What car are you larger families driving??!!

We had a Kia Carnival, and will never get one again. We now have a Hyandai Trajet, and it is FABULOUS!!:D But, if and when #6 gets here I'll need a bigger car! Even if it doesn't happen, we still need a bigger car. We fill it up now, and when the kids have friends over, were stuck and cant go out :wall: The only ones we can find are Ford Transit or Toyota Commuter, both 12 seaters. A 9 - 10 seater would be better, if we get a "bus', I just might fill it with bubbas :p!!!

So what are your BIG families driving???

purple mamma - i know when we were looking to upsize for our family of five we were told they are replacing the trajet with a more van like vehicle ( we wanted a hyundai but have a new kia instead cause we couldn't get a trajet up here- if you look on the hyundai dot com (the american site not the aus one) you can see it.

I'll check it out, thanks!! I just dont want to be driving around in a mini bus :lol: A bigger van would be good!!

Purplemamma - it reminded me very much of an airport shuttle I'm afraid so it might be tooo minibus like for you - even the guy at hyundai sort of indicated I wouldn't be interested cause it was so van like - apparently hertz have preordered 150 or so so you might see some hitting the streets. you did have seating options with it though so it could have more or less rows of seats (can't remember the numbers off hand)

i also have this vague memory of volkswagon having a van but don't remember the details (or cost) so it might be worth a look

volkwagon do have a few options. The caddy life and another I think. Transporter or something similar. However, they are both very VAN like to look at. Not very pleasing to the eye. I ended up with a grande carnival after shopping around for months and months (10 months all up!). I am VERY happy with it. But as u said, u need more room than that so I'm sorry I cna't help u more...

Vans - we have a 12 seater Toyota Hiace/commuter van. We found the smaller van didn't have the boot space we needed for a wheelchair and buggy. Even though we have spare seats we always seem to fill them with extras, you know kids friends,etc. I have no problem driving it and find it safer being a bit higher in the seat. But the bad thing is that I know I can keep having kids till all the seats are full - 3 more to go!!!!

At the moment the Toyota Commuter is our choice, as its the only one big enough!! The others are only 8 seater max. Does it go ok?? Got guts up hills etc?? We dont have one in town to go look at, we'd have to travel to pick one up... And yep, i'm worried i'll wanna fill her up!!!:cryinglaugh:

Nissan Patrol 7 seats :dance:

purplemamma - I drove past a landcruiser troupe today and went yeh it has 10 seats but then thought about the practicality of kids on sideways seats and luggage and went won't work - they do do a forward facing seating configuration with these but this I'm sure reduces it back to 7 seats so again too small

hyundai are comning out with one that can seat up to 12

Toyota Commuter. I have no probs driving it and neither will you if don't expect to handle it like a sports car. you can't go as tight around the corners and it won't get to 0-100km in 5 seconds and it does Ok on hills (its 5 speed) but it won't get you up like a rocketship. I love it and and love the extra room for music/ sports gear. All the other vans etc I know of only have 8 seats and not alot of boot space. Look out for an ex childcare centre or resthome van for sale if money is an issue. They are usually well serviced and because they have had depreciation claimed on them usually sell fairly cheap. Happy van hunting.

Toyota Landcruiser here.. 8 seats.. bit squashy at times with 3 car seats.. will have 4 in there in a couple week plus a booster for friends that are visiting.. should be interesting

friends of ours (4 older kids - blended family) use a Honda Oddesey - they had a Kia and got rid of it because it was too huge.

My MIL, when she was a foster mum, had a starwagon - when that died we bought her a Mitsubishi Delica - yes that is a bus type thing but the height of it etc suited her perfectly & the seats in the back were great when she had 4 booster seats in there.

DH bought me a 63 Chevy Impala for when we have kids (fits 2 kids seats & an adult across the back with room to spare + 3 adults across the front)

We did have a Toyota Tarago '87 model but we found that it was too expensive to run. It ended up running on 2 and a half cylinders and blowing fire out of the exhaust!
We now drive 2 Holden JE Camiras. We have boot space, enough space for all 6 kids, we live 4 doors from the school so don't need to take any other kids to the school.

We would love to own a car that all of us could travel in but in our price range, there are only Taragos and I refuse to buy another one of them.

Dh and I have been discussing getting a bigger car as we will be TTC later in the year and may be lucky enough to concieve twins again...I hate 4WD's and we have been looking at the Honda Oddessy as well...We originally thought of the Kia Carnival but heard bad reports about it.

If you google the Kia, and whats wrong with them, the reports come flooding in!! So far the best would have to be our Trajet, just not big enough now!!:rolleyes: I think we'll go the commuter...I'll have to find one to test drive!!:doh:

Hyundai have now released the IMax. I believe u can get it to seat 12. Or u can in the overseas model. HTH's!

toyota prado..... i love it 8 seats although maybe if u had more than 4 kids could get squashy but suits us fine with our 4 kiddies they can fit a friend in