what car do you drive to get all of you around?

[alioops]

if the door slides I wont ride

You'd like mine then - The doors don't slide It has swing doors.

[mbear]

Well we have signed contract to buy an 05 Honda Odyssey, luxury model. Low k's in great condition

....sounds divine. We bought a 04 lux. odyssey in June last year, again, with low kms....it was such a lovely car to drive....the interior and dash are just unreal. Unfortuantely we had to sell due to bub #4 (4 kids in car seats just wouldnt fit), but we sold it privately. Car dealers will offer you nothing for your current car, and reap the cash when they will defn sell it for at lot more than what they have paid you for it.....

[mountain mummy]

I drive a Prado and it is FANTASTIC!!! The only problem is that it only has 3 child anchor points (not that we need an extra one JUST yet ) and if you fill it, there is very very little room for anything else .... but with our eldest in the back seat, and the other side folded up or removed altogether, I can still fit the pram (bertini) and toddler seat in next to him, and the other 3 are in child restraints across the middle ... with no pram and the extra side of the 3rd row in, we have an 8 seater ...

However, we are looking at a bigger car whilst in discussions as to whether to add to our brood

[BekZ]

Hi Ladies,

We are about to have bub number 3. Currently we have a commodore sedan and when number 3 comes the back seat will be very full with 3 car seats

DH and I are looking at bigger cars. So far we have looked at a Honda Od, Hyundi Trajet, Ford Territory, Toyota Avenisis and KIA. I personally like the Honda Od and Toyota Avensis. Not sure on the quality of the Trajet and Kia.

We are still deciding but it is all too confusing atm

[Sequoia]

I just read that there is a new Territory coming out next year, new shape etc. I'm excited to see it!

[BekZ]

After hours of internet research yesterday DH is now looking at a station wagon. He thinks the kids will be ok sitting together across one seat and prefers bigger boot space. Any thoughts?

[Lulu]

As long as you are prepared for them slapping each other silly and ripping toys of each other.....

[bon]

BekZ - It depends also whether you are planning to have more than 3 kids - because if you are, or you think it may be a possibility down the track, you might be better off going for the bigger car now. As far as station wagons go, you will definitely be able to fit the 3 of them in the back and the boot space is a bonus but they aren't really any bigger than sedans seat wise. Maybe a little bit wider but not much...so its not going to be much of a change from the sedan that you already have. Is is really worthwhile spending the money to buy a car that is not much bigger than the one you already have? Just a thought...

As for 7 seaters, when we had baby 3 we traded our station wagon in for a Hyundai Trajet, it was great for a year until it completely died on us. Basically needed a whole new motor, so we decided it wasn't worth fixing it and got rid of it. Now we are back in a sedan (holden statesman) but will soon be getting our Honda Odyssey (when the bank finally gives us the money!) and I can't wait! So from my experience I wouldn't be recommending a Trajet.

Good luck with the car search!

[BekZ]

As long as you are prepared for them slapping each other silly and ripping toys of each other.....

Lulu - This point is firmly in the back of my mind. They are ok now but give DD1 and DD2 another year and I think the back seat will a boxing ring!!!!

Bon - I discovered that the Trajet is out of production so that is a mark against that choice. I agree that we need not go for a station wagon just for a little bit of more space.

As for more kids, well there are not plans but DH was thinking of getting a bigger car "just in case"!!!! I am sure he wants to try for a boy one more time

I think a Honda Od is looking to be a good bet for us but they are a bit out of our price range for now.

[Mumof8]

Well we have a Kia Grand Carnival and its awesome for the bigger famalies that also need a big boot space

[tanica72]

Hi, I am new here but we have 4 children and I am expecting twins. We currently drive a commodore wagon with 8 seats but will need to upgrade in the next 6 months or so as my daughter (10 years) is getting too big for the back and I'll need three baby seats in the middle section . There is also minimal boot room.
We have been looking at VW Caravelles which have great boot room and are very bussy to drive. We are going to look at Tarago's also but I'm not sure if you can fit 4 baby seats in them, plus a big enough boot for a double pram. Does the Kia Grand Carnival have 7 or 8 seats? Anyone have any other suggestions for 8 seaters with good size boot room?

[BekZ]

tanica72 - Hi and Welcome to BB. Congrates on the pending arrival of twins. I believe the Kia has 8 seats.

To be honest the Kia has all the features that we are looking for but I don't want to be spending good money on a car that needs to be repaired all the time. Apparently the issues occured with this car pre 2004 but I'd still like to see some reports for more recent models

[mbear]

Bekz,
We had a Honda Od with 3 car seats across....(oh....3 x MR will not fit BTW). Boot space was fantastic. But yeah, they are up there in the high $20000 for a decent model with low kms - we paid $27 000 for ours. But when a BFP for #4 came along, 4 car seats just dont work in the Odyssey. So we bougtha chrysler voyager - 5 seats at the back - with walkway down the centre of the car - which is what i wanted. I currently have 2 x prams in the boot. We paid $20k for it. The girls have sooo much room. I often have to turn the radio off to hear my DD#1 right at the back of the car ask me a question..... ........We got 2004 model.

Good luck - the whole car searching thing took us 6 months...it became a royal PITA !!!!

[Mumof8]

Tanica72...Yes the Kia Grand Carnival does have 8 seats. Anything before 2006 only has 7 and is just a straight Carnival not a grand carnival. We paid $27,000 for a 2007 model as a private sale. It has factory warranty till 2012. We wanted as new as we could get for the cheapest price and we couldn't go pasted the Kia, everything else was so expensive. Unfortuatly because of all that happened with the older Kia's more 2001 to 2004 people still see them as a bad car.
My friend has a 2007 tarago and she can't fit 3 baby seats in a row. I think the newer model tarago's are smaller then say the 2003 model.
Happy car hunting and goodluck with the twins.

[BekZ]

MBear - I wanted a walk through too plus I need to extra space to take my nieces with us if need be! All our girls go to the same daycare and will go to the same school so some day's I'll have 5 kids to cart around. BTW I can't hear DD1 now and we have a sedan. We looked at the newer Chyrslers and they expensive too. We'll keep looking..It is worse than looking for a house