7 Seaters?

[Sharkie]

I have also been looking at suitable 7 seaters recently ...

All the SUV's with 7+ seats are not that much of an option I'm afraid ... the rear seats are only suitable to midgets and kids under 5 as there is no leg room in any of them .... Territory and Kluger included.

A proper van is the best bet if you are going to use it for a number of years ....

VW Caddy Maxi Life - 7 seats, TDI and DSG
VW T5 Multivan - around $30K for a 3yr old
Toyota Tarago - around $30K for a 3yr old

are the best bets IMO. They all have dual sliding doors for ease of acces to the kiddies in the back.

[Stuwey]

Kluger can seat 7..

Yes, but the Kluger has only got child anchorages for three kids in the middle row, which we find a huge problem with customers.

[brad]

We've owned the following 7 seaters:

2x Toyota Avensis 2.4. Good people mover. Surprisingly good handler with OEM Michelins. SWMBO was recently offered another & we declined as I don't think any of the safety gear has been upgrade in the last 4 years.

Holden Captiva Diesel Auto. Excellant package, great handler. OEM Dunlops stick well & quiet. Gearbox needs 6 speeds or the engine needs an extra 10-20kw. We have asked for one of these as the next company car.

Mitsubishi Outlander 2.4 petrol with CV transmission. ****box. Trans is crap. 3rd row is a useless joke & afterthought. Handles crap. OEM bridgestones are noisy & slide at the slightest bit of dampness.

Mates have had Kia Carnivals. Normally I 'd say they wre poo but suprisingly, in a survey of 2 people (both with the later Grand Carnival update) they have had a good run & both would buy again.

My pick would be Honda Odyssey but they are pricey.

[The_Hawk]

Thanks for those suggestions, from what I can see the Multivan is more like $30k+ from what I can see, can't see a price for the Maxi Life. The wife seems to think the Caravelle is ugly and thinks the Tarago isn't far behind it… (but she might have to deal with ugly if it means being able to get out of the house) although surprisingly she doesn't hate the Kia Carnival.

Captiva's look like they are a little more pricey so might be out of reach, the Volvo is in basically the same, well even worse really.

I know a couple of people with other Kia's who don't mind them. Personally we have owned a Hyundai and never had issues with it, really it was well appointed and went damn well for it's price, the biggest issue was how quickly they lost value. Like I said I'll have to start going out and looking around the yards next year and see whats what, while I don't want to rule it out I am trying to avoid a Kia

[Dubdabest]

Heaven forbids.. is Holden Commy Sportwagon any good?

[team_v]

Heaven forbids.. is Holden Commy Sportwagon any good?

Doesn't seat 7???

[Dubdabest]

Doesn't seat 7???

Oh OK ... I thought being a wagon en all ...

The only other cars that I can think of are Citroen Picasso or Mitsu Grandis.

[maca]

Honda Odyssey has to be the best looking 7 seater around atm.

Either that or a Chrysler Grand Voyager, even not the past models are nice.

[dubbed]

Hyundai Tucson?

[danish]

Any reason why you can't just upgrade to a larger 5 seater?

3 kids + 2 parents = 5.... what are the spare 2 seats needed for?

[The_Hawk]

Any reason why you can't just upgrade to a larger 5 seater?
3 kids + 2 parents = 5.... what are the spare 2 seats needed for?

Technically no, but even larger cars have a hard time getting three regular car seats across the back without going to compact child seats, something I said in the first post I could do.

If I'm going down that path I'd probably just keep what I have, but at 10 years old and just under 200,000km it's starting to develop a few issues so something newer wouldn't be a terrible thing and lets face it if I'm going to buy something, might as well get something bigger to allow for further expansion (or one of the kids friends in the car).

[bombsquad21]

I really like the looks of the odyssey but that motor is just not matched to such a large car..too peaky IMHO. The way the baby seats hook up is wacky too..
You need to consider how flat the rear seat is too, cause that can have an adverse affect on how the baby seats get along.

RX330's have only 5 seats, but have a flat floor, 1million airbags, electric tailgate, Nav etc etc.. I'm guessing Kluger are the similar but not quite, 7 seats though of course. You can get into an 03-04 RX330 with dealer warranty left for under $35k..

[The_Hawk]

I have been to a bunch of dealers today and gotta say I wasn't really impressed by most of them. It's not like it's busy on a Wednesday morning, but few of them seemed too keen on helping me out. The moment I said I was also looking second hand they became even less interested (none had anything on the lot). The best sales person today was the guy from the Holden dealership, 100% upbeat was interested in the problem I was trying to solve and made some suggestions on aftermarket mods (read Little's or similar) and even when we got to the point where he clearly didn't have anything for me he was still 100% upbeat and helpful.

Holden, Toyota and Hyundai have said they do not have anything at all that allows for a child seat in the third row, period. Apparantly including the Tarago. In one of them the sales guy seemed more concerned with getting my name and number (even though he said he had nothing that fits my requirements) just to put into the system to say he had done some work today (I assume it's a log for the bosses to say they are actually working and worthwhile).

The Ford Territory does allow seats in the rear, however the mount points are on the very back of the car so you loose ALL space in the back by crossing it with the straps from the child seats. Also, since you access the back seats by folding up the 2nd row... sort of can't put child seats there if you want to get in the back the ways the seats fold down.

The Kia Carnival and Grand Carnival both have mount points on the back of all seats in teh 2nd and third row so allow seats in all positions, although it still looks like you need to access the third row by folding down one of the middle seats, but they look like they fold down independantly. Sadly the Kia place didnt' have one in stock to look at, but did have a Crysler Voyager which is very similar, they reckon there is more room in the back of the Kia than there is in the Voyager, which isn't terrible, not great, but not useless (like the Territory).

Lastly the Volkswagens.

The guy was at Volkswagen was nice enough, we had a chat for a bit, but he didn't really seem to know some of th answers, still second best of the people I spoke to today.

Looks like if I go Caravelle it would have to be second hand since they are so damn expensive, but the problem is still that there are no child mounts on the 2nd row, but since the seats mount points are load rated and easily moveable you might be able to get something (or modify the seats themselves to get mount points on the back of the third row. (which would be ideal). The VW guy said the Multivan has mounts on the back row, but not he second row and sadly the seats can't be [easily] moved to the Caravelle since they use a different mount system.

But to the Multivan! It has 5 mount points! (Mind you I found this out myself when I got home, not through the sales guy) The middle row actualy swivel (which is cool) and have a little table. Space in the back looks pretty good (altough I would want to see one in the flesh to be sure). (that and I'm hoping the older models have the same sort of features as the current ones...)

The real downside is that even second hand they are $35k+ (and closer to $40k at that) so are getting outside what I really want to spend.

So in summary, Kia Carnival sadly looks like the only practicle vehicle in my price range, the Multivan would make a great Christmas present if anyone wants to help out one of your favourite Admin

[AusScare]

Subaru Exiga? I don't really like it, but would suit your needs.

http://www.carsguide.com.au/site/news-and-reviews/car-reviews-road-tests/subaru_exiga_first_review

[Dubdabest]

Subaru Exiga? I don't really like it, but would suit your needs.

Had this in mind to suggest but since it's a brand new model, prob there aren't many used ones and it would be out of the budget.