Hi there,
First post - and needing some advice. We've got our third child on the way (two already aged 9 months and 2.5 yrs respectively) and a change of car is reluctantly necessary.
I've got a WRX at the moment and both kids are in rear ISOFIX seats - and I was thinking of something big, used/nearly new - saloon or estate shaped and probably a diesel.
Currently on the shortlist is...
Mondeo TDCI 130 Ghia or Zetec
Mazda6 2.0D 136 TS2
What else would you recommend?
Does any car come with 3 rear ISOFIX points?
Is the future unavoidably MPV shaped?
All the best, DBB
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The future is only MPV shaped if you want it to be. A decent estate will do everything you want.
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Congratulations!
Agree with Xileno except MPVs have three individual seats which is easier for fitting child seats and general flexibility.
We have three kids and an MPV. We have removed one of the two rear seats and seat the elsest in the very back and the two youngest apart from each other on the middle row. It stops squabbling and makes for quieter journeys. ALso means we have a reasonable boot space for gear.
Have a look at the Mitusbishi Grandis. It is the most car like of the MPVs and has good engines inc the VW diesel.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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IS the oldest big enough for a booster seat yet? That would widen your choice back to two isofix.
Unless you want your driving pleasure ruined for life I would also suggest the snip?
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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"Unless you want your driving pleasure ruined for life I would also suggest the snip?"
That made me laugh out loud and now everyone in the office is looking at me. Doh!
I hadn't thought of the Grandis, but I'll check that out.
By the time #3 can fit into a forward facing seat (from 9 months on), #1 will be almost four, so yes a booster seat for him in the middle is possible. I'll need to check out the Mondeo, Octavia and Mazda6 for rear space (at the moment it looks very neat in the WRX). That?ll have to go anyway, running costs/boot-space etc.
I've tried looking on Google and you wouldn't believe how limited the info is out there for folk in the same boat... Odd, but there must be stacks of people out there with three kids?
DBB
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Is the future MPV shaped? - I would say that it is more likely to be Routemaster shaped (Big Red London Bus from 30 yrs ago) at the current family growth rate.
Estate car is the better route than MPV and either of the above are good - Mazda 6 came in for recommendation as best value 2nd hand car - cannot remember the publication but it was in the last 2/3 weeks.
Vectra Estate? Good buy nearly new - heavy depreciaition if bought brand new unless you spot a good deal somewhere - saw Vectras slashed in price a few weeks back - 2005 model but they were petrol.
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A mate of mine has three children and has an old Legacy estate. Nothing has gone wrong and he still gets some driving pleasure, just a bit thirstier than a diesel but worth it unless you do starship mileages.
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I get three kids in Mondeo hatch no problem, Ghia X TDCi, great to drive, real fun on the back roads, great mix of practicality, performance, handling, economy and mile eating ability.
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The thing I like about the Mondeo is that there's tons of them about - so getting a reasonably new/cheap decent spec diesel shouldn't be too hard.
The only downer is that I don't think they came as standard with ISOFIX points until 2005 (might be wrong, but I'm sure it was just an option before then - and how many do you think choose that?).
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What's ISOFIX? Something to do with airbags or seats or something?
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>>What's ISOFIX?>>
Special child seats' fixing method.
More info at:
www.childcarseats.org.uk/standards/isofix.htm
My six-year-old Bora has them as standard - unfortunately both my offspring are in their 30s...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Congratulations!
I had a similar post prior to our third arriving in March of this year. For some reason both my wife and I have a pathological desire not to have an MPV, so were keen to identify estate cars that would work for us.
We have found that our Mondeo estate has worked well for us. The older two (5 & 3) are both on booster seats, which helps, but the booster seats (Graco?) are both quite wide. The car seat (could not tell you the brand) fits snugly between them and acts as a barrier for longer trips. We chose not to have a 'car seat come pushchair' this time, some of which can be a little narrower than the car seat we went for (which will do our son 'till he is about 3)
Go to a Mothercare Superstore (or whatever their larger stores are called) - they will let you try out various combinations of seats and you can be sure that they fit securely.
There is also a brittax website, where you can feed in requirements and car types and it will make suggestions, though personally I did not find it very useful
And get some sleep in now....
All the best
Jono
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I'd stay with the Subaru brand and get a Legacy.
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I can remember as a little boy of about 6 or 7 I was allowed to sit in the front seat on our family holiday from Manchester to Devon. No seat belt, no booster cushion, just me perched on the edge of the seat with my chin and fingers on the dash. Can you even imagine that nowadays?
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Quite easily.
I do it all the time but the passengers get a bit jumpy.
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I can remember as a little boy of about 6 or 7 I was allowed to sit in the front seat on our family holiday from Manchester to Devon. No seat belt, no booster cushion, just me perched on the edge of the seat with my chin and fingers on the dash. Can you even imagine that nowadays?
Same here. I used to change gear with the column change on my father's Mk1 Consul. He said it was like driving a semi-automatic, all he had to do was press the clutch at the right moment and I'd select the right gear for him. Innocent days!
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I can remember as a little boy of about 6 or 7 I was allowed to sit in the front seat on our family holiday from Manchester to Devon. No seat belt, no booster cushion, just me perched on the edge of the seat with my chin and fingers on the dash. Can you even imagine that nowadays?
And as a three to six year old when living in Changi Village, Singapore, me and my mates used to squabble for the privilege of sitting on the "big seat" (rear seat arm rest) of the car we all went to school in. Dad's Ford Consul of the time also had a rust hole in one of the rear footwells, and if you lifted the rubber mat you could watch the road go by! Very cool, to a nipper, but I'd get a telling off if caught.
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I think your right, a trip to a big Mothercare is the first thing to do...
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I remember trips to school in the mid 70s in our neighbour's Triumph 2500 estate with a loose back seat that sort of folded itself with u in it when the driver braked hard...no seat belts...and I also remember trips when we had visitors when we'd sit happily in the boot of my Dads VW Variant Estate and thought we were having a great time out of sight...
These days some seat belt/NCAP obsessed parent would have charged my parents with child abuse/dereliction of duty.
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Used to be a done thing when I was a kid to ferry a lot of kids about (half a dozen or more) by just folding down the back seat and having us all sit in the boot. Arrive at another kid's house, open the tailgate and pile in another one. If the car went round a sharp bend we'd all be flung to one side and we thought it was a laugh. Last time I counted we were all still alive. Try doing that today and see how quickly your kids are taken into "care".
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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Years ago there were eight of us crammed into a Renault 4. Four children on the back seat and two in the boot. Very silly looking back on it but it was only for a few miles. Honest Officer...
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Current Accord is no good to you, just looked and ours has fixings for 2 seats in the back.
Check if buying used since the car may not have what it should - the 206CC my wife had a couple of years ago had the ISOFIX on the DRIVER's seat instead of the passenger seat - never got around to complaining to Peugeot.
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- the 206CC my wife had a couple ofyears ago had the ISOFIX on the DRIVER's seat instead of the passenger seat - never got around to complaining to Peugeot.
My oldest would be over the moon if our WRX had ISOFIX points in the front drivers!
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I didn't think I was that old but when working as a service engineer I was issued with a Mk II Astra van with unlimited private use. I made a folding wooden seat to put in the back ( only managers were given estates ) to accommodate the kids as well as my tools. I am sure it was quite legal then though my son, now 30, has never let me forget it.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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Yes MPV is only way to go.My sister in-law has just had her third child(all 3 under 4 years old).They had to change their Audi A4 avant because they couldn,t fit three child seats in the back.They bought a VW Touran 2.0 TDI and are extremely pleased with it.
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I don't know if this is relevant, but in the CMax the ISOFIX mounts were standard, but they were buried in the seats, to use them involved buying a kit from the garage and having the seats cut into to install it.
I only ever had one person ask for it, and I spent ages at service department trying to get them to agree to install the thing as they had never done it before and naturally didn't want to destroy the seats in a new car!
Don't know if it's the same for the Mondeo but surely worth checking? If it is then you should be able to fit the kit to any Mondeo that has the mounts buried in the seats, I just don't have a clue when they started burying them!
Blue
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In the Mrs's Megane they are buried deep behind the seat cushion and are an absolute nightmare to get in. Partly because of the puffy seats and partly the design. You get given little plastic tracking blocks to guide the runners in - but it's by no means easy. The MINI I had a while back had a little fancy plastic cover which you flipped up and lo, there was the mounting points. I'll maybe take a wonder round some older Mondeos in the local garage and root about the back, see what's what...
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I have a new shape Octavia (with Isofix mounts) and a Britax Isofix seat. I find it extremely easy to fix and it is much more secure than using a belt, however in SWMBO's car that doesn't have Isofix, it is easy to fit too and quite secure. It uses guides for the Isofix system as mentioned above, but once you get used to them, they are fine.
On a different note, would definitely suggest the Octavia as an alternative to the Mondeo. The boot is really big and I managed to buy a nearly new 2.0TDI for Mondeo money.
Nick
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Transit Tourneo 9-seater;3 rows of 3-seats plus plenty of luggage space.Back row comes out for even more space.
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If you do go down the MPV route, I seem to remember HJ was particularly impressed with the Mazda5 a short while back - could be worth looking up the road test (link on the left) and seeing can you get a test drive.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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And the new Zafira comes in sporty versions.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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I would seriously consider an MPV - try lifting children in and out of one and see how much easier it is on the back. With an estate you lift the child from the buggy, turn and then lower child into seat - risking back strain.
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