Rear legroom requirement what car?

[Don Roque]

My wife is currently thinking about a new car with the main requirement being the excessive amount of rear legroom needed by two large child seats.

She currently has a 9th generation Honda Civic i-DTEC, which is an all-around excellent car and has been perfect for her needs over the past few years. However, we now have two kids, the eldest being four. A time will come, not so long from now, where the eldest will be in a front facing seat and eventually, the youngest will be in the same position.

At present, both kids are rear-facing in Axkid Minikid seats and once they get to a certain height/weight, the seat needs to be turned forward facing. At it stands, the Civic is already feeling small with both of them in there and I have the front seats back as far as they will go. The time is coming when the car will need to be changed to forward facing and the Civic just won't accommodate that.

My wife has had a look at the Citroen Grand Picasso and the Toyota Verso because they have three seats in the back. We don't really need three seats in the back, we just need a great distance between front and back seats. I had thought that a Skoda Superb may have been the best bet and I would conclude that anything Focus/Astra sized is not really worth looking at.

Petrol or diesel does not matter so much but petrol would be preferred.

[drgoatboy]

When we were looking Skoda superb (was gen 2 mind you) was the biggest by far. Simply huge in the back. Bigger than e class and 5 series.
Currently have an Octavia and it's adequate and better than a lot of similarly sized family cars.

[Fat Wolfie]

Skoda Superb has to be towards the top of the list.

Massive amount of legroom in the rear, and in the Estate with the seats folded I can lay flat out in the load bay (I’m 5 foot 9), and still have maybe 4 or 5 inches between my head and the back of the drivers seat (which is in my driving position).

I could put a YouTube link on to my review but I’d probably get slapped..the YouTube channel is called wolfieswheels if you want to take a look.

[ZX10R NIN]

Get the Mondeo in estate or hatchback form it's the best pick out of the FWD class, obviously this is dependent on your budget other alternatives are the Mazda6/Skoda Superb.

What's your budget OP?

[StevieT735]

I’d have thought the rear facing child seats would require more space than a forward facing one....
OP, have you actually tried a forward facing seat in the car to check?

I’ve a pair of girls currently in rear facing seats and I’ve noticed that due to being rear facing, and therefore not following the recline of the cars seats, they take up loads of space. More than I’d assume a forward facing one would.
Well worth checking.

[jwilco]

The Passat is also pretty cavernous, but unless you're bothered by the badge, the Superb is probably the more sensible choice. More like a limousine - significantly better than a Mondeo or Insignia.

[mike9009]

Petrol and plenty of rear legroom.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202008112...

Unless you had a budget or any other requirements?

[Jag_NE]

To miniminse seat kicking you need a full sized car in my experience, something like a Mondeo or 5 series.

[drgoatboy]

StevieT735 said:

I’d have thought the rear facing child seats would require more space than a forward facing one....
OP, have you actually tried a forward facing seat in the car to check?

I’ve a pair of girls currently in rear facing seats and I’ve noticed that due to being rear facing, and therefore not following the recline of the cars seats, they take up loads of space. More than I’d assume a forward facing one would.
Well worth checking.

Good point. Forward facing take up tonnes less room! (The Answer is still superb either way)

[MalcXFR]

Insignia grand sport absolutely massive in the back.

[ChrisH72]

Depends if you are wanting to change the civic anyway?

Otherwise, why not just change the car seat? We have a 4yr old boy who has just moved from a large isize seat with isofix base into a normal high back booster seat. The regular car seats for older kids are much cheaper, our Gracco seat was £50 from Halfords and even has isofix and a cup holder. He loves it. And it goes in the back of my fiesta with no problems.

[StevieT735]

Also, unless I’m mistaken, you can’t use Axkid Minikid seats forward facing, they’re among the best and longest lasting ERF (extended rear facing) seats around though.
So you might well be waiting a while until they’re outgrown.

[Pothole]

Seat Ateca has huge legroom. Presumably all the other VAG clones do, too.

[tight fart]

Another vote for the Skoda Superb.

[Don Roque]

StevieT735 said:

I’d have thought the rear facing child seats would require more space than a forward facing one....
OP, have you actually tried a forward facing seat in the car to check?

I’ve a pair of girls currently in rear facing seats and I’ve noticed that due to being rear facing, and therefore not following the recline of the cars seats, they take up loads of space. More than I’d assume a forward facing one would.
Well worth checking.

Bang on the money. Turns out I had misinterpreted what my wife had said, they will eventually need new forward facing seats but these will ultimately take up less room than in the rear-facing setting. So the Civic will stay, which is good news. Cheers all.

[Voldemort]

[robemcdonald]

Don’t discount the octavia. It has a lot of room in the back.. not as much as a superb, but probably more than you need.

[bony_13]

The 3 Series GT has an enormous amount of rear legroom and a massive boot. I ran one for a couple of years and think its a pretty underrated car (although not the best looking thing).

[JQ]

Don Roque said:

My wife has had a look at the Citroen Grand Picasso

Did she move the rear seats back? They move independently and when pushed back fully there is a huge amount of legroom for the rear passengers. More than you could possibly need.

My wife has one and it is by far the most practical car we could find for carting kids around and we looked at loads. There's loads of cubby holes for stuff, the boot is enormous, there's a separate rear view mirror just to look at the rear seat passengers, reversing camera, all the tech you could need and a flat load bay with all the seats down making it like a van if you need to shift furniture. My wife absolutely loves hers.

The only issue I had was they don't have the option of leather seats.

[Majorslow]

It's great OP can keep his current car, saves money towards two new seats

But no one mentioned a Volvo V70 ....we have had one for 21 years....my kids have grown up in it, all round great car from 0 to what ever age. We even had the rear seats in the boot which are good for when they get to about 10 years old