[spinifex]

Has anyone seen/driven a Citroen C4 Picasso and any thoughts on it for four children?
Thanks.

[secretsquirrel2]

We have the VW Multivan. 7 seater, 5 anchor points, all full seat belts. The seats are on a rails so when the kids are younger and dont need much leg room you can have the seats closer together and quite a bit of boot space. We fit the double mountain buggy and shopping in there. My husband is quite tall too and there is plenty of height for him to get in the back and put the kids in their seats. Power sliding doors too. We love it!

[lsolaBella]

Has anyone seen/driven a Citroen C4 Picasso and any thoughts on it for four children?
Thanks.

I have one.

It think it is great for 3 kids but probably not so great for 4 kids (ie. having the 6th seat in use full time)... it would really depend on the age of the children (ie. do you have 3 in child restraints?)

With 3 children in child restraints they take up the middle row, so when one of my parents come to visit I have to sit in the 6th seat. With Child restraints fitted on the middle row I have to climb in and out of the boot (anchor points for the child restraints are on the back of each seat). I am only 150cm so I actually don't find the room inside an issue. Even 6ft DH can fit in the boot (although he is a bit ackward in this position and would only be able to do a short journey in the back). The nice thing though with the boot seats is that they are positioned such that you are able to easily see over the middle row. I know when I had to sit in the 6 & 7th seats of my brothers BMW X5 I had to actually boost myself up so I could see over the middle row (so I didn't get car sick).

If you had two older ones who could sit in the back two seats and then have one middle row seat moveable forwards to access the back that could work BUT you would have very little space behind this for a pram/shopping etc. As an example we can just fit a Quinny Zapp behind the 6&7th seats.

I LOVE my car it is a dream to drive and the view from the windscreen (plus panoramic sunroof) is amazing. Very Fuel Efficient... we have done over 10,000kms and have averaged 8.2l/100km around the city (diesel).

This post has been edited by lsolaBella: 26/06/2010, 09:24 PM

[fandibong]

Anyone has experiences with Toyota Kluger, Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel, and Honda Odyssey. I went to dealers and checked each one of them, and not sure which one to buy. All of my previous cars are Toyota and they are really reliable, but Kluger seems to consume a lot of fuel, while Santa Fe is cheap and being a diesel will be really economical to run, while I like the look of Odyssey.Which one do you prefer? And if you own one can you please tell me how much you bought it for? Thanks

[asonaseason]

Dodge Journey is 7 seats


Integrated Child Booster Seats
The integrated child booster seats position children for the security of Journey's seat belt system. Built into the second-row seat cushions, these booster seats can be lifted and used when needed, slid back into the seat when not use.

[mummyofour]

Have read all of the above with great interest. We have a 2006 Kia Grand Carnival which we love and I would be very sad to give it up - even with all the seats up we have loads of space for a pram and shopping. It does only have the four lap sash seatbelts but with our four kids thats not a problem. We have actually taken the middle seat of the 2nd row out for the moment so we don't have to flip the seat forward at the moment. We have the baby and 7yo in the middle row and then the 10yo and 4yo in the back row.

However......

after a recent weekend away when we encountered some dirt and gravel roads on our travels, which the carnival coped with fine we've started talking about getting a 4x4 or at least AWD so we can go off roading and camping a little bit off the beaten track. We've looked at Prados, Landcruisers (don't know I could park of of these!!) and then moved onto the cheaper territorys and Klugers but are put off by the complete lack of boot space - esp compared to my lovely carnival!

And now we've discovered the Hyundai Santa Fe and the Kia Sorrento - any opinions on either of these as they are much more affordable - we've sat the little kids in the back of the Santa Fe and they seemed to think there was enough room for their legs. (could be a good thing that the 7yo is on the short side ! hahaha)

All opinions would be appreciated !!! Thanks !

[Esses]

Funnily enough, we've just done exactly that ourselves. Ours though was a case of combining DW's '07 Grand Carni & my '90 Nissan Patrol, which has twice taken us to Fraser Island plus quite a few off-road day-trips.
It was a real wrench for DW to lose her beloved GC & for me to give up the trusty old Patrol, but in between 4 kids, junior sports, dance etc etc we just weren't using the Patrol nearly as much as we'd've liked & it was costing too much to run as my work commuter.
We'd've loved a near-new Ti (top-line) Patrol - this is about or just higher than the equipment level in our EX Grand Carni - but they're "hen's teeth" rare & get snapped up very quickly. So after much looking around we ended up with an '07 Territory AWD 7-seater TS. Lovely, smooth, powerful, luxurious, very-well equipped, JUST enough room to use all 3 rows but more room than the '06 Kluger we nearly bought.
Word of warning, you will NOT get the same amount of room enjoyed in the GC even in a full-size Patrol or Landcruiser. It's just the limitations of 4WD/AWD design versus the freedom that front-wheel-drive allows the designers, but any of the AWD/4WD's are do-able for a large family. You'll just have to resort to the roof-rack that much earlier.
Also bear in mind that ANY of the AWD's are "Soft-Roaders" - they are not designed or intended to go into real off-road country - they're meant for roughish gravel roads, snow, sandy tracks & that's about it. A good example is that the lowest point of the underbody on both the Territory & the Kluger is the fuel-tank.
Good luck with whatever you get, but think carefully before parting with the GC, DW still tears up over it & for our money, it's the best people-mover for the $ you can buy in this country. Just wish they'd lifted it up a bit & given it 4WD & low-range!

[Julzyloo]

dodge journey is a great car ..... if you dont need access to the rear row when you have car seats in the middle row, anchor points for the middle row are in a stupid spot which make acces to the rear difficult! Such a let down!

I have an odyssey, fantastic car but once again depends how many car seats you have as the middle row anchor points are in the most ridiculous spot, hence why we are now looking at a toyota kluger. Anchor points in great spots and still a fair bit of room in the new model

[Peggybrown]

Hi, im looking at getting a Peugeot 308 Touring Active wagon. It has 7 seats. I am just wondering if anyone has experience of putting three car seats across the second row???? According to the measurements it should fit but I am just wondering about the practicality of it.
thanks

[ednaboo]

Peggybrown: we looked at one of these and yes I believe you could get 3 seats (we tried 2 boosters and a Compaq) in the 2nd row. The third row is a joke though - you could only fit a child back there but you couldn't put a booster in so we didn't get it.