BORING! 3 Isofix rear seats??

[Bowler]

Need some advice

My son has discovered that his wife is expecting TWINS as their "second child" to their (will be by then) 2-year old...

All plans change, including a MkIV Mondeo suddenly being too small...

Can anyone recommend a car that has 3 rear ISOfix seats? Currently my DiL is "directing" my son, in a way that only a wife can do, towards what can only be described as a fking big van with electric windows (Hyundai i800)

Any realistic alternatives? Preferably with sliding doors

Sorry, not very PH, but needs must Etc...

[james_tigerwoods]

[oldcynic]

Old style Alhambra / Galaxy / Sharan. Isofix on all 5 rear seats, although realistically you'll ditch the rearmost two and run it as a 5 seater - giving very generous boot space and good access to all 3 child seats.

[Marlin45]

I am sure Isofix could be bolted in somewhere. DiL may have some parking issues though

Edited by Marlin45 on Friday 9th March 07:48

[oldcynic]

Marlin45 said:

I am sure Isofix could be bolted in somewhere. DiL may have some parking issues though

Edited by Marlin45 on Friday 9th March 07:48

Finally - an MPV with enough space for the pushchair and the changing bag!

[john2443]

I second James suggestion except that (based on ours) Multiplii are made of tin foil and sticky tape - does the Honda FRV (also 2 rows of 3) have ISO fix, I would have thought so, and probably better build quality and reliability than a Mult; our seems to eat gearboxes

[Petrolhead_Rich]

BMW 335d
+
MX5

[Iang84]

Look at toyota previas they have stopped selling them here as not enough sales but they still make and sell them in japan so plenty of spares and they tend to have lots of toys the newer ones have sliding doors both sides bags of room altough if you after economy as well as the room they aren't great approx 20-25mpg (2.4petrol)

[TheTurbonator]

Citroen C4 Picasso or Grand Picasso. We love ours and it has 3 separate seats in the back all with Isofix. The front passenger seat also has Isofix points and of course you can turn the airbag off.

Don't believe everything you read about French reliability ours has done 16,000 miles and still feels like a brand new car and hasn't missed a beat.

Build quality wise Citroen seem to have ensured all the bits that get used the most and abused the most are up to scratch.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[CarlT]

Renault Scénic or Grand Scénic...

[miniman]

I'd be amazed if, regardless of whether or not there are 3 sets of Isofix anchors, it is possible to physically fit 3 Isofix seats / bases side by side.

[kambites]

I'd go for a Multipla. They really are very well designed cars and they're even quite fun to throw around for an MPV (although probably not while there are three kids in the back).

[TheTurbonator]

miniman said:

I'd be amazed if, regardless of whether or not there are 3 sets of Isofix anchors, it is possible to physically fit 3 Isofix seats / bases side by side.

I've never tried it but the base and car seat we have on one of the seats now stays within the confines of the seat. That's with the base square in the middle too (bit of an OCD of mine). You can edge them closer to the edge of the points and to the edges of the seats.

Edited by TheTurbonator on Friday 9th March 09:01

[oldcynic]

miniman said:

I'd be amazed if, regardless of whether or not there are 3 sets of Isofix anchors, it is possible to physically fit 3 Isofix seats / bases side by side.

We can comfortably fit 2 isofix seats in adjacent positions, and still fold the third seat for access to row 3. There is even a comfortable space between the adjacent seats to reduce bickering and poking between children. 3 in a row would not be a problem.

[GreatGranny]

If his wife is contemplating the i800 then the budget will be £10k +.

For that I would got for the new shape Galaxy. Bigger than the S Max with 7 full sized seats.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

[lewes]

Some friends of ours had the same problem and in the end they went for a C-Max

[miniman]

oldcynic said:

miniman said:

I'd be amazed if, regardless of whether or not there are 3 sets of Isofix anchors, it is possible to physically fit 3 Isofix seats / bases side by side.

We can comfortably fit 2 isofix seats in adjacent positions, and still fold the third seat for access to row 3. There is even a comfortable space between the adjacent seats to reduce bickering and poking between children. 3 in a row would not be a problem.

This is terrible news. I've told my wife we have to have a Discovery!

[Deerfoot]

john2443 said:

I second James suggestion except that (based on ours) Multiplii are made of tin foil and sticky tape - does the Honda FRV (also 2 rows of 3) have ISO fix, I would have thought so, and probably better build quality and reliability than a Mult; our seems to eat gearboxes

The FR-V does indeed have three isofix seats. Unfortunately, only the two rear outer seats and the front centre seat have the brackets, not the centre rear seat.

Apart from that they are ideal I`d have thought. I ran ours without fault for 5 years and 55,000 miles.

[hornetrider]

Is Isofix really 'all that'? I had a demo of the Easybase 2 (no-iso) and Familyfix (iso) yesterday. When the guy strapped the Easybase in using the seatbelt it was absolutely rock solid - it wasn't going anywhere. Is there a definite safety advantage?

I had them both demo'd because the Mrs car has Isofix and my E38 doesn't...

[MogulBoy]

Three full sized child seats can be a real issue but a friend has fitted a replacement bench seat to the back of his A4 Avant that is specifically designed to accept three. Can't recall the name of it though but not a bad idea but as it is a spanner job to fit it, you are then tied to running in that configuration which would be a pain if you need to flat bed the back from time to time.

P.S. I was shocked that my Disco4 only has two rear ISOFIX points... You would have thought that they could have squeezed in a third even if it could be impractical to use them all at once.

The bubbelbum is quite a compact booster seat solution when one or more is big enough...

http://www.bubblebum.co.uk/