honda it is very reliable.

Try telling that to my mate. He bought a two year old Accord estate. Within a few months it needed the engine replacing. A few months later the electric tailgate closer packed up, and cost him another £600.

He ended up with a Zafira.

Although to be fair, Hondas are normally reliable. He just got a lemon.

smashingyour...

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

You can still have one seat folded down.

So a baby seat an adult and child/booster seat across the middle?

That's tight at best and not something to be done on a regular basis

In fact a large child seat reduces row two to two seats so if you fold the middle seat down you still have no boot.

Despite your images from Vauxhall note the lack of car seats.

warehouse

My Wife childminds and we have a Renault Grand Scenic. We researched all of the "buses", and the one that looked least "bus" like, with the nicest interior, flexible space and most importantly fuel economy was the Scenic.

Check out some of the MPG of the other cars, they will scare you. The cars with sliding doors weigh an absolute ton. A friend of ours had a Fiat Ulysse and the best MPG they ever got was 19 :eek: