I have three children, and have recently inherited another, my neice, so have gone from a family of 5 to 6 in a blink of an eye. I would like to know what people with 6 or more in their family are driving. Looking for something economical, and reliable. TIA
We have a Holden Captiva LX, and it's been an absolute dream car for us, we really love it. It uses an average of 11.2lt fuel p/100km which isn't too bad - much much better than a Territory apparently. Kia's are a cheaper alternative, but considering that Kia has gone into receivership, I wouldn't be keen on getting one ATM. We looked at Tarago's too, but they are really exxie.
I got a 2nd hand Kia - $15,000 fits us all in and I cannot believe the fuel efficiency.
I love it to death. It has so much room when it comes to buckling everyone in too.
We've recently discovered we're going to be a family of 6, so we're looking around at cars.
Our options so far are Honda Odyssey, Ssangyong Stavic or a Holden Zafira. All the above are used cars that we're looking at.
If you looking for something economical, here is my suggestions:
Honda Odyssey, Kia Sedona, Toyota Sienna, Hyundai Entourage.
I have had the Captiva LX for about 2 months and love it. It’s a great family car the 7 seats are very useful when the kids bring their friends along. It easily tows a 1600kg boat. It’s light and easy to drive, I love the styling the price is good and I can’t find fault with it.
Last edited by anewyorkoriginal; January 6th, 2009 at 09:27 PM.
We looked at ALL the 7/8 seaters about 12 months ago (there used to be a thread) and finally decided on a Nissan Pathfinder. Its 7 seater, but as we only have 3 kids we have in with a large boot instead of the extra 2 seats up. It really depends on whether you have to carry a few kids in child restraints as they are only available in the middle row of the Pathy, so this limits the access to the rear row for the bigger kids.
It works brilliantly for us though as I can still fit my P&T pram with 2nd seat, and nappy bag in the boot if I have to change it from 5 to 7 seats whilst out. No other car would do this.
We've got the diesel which is great, but around town it's not so economical - around 13L/100km.
We bought a Honda Odyssey last June.....we absolutely love it. We have 3 children, with one on the way - i will have 4 children 5 and under, so all will have car seats.
My Dh just bought a Santa Fe, and whilst its a lovely car to drive, the HOnda is quality, it feels so much more safer and stronger to drive if that makes sense......Love it, love my car......
I have just test driven a tarago and it was fantastic. It is an 8 seater and it has the child fittings already installed. It drove just like a car instead of a big van. Not too bad a price either having talked it down to $9k. A friends hubby will check it over tomorrow (he's a mechanic) and then depending on what he finds, we will get it. There was so much space for everyone. Much better than the pajero that i'm driving now
Hey thought I would add in here to tell you about our new vechicle. We had a great 12 seater Toyota Hiace till my DH killed it! I needed a big van cos I needed the seats and boot space for a buggy and wheelchair.
Well anyway we went looking for a new car/van/bus. We got posh and now we drive a Mercedes, Red, Stretched and an ex school bus (40 seater)!!!!!!!!!!!! Please pray we won't fill up all the seats! We are going to put in some beds and a kitchen so no more toilet or coffee stops on a long run.
I have just gotten a toyota tarago yay. It seats everyone and is still roomy. We have the 2 baby seats in and there is still room on the same seat for another child. It was an excellent buy.
DH and I are going to be faced with this issue soon. We did have a 7 seater, a 2000 Hyundai Trajet, but that died on us and was too expensive to fix, so now we are back to a sedan and having to think about how we are going to find the money for another 7 seater! I will never again buy a Hyundai, and DH will not consider a Kia because of their bad reputation, but we both love the look of the Honda Odyssey. So that is my dream car right now, a luxury model Honda Odyssey. At least we have plenty of time anyway!
We have five kids, soon to have six. We've been making do without people movers for a good while now. I have a three door Barina for my own use, and dh has an Astra hatch. For twelve months, we only had the Barina! That was fun We could get away with this because our two eldest were teens who didn't really want to go anywhere with us anyway, so we'd just take two cars on the odd occasions we were all going together.
We are deciding whether or not we will be able to continue that way with #6. In the event that we can't manage, we're looking at a Peugeot Touring 308. Only thing is, we'll have to trade in both cars and I hate the idea of losing my Beep beep Barina
I drive a Landrover Discovery, the new one with 7 seats.. it's not too bad on fuel for the size of it. Does about 14.5 lts per 100km, but it's not quite run it yet as it's only done about 5000k's so should come down a bit more than that.
Even though I dont have 4 kids (soon to have 3) I have a SsangYong Stavic. I do like to pick up friends for meetups, and when we have family up visiting they don't always have access to a car, so I thought a 7 seater would be better for our needs. I have a 3 wheeler pram, which is about 60cm wide and I can lay that down width wise in the boot and still have room for everything else in my boot. I am fussy when it comes to boot space so that was the biggest selling point to me.
Mechanically they are very sound, they are basically a Mercedes with a cheaper price tag, and a mechanic friend who has worked at both Kia and Mercedes said to go for the Stavic because of all the things he has seen in his work.
Mine is Diesel, and I get close to 600km out of a 75 litre tank, so quite efficient, and most of that is stop/start driving.
I did have to have the extra anchorages put in for the 3rd row, but it was not too expensive to have that done (had to be certified for Qld Transport). For 3 anchorages to be installed it was $254.50. That was the only thing that I though was not the greatest with it, that I had to have the extra points installed, but in the scheme of things that was not a huge issue.
We have just purchased a 2006 Mitsubishi Grandis (7 seats). We are expecting our 3rd child in a month, so the car will have 2 baby seats and a booster seat. There are 5 anchor points in the car. The third row has 2 independent seats which means you can lower one for more boot space while using the other one. Petrol economy is approx. 10l/100km. It drives like a sedan and is, in fact, 15mm shorter than our previous car (camry wagon).
Has good reviews (see drive.com, and NRMA web site), and we still have 2.5 years left on the factory warranty.
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what car do you drive to get all of you around?
We could get away with this because our two eldest were teens who didn't really want to go anywhere with us anyway, so we'd just take two cars on the odd occasions we were all going together.
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