OK,
Ford territorys are absolutely up to ****e with fuel consumption and they are only 7seaters. some of the new models are coming out with the third row of seats as standard, but the early ones have a d1cky seat in the back.

Honda Odyseys are great, but are very european in looks and design - wood panelling etc, but for space they are fab - the second row of seats is adjustable too so you can move it forward or back if you need more room. We would have gone this way only they are very close to the ground.

Toyota Klugers are great too, but very exxie, as are the prado's and landcruisers. If you are buying new then luxury car tax comes into play with these vehicles because the Govt has just lowered the threshold for them so the LCT kicks in at $50k now. Excellent resale value too

Kia Carnivals aren't too bad, but have a crap resale value and it seems to be quite hit and miss with them - some people will have no trouble with them and others will have nothing but trouble.

Ssanyong - these only just came on the market after we already brought our captiva so we didn't look at those.

Mazda do an MPV 7 seater too, but we weren't keen on it at all.

We have a holden Captiva LX and we LOVE it. It runs like a dream and is very good on the juice too. Because it is AWD it is perfect for the conditions we drive in (gravel roads and around the farm etc) we can't see ourselves getting any other car now. We can have all 4 kids, a stroller plus grocery shopping and there is plenty of room for it. The third row of seats come as standard too and have a recessed foot well so they don't have their legs around their ears LOL.

The downfall of all 7 seater vehicles is there is always going to be issues with room for prams etc. We only use the third row of seats if we are all going somewhere, because my eldest is big enough to sit in the front passenger seat now, so if it is just me and the kids we don't need the extra seats.

Another thing you have to look for is how much space there is for car seats. In our car we can only have the car seat in the one spot behind the front passenger as the 2nd seat is a 40/60 split fold and the 40 part (behind the driver) isn't wide enough for it, plus you need it free to fold down for access to the 3rd row, unless you want hte kids climing in and out the back of the car. The middle seat is too narrow for even a booster seat. The 40 seat is just big enough for DD2's booster though. It will be fine once you don't have kids in car seats anymore though.

HTH