your thoughts on a 7 seater SUV car !!! A Volvo anyone????

[runnermum]

hi everyone,
we are about to have our 3rd child and need a new car! Ihope this is the right place to post, eventhough I know a family of 5 is probably not considered large, but it is for us!

we would like a 7 seater (need the extra room when travelling/babystuff/other family members etc). we like the Volvo CX90 the best so far (apart from the price!). we are trying to avoid a people mover.... we also like the 7 seater Audi, well, my husband does, but personally the seats at the back are not as comfortable.

Access to the 3rd row is important, as my 7 year old has gross motor delays and finds it difficult to climb/coordinated his body in/out of cars. we will have 2 babies under 2 so baby seats take pride of place on either side of the 2nd row....so a centre seat in the 2nd row that comes down is pretty important. we have found many SUVS have a 60/40 spilt which means our 7 year old can only get to the back seat from the rear...

if you have a Volvo 7 seater would love your comments. any other ideas are welcome - thanks !

[Miss K]

Have you thought about a Honda Odessey or a Mazda cx9??? The Odessey is a really nice car

[alioops]

The biggest thing I looked at when we were looking for a 7 seater was boot space. I love love love my SsangYong Stavic but it may be a bit too high for your 7 year old as it does have pretty high clearance. It is a combination between a people mover and a 4 wheel drive. There is an aisle between the 2 second row seats so it is quite easy to walk around the car.

Whatever you get it is worth looking at reviews because the one 7 seater that I see the most also has the highest percentage of bad reviews. The bigger version does have boot space but to me reliabilty is even more important than space.

[runnermum]

hi ladies, thanks SO much for your replies - it is a hard decision isn't it? The Honda Odessey I think has a 60/40 split at the 2nd row of seats (I think) and also not a heap of room in the boot for a running jogger amoung other things! I do like the Mazda CX9 which also has a 60/40 split at the 2nd row of seats but it does have a fair amount of boot space.

the car you speak of aliloops, the SsangYong I have only just heard of ....I shall look it up. thanks! I still like the Volvo the best so far but hate the price tag of nearly 90 thousand!

[feeb]

We have been looking at Captiva and a friend has 1 and they love it.

[runnermum]

thanks Feeb........but my husband will not have anything to do with North American cars...hey, he is from NA himself !! He has his reasons (going bankrupt or something) so no captiva for us.........

[runnermum]

Alioops - just had a look at the Ssong Website - does the 7 seater have a 3rd bench like seat? Or can you put down just one seat at the back to make more room in the boot?

also cannot find a price - what kind of money are they asking for this model you have?

[alioops]

The 3rd seat is a bench seat but it moves forwards and backwards, I can fit a 3 wheeler pram in laying on its wheels, the same way I fit it in DH's station wagon, and the shopping. It is also fully removable. We even managed to take it on holidays, packed everything inside, including a nappy bucket and pram. We did need to put some stuff on our extra seat but we did have heaps of stuff (we drove for 5 days each way so we had enough for multiple days in the car). It's also really economical. We got 10L per 100Km even with the car needing a new fuel line assembly (the warranty issue we have had)

I got an ex demo 2008 model in 2008 for $35,000. It has a Mercedes engine and the only problem I have had has been covered by the warranty, as soon as the parts have come in from the factory.

We had 3 extra anchor points installed as the only existing ones are in the middle row, so I have enough room to fit 5 baby seats and 2 adults comfortably and legally