Upgrading to a more 'family' orientated car

[tk1999]

DP thinks I am a little ditzy but I am thinking I want to upgrade our car now (even before we TTC #2) so that we can knock as much off the loan as possible. I am looking at Holden Stationwagon or similar and am just wondering what your recommendations might be?

At the moment I do quite a lot of kms per week (approx 850) and I will be upgrading from a Toyota Corolla 2003 Hatch.

My criteria is:
* able to fit 3 car seats cause DD will still need to be in one (in some form or another) until she is 7
* room to move
* as economical on petrol as it can be

[Butterfly Dawn]

Ahhhh the never ending quest to get a car that fits 3 carseats. I'll subscribe cause we're hunting too. Looking at VW tiguan, mazdacx5 or cx7 hate the VW Taurans

[Amaunet]

I have a Toyota Camry (current shape/model) it fits 3 carseats as long as they are normal size (ie not with huge cupholders etc) good on power and fuel, decent boot etc. Good price for low km second hand ex govt cars

[Spikey]

I love my Honda Odyssey

[Bloom]

Nissan X trail. Love it.

[Phteven]

If you want 3 seats I would advise going up to a 7 seater.
Getting your hand between the seats to do up seat-belts can be an absolute nightmare and so too can getting children in and out especially if one or more is asleep.

[Taurean]

We just hired a Falcon XR6 (sedan) while on holidays and were amazed by how roomy it is (both inside and in the boot). I'd highly recommend one (the XR6 isn't necessary though, that was an unexpected bonus with our hire, lol) and don't think you'd have any issues with three car seats. We were so impressed we are thinking of getting one. Either that or a Commodore.

We currently have a CX7 as our big car and it does fit three car seats (my friend has one and recently had 2 toddlers in SnS Meridian's and a new born in a capsule on the back seat) but it's tight. I have a Mazda 3 and can already see that three car seats would be far too tight.

We are still considering getting the CX9 down the track so we have the extra seats as well as the bigger boot space so we may just upgrade my car to a Mazda 6 wagon but the Falcon is definitely on the maybe list now as my car

[~ Mylitta ~]

We recently got a Kia Grand Carnival because once bub's arrives we'll need 7 seats which includes 3 baby seats. The Grand Carnival can seat 8 adults very comfortably. It's HUGE! Lol. So far we've been very happy with it. The space in the boot is enormous, and cavernous when the back seats are down. We plan on putting DS in a booster seat in the very back row with the seat in front of him taken out of the car completely (you can take out any of the middle row seats), and the two baby seats will be in the remaining two middle seats. That way I can just reach in the space left by the removed seat to do up buckles As for fuel economy though, well it's definitely not going to win any awards, but luckily for us it's covered by our novated lease plan, hehe.

[Tegam]

I so wish we had got the huge car when we had number tow instead of number four we wasted do
Much money getting two cars four years apart. I would have always been someone that wanted spare seats so we got a Hyundai IMAX. We love it. So much more room than the Kia

[Novella]

We have a commodore station wagon and I have checked and can get a booster seat (not sure of brand) a baby love ezy combo (convertible booster) and a normal sized convertible baby seat in. I agree with onyx reaching the seatlbelt between seats was going to be very difficult but I found out you can buy seatbelt extenders! About $35 for an australian one and it adds about 20cm to the bit you plug the seat belt into (very technical aren't I lol). You just clip it into the exesting plu thingo and it has another plug thingo at the end of it for the setbelt to go in like you normally would. If we had the money I would consider a 7 seater but a new car is a few years off for us financially so we will make do.

[tk1999]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions - the fun now begins... looking at the various cars and trying to find something in our price range!

This is the part of car buying I don't like LOL - the actual going and looking at the cars and getting the 'deal' LOL

[Beach Mama]

If you want fuel economy, see if you can find a Diesel - pretty sure the Tucson and the Santa Fe are 7 seats too ( maybe?!)

[HotI]

VW Tiguan comes in diesel too.

VW Golf is nice but i haven't tried fitting 3 seats yet- haven't even tried 2 yet! but it does have 3 anchor points.

[Butterfly Dawn]

We went to a car last weekend. It was really interesting. You can quickly start to work out what will work for your family once you look at afew cars. We have ruled out the Golf and are now looking at the Toyota Rav4 as it has good back seat AND good boot space- enough to fit a pram. There were afew others I cant remeber that where okay but out of our price range or just 1s we didnt know- ie new Korean car brand and some where also brands we dont want to buy for various reasons. Goodluck and have fun looking

[black_rose]

There are so many to choose from, I had my heart set on the Kia carnival but drove it and hated it, along with the Holden captiva. As soon as I drove my car the Hyundai Santa Fe I was happy with driving it and the space. Make up a short list and then go drive them, see if the seats and pram fit. The IMAX looks great if you need the extra space.

[TaRhLi.]

We are also looking at upgrading to a 7 seater people mover - Kia Carvival or Chrysler Voyager. We currently have everyone in a holden stationwagon and can fit 3 car seats easily across the back but for us it is about space for everything else as well, as the twin pram takes up 3/4 of the back of the wagon. We recently went away for a few days and by the time we loaded the twin stroller, the single stroller for DD, 2 portacots and clothes, toys etc the back was packed to the roof. So we have decided we need to move up to something bigger.

[~ Mylitta ~]

There are so many to choose from, I had my heart set on the Kia carnival but drove it and hated it, along with the Holden captiva. As soon as I drove my car the Hyundai Santa Fe I was happy with driving it and the space. Make up a short list and then go drive them, see if the seats and pram fit. The IMAX looks great if you need the extra space.

Did you try the Kia Carnival, or the newer Kia Grand Carnival? They don't make the older Carnival anymore because it had a lot of issues, but the newer Grand Carnival is meant to be worlds better. We've had ours for 2 months now and I'm finding it great. They amount of space is amazing. The only driving issue I have with it is that the accelerator is really sensitive, and apparently that's a known issue with a couple of other Kia cars as well. Other than that I'm really happy with our car choice

[~Raven~]

I ADORE my Chrysler Grand Voyager It's a diesel model so quite economical but the servicing is expensive. Having said that I've only had commodores previously and I'm aware they are quite reasonably priced as far as servicing goes so perhaps i've been spoilt there. We chose the Chrysler over many others because we didn't want to mess about with folding seats forward to have access to the back.

Back when we had 3 kiddies, we were able to get 3 car seats in the back of a commodore sedan ('91 model I think it was). We had 2 boosters and a safe and sound compaq for the baby. It was a bit tricky to get the seat belts done up though but we managed. My SIL had a Ford XR8 and she was unable to because of the profile of the seats and the "sports moulding" they have. Keep that in mind when you are looking.

When #4 came along, we went to a station wagon with dic-kie seats in the back but I wouldn't recommend that for various reasons. We put up with it for 3 years before deciding to get a people mover.