What 7 seater

Author
Discussion

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Hey all looking for some advise.

Current situation: Me, Missus, her 10 year old, 1x 20kg Husky, 1x 45kg Wolfdog. We have a 2012 Fiesta (hers) and 2007 SAAB V6 estate (mine). In the SAAB the dogs go in the boot, her lad in the back and all of their luggage in the other 2 seats in back. Car is quite full. Occasionally we go in the Fiesta it ends up being, 2x dogs + her lad in the back, boot full of the bags.

We are expecting a new addition in June. Initially I was going to keep the Fiesta and sell the SAAB, replace it with something bigger but I wanted something V8,10,12 and realised quickly with dogs + kids the interior is going to be messy all the time and I hate that.

So I started thinking, replace her Fiesta and get her something that we can both drive (I do most of the long distance driving) and then eventually I can sell the SAAB and get something smaller (fancy another NA V6, Alfa maybe?).

So right now I'm wanting to spend up to 10k. In my head, dogs in the boot, seats 6 and 7 will be occupied by bags + baby stuff, seats 4 and 6 by the 10 year old and baby seat.

Right now I'm looking at 2011+ Volvo XC90 D5 (either SE Lux or R-Design) reason for 2011+ is they have the D5 200ps engine. Found one with 111k on the clock including a private plate for under 10k and they have offered £3800 for the Fiesta.

Anybody else got any suggestions, I did look at V12 and V8 Q7 previously, Q7 V6 diesel is an option but I've previously had 15 years of VW Group ownership and have quite enjoyed the SAAB so though a Volvo would be nice, plus the Q7 we will be looking at older cars + higher mileage.

Not interested in things like Citroen Picasso, 2 of the family's in our cul-de-sac have them.

ingenieur

4,097 posts

182 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Sounds like a horrible way to drive with 65kg of heavy breathing dogs in the car. But I'm pretty sure you don't have the choice of getting rid of the dogs so if it were me in that situation I'd be buying something with biggest possible internal area.

The first thing which came to mind was the Nissan Patrol: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107054...

Pablo16v

2,098 posts

198 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
S-Max or Galaxy is an obvious answer. We loved our 2.0 Ecoboost 240 and would easily have another if we needed extra seats and space. 240bhp gives you reasonable performance, they drive well and I was always surprised by how economical our S-Max was.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
ingenieur said:
Sounds like a horrible way to drive with 65kg of heavy breathing dogs in the car. But I'm pretty sure you don't have the choice of getting rid of the dogs so if it were me in that situation I'd be buying something with biggest possible internal area.

The first thing which came to mind was the Nissan Patrol: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107054...
hence the 7 seater, want to keep the dogs separate from bags/baby stuff etc so they can have the whole boot to them selves, they pretty much get in and go sleep.

Jamescrs

4,498 posts

66 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
The issue is a lot of 7 seaters have very limited boot space with all 7 seats up and in use, I suspect not enough room for two large dogs.

I would suggest a Chrysler Grand Voyager which is a very big 7 seater.

GreatGranny

9,161 posts

227 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
You won't get 2 big dogs in the boot of an XC90 with seats 6 & 7 in use.

I've had 2 and they are superb family vehicles but we had 3 kids and no dogs so it was plenty big enough.

You may need the use of a decent size roof box for when all of you are travelling with luggage.


Nurburgsingh

5,126 posts

239 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
VW Transporter / Crew Cab type thing

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
GreatGranny said:
You won't get 2 big dogs in the boot of an XC90 with seats 6 & 7 in use.

I've had 2 and they are superb family vehicles but we had 3 kids and no dogs so it was plenty big enough.

You may need the use of a decent size roof box for when all of you are travelling with luggage.
Car I'm actually looking at comes with a roof box as well haha. I've looked at the pics with seats up and it still looked a decent size to me.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Pablo16v said:
S-Max or Galaxy is an obvious answer. We loved our 2.0 Ecoboost 240 and would easily have another if we needed extra seats and space. 240bhp gives you reasonable performance, they drive well and I was always surprised by how economical our S-Max was.
Just looked at the Galaxy/Alhambra (I went to the Alhambra launch many years ago) and the boot in them is even smaller than the XC90 when seats are up.

magpie215

4,413 posts

190 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
If your willing to go JDM

Nissan Elgrand
Honda Elysion
Toyota Alphard



clockworks

5,389 posts

146 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
If you want a 7 seater with enough room for 2 large dogs in the boot, I think you'll need a van-based one - VW T4/5, Merc Vito/Viano, or the much cheaper Hyundai i800.

I had a Galaxy for a couple of years, and the boot is pretty small with the third row seats in use.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
magpie215 said:
If your willing to go JDM

Nissan Elgrand
Honda Elysion
Toyota Alphard
Yeh thats the kind of thing I want to avoid!

Wondering if we go XC90, but don't use the 6th and 7th seat when dogs are with us, and just put a divider in there.

6th and 7th seats would come in handy when we have family over as both sides of our family live 2.5 hours away and we end up travelling in multiple cars to places.

Walter Sobchak

5,723 posts

225 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Mercedes GL/GLS?, they have an absolutely huge boot without the last row of seats up.

blank

3,465 posts

189 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Skoda superb estate with roof box.

7 seaters very rarely have a decent boot with all 7 seats in place.

alfabeat

1,129 posts

113 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
You will not fit 1 let alone 2 dogs in an XC90 boot with 6 and 7 seats up.

So unless you go for a van-derived vehicle, I think you will be packing bags around the dogs or in a roof box or trailer.

And the height of an SUV for getting a big dog up in there?

I think I would be looking at a large estate with roof box, or more likely, getting rid of the dogs :-)



david mcc

201 posts

101 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Yep, as others have said you wont get 2 dogs in the boot of an XC90 with all 7 seats in use.

When its in 5 seat set up the boot is absolutely massive though and ideal for 2 dogs and lots of family stuff for days out etc.

ZX10R NIN

27,677 posts

126 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
It sounds like the Mercedes GL is the answer.

GL320cdi I'd say the 420cdi is better suited engine wise

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112150...

420cdi

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109217...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201141...


AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
blank said:
Skoda superb estate with roof box.

7 seaters very rarely have a decent boot with all 7 seats in place.
Might as well just keep the SAAB then if was going to go for that.

Had the 2.0 TSI 280 engine in my Cupra so wouldn't want to go for the same engine.

Mercedes GLS I'll give a look to.

AJB88

Original Poster:

12,512 posts

172 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
david mcc said:
Yep, as others have said you wont get 2 dogs in the boot of an XC90 with all 7 seats in use.

When its in 5 seat set up the boot is absolutely massive though and ideal for 2 dogs and lots of family stuff for days out etc.
Thinking maybe get a divider in the boot, but the Merc GL is an option now, despite there not being many of them for sale.

Sheepshanks

32,882 posts

120 months

Thursday 20th January 2022
quotequote all
Is there an equivalent of a horse trailer for dogs?