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.
Reply With Quote
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.
Bookmarks