Anyone with twins/young kids who can offer some car advice?

You mentioned you looked at the XC60, but did you realise that Volvo sell the XC60 with integrated booster seats? We've got one (3x kids, 3yo, 6yo and 8yo) and we no longer need any car seats, and they can all jump in and belt up like older kids/adults. It really is good.

When we started looking for a new car, we only found the XC60 and the Citroen C5 aircross big enough to fit 3 child seats in the rear without too much difficulty. (The C5 has 3x equal size rear seats).

Did you and your wife decide on a car, or a shortlist of cars, or still searching?
 
bloodiedathame said:
Love that you're changing car to fit in a child seat. Find a different seat? They'll be out of isofix before you know it.
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Love that you’ve entirely missed the point.

It’s two child seats :D

And obviously to fit all of the stuff that comes along with those children, in comfort, for the foreseeable future. The Golf R is not exactly a family car is it. Much as I like it, it’s not going to be a good fit for what’s to come.
 
edwardcasbon1 said:
You mentioned you looked at the XC60, but did you realise that Volvo sell the XC60 with integrated booster seats? We've got one (3x kids, 3yo, 6yo and 8yo) and we no longer need any car seats, and they can all jump in and belt up like older kids/adults. It really is good.

When we started looking for a new car, we only found the XC60 and the Citroen C5 aircross big enough to fit 3 child seats in the rear without too much difficulty. (The C5 has 3x equal size rear seats).

Did you and your wife decide on a car, or a shortlist of cars, or still searching?
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Yep, had a look at the XC60 (and XC90) with the family pack option which I think it really good - including those power child locks and integrated sun blinds.

So, latest update…

I had the 3 series back today as the mrs is home and went and took it to my sister’s, as she has just about the largest child seat known to man (isofix, rotates, and supports kids up to 4 years old). Sure enough it doesn’t fit in the seat behind me but in my wife’s driving position it just about fits - so presumably a sensibly sized car seat would do fine. So we at least have one car that she can drive with the kids in the back, though there’s not a huge amount of space in the front for us - it’s doable in an emergency.

We’ve binned off the idea of fancy car seats that integrate into the buggy because it’s just not cost effective nor necessary (as many of you have rightly pointed out), we’ll get decent, more compact car seats that do the job up to 15 months and then look at other ones after that as needed.

I still need to change my Golf R, much as I love it, it’s just not going to do the job and we need a family car that we can both comfortably drive on long trips that’ll fit everything in. The current shortlist is:

Skoda Superb Estate (L&K trim, 4x4, 270-ish hp petrol) - ticks every box for me, but I know the mrs will prefer an SUV and the possibility of having 7 seats.

Skoda Kodiaq 7 seater (L&K or Sportline Plus trim, 2.0 petrol 190hp) - doesn’t really meet my power requirements but it’s a compromise.

Volvo XC90 (Inscription trim or possibly R-design, T6 315hp) - ticks a lot of boxes, really like the design, looks like it’s plenty of room, but concerned with how thirsty it’ll probably be and the potential costs if something goes bang.

BMW 520i Touring (M-Sport trim, 2020 model so has iDrive 7, HK sound system, 192hp) - mrs badge snob loves a bimmer. Won’t have any desirable options on it other than the sound system, and it doesn’t meet my power requirement so would be a compromise.

Audi A6 Avant (2019 black edition 45 TFSI Quattro 245PS with tech and comfort packs) - would really be pushing our budget and it’d be hard to justify over the Superb, but mrs badge snob wants to have a look at one.

So that’s where we are currently.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
Love that you’ve entirely missed the point.

It’s two child seats :D

And obviously to fit all of the stuff that comes along with those children, in comfort, for the foreseeable future. The Golf R is not exactly a family car is it. Much as I like it, it’s not going to be a good fit for what’s to come.
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I hear ya, but I guarantee your wife will be buying lighter buggies, seats, etc within months. Only because mine did, with only one child, not twins!

**Just seen that's already the plan

We started life with a Fiat Panda which did ok, but soon moved to a Golf Estate when child two arrived.
 
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bloodiedathame said:
I hear ya, but I guarantee your wife will be buying lighter buggies, seats, etc within months. Only because mine did, with only one child, not twins!

**Just seen that's already the plan

We started life with a Fiat Panda which did ok, but soon moved to a Golf Estate when child two arrived.
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I think had we been only having one child I could get away with the Golf (for now at least) but as we're having twins, I have to be able to get them both in a car at the same time along with myself and the wife and all our stuff, so that's more of a challenge :)
 
Child carriers (buggies and car seats) are a bit of a minefield. All the cars that you’ve shortlisted should be good for extended rear facing seats. These have the benefit for being safer and you won’t need to change the seat as often. There’s always rumour of the law changing to rear facing until 4, so may as well be prepared. Good luck!

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense for us to keep the old Korean diesel bus until the kids are older. It’s very nice not to worry about mud/dirt/haribo on the inside and the odd scrape on the outside. The thought of curbing a 21” diamond cut alloy rushing to a baby class gives me the chills!
 
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While I only have 1 sprog, I ended up trading in my MK5 Golf R32 for a B9 Audi S4 Avant. I wanted practicality, bit more comfort/toys and bit of performance too. 3 years on, it's been utterly lovely and I'd have absolutely no qualms about adding a 2nd child in the back given the space and luggage capacity. We did make a conscious effort to buy light and compact buggies (uppababy) and a twist/detatch car seat (Cybex Cloud-Z/Sirona-Z) to help with the luggage space issue.
 
my 2p: I have a 2 1/2 year old, I drive an A45, girlfriend drives a T-Roc.

  • Rear legroom is the key, as it means they can be comfortable longer - they start rear facing and when they get turned they'll start kicking the chair, so further back the better! ;)
  • Boots in most cars are crap; My 45 without the parcel shelf will fit 1 buggy (only need the one) and not much else; The girlfriends T-Roc honestly isn't that much better, so I'd say this wasn't an option with twins.
  • We had the travel system, which was similar to the CybeX cloud Q = I don't think they do the exact model again. Having a base which swivels to put a child in, is such a bonus - plus being able to carry them to and from the house whilst still in the seat is so much better. Seriously understated; I'm not sure on the compatibility of your pram, but have a look into it. Ours just clipped onto our iCandy peach using a specific attachment and we used it for at least a year. Then when the time comes for them to move into a bigger seat when they hit the height/weight requirements the base stays, you just buy another cloudX and it sits in there and still allows you to twist the base. It'll save you back.
  • Talking about saving your back, pick a car which is a decent amount of the ground, the less you have to bend down to strap them in etc the better.
  • You'll need a locking strap when they're a toddler to stop them getting their arms through the straps - they pretty much all do this and try to wiggle out.
  • A mirror which attaches to the headrest on the back seat is a good idea.
  • Don't forget blinds on the rear windows
  • Child locks need to be turned on. Mine tried to open my handle on the 45 when she was 1 1/2 - had already done the child lock so obviously didn't work.
  • You won't just need to fit a buggy - this sounds obvious, but you need to carry so much crap; You'll need at least one bag, maybe two with twins - who knows; so fit all the spare clothes, the nappys, the changing mat, the food, the medicine; then you have toys, blankets, teddys, shoes, coats, medical kit, etc - you could decide to get a pickup truck and still fill it with the stuff you put in there - the bigger boot you have the more stuff you'll fill it with!
  • They're changing the types of seats this year (iirc), obviously you have isofix and isize (check with ones compatiable with the car, don't just go for the seatbelt strap, your base needs a proper connector), but also how the seats are sized - at the moment they're done by weight but I believe they're changing to height later this year. There's a grace period, so it won't effect you, just get the right connector
  • Before you have to get to the hospital, get the car seats in the car, take them out, take the base out, put it all back in, do this 5-10 times and you're good to go! When you have the twins your first thought on the car park shouldn't be "wtf do I do with these seats", it should be "wtf do I do with these babies?!" ;)
Enjoy, and congrats!
 
Hilly said:
Before you have to get to the hospital, get the car seats in the car, take them out, take the base out, put it all back in, do this 5-10 times and you're good to go! When you have the twins your first thought on the car park shouldn't be "wtf do I do with these seats", it should be "wtf do I do with these babies?!" ;)
Enjoy, and congrats!
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Absolute pro tip, I didn't do this and was messing about trying to sort it at midnight in the dark :p
 
When we were expecting twins my only and eldest child was 10 .

I bought a s max diesel for 5 k

We ran it till they were 4 and out the big buggy Range and sold it for 3.5 k

You could get away with a c max

Then I got the mrs a better estate type car which works fine. You won’t need a huge car for long. Second pram is a wide double . Then your done

Congrats btw , you don’t need all the rubbish you think you do . I wouldn’t change my twin girls for anything . They are best pals forever
 
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Personally I'd go with the Skoda Kodiaq out of that list so far, but if your looking for another option the Lexus Rx450L is a 7 seat version but might be a little out of budget.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
BMW 520i Touring (M-Sport trim, 2020 model so has iDrive 7, HK sound system, 192hp) - mrs badge snob loves a bimmer. Won’t have any desirable options on it other than the sound system, and it doesn’t meet my power requirement so would be a compromise.
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have you put extended warranty costs into the equation - after recent discussion in MB threads on warranties being better value for merc versus bm, I'm more averse to a newer BM,
so, I mean, adding matching E class in, too, interior and adaptives, might compensate for less agility.
 
I'd say a Octavia vRS is a decent shout.

I've had my hatch back version coming up two years now.

Decent enough spec as standard, quick enough (not Golf R quick of course) plenty of cabin space and a 600+ ltr boot, the estate adds a little more boot space higher up at the rear but no more length.

Only thing that I'd say would get on your wick is it being FWD and it doesn't put the power down great in the wet.

As a family car with a sporty edge it ticks at lot of boxes.
 
Just a quick update on this. So having test driven a load of cars now, we’ve basically narrowed it down to either a Skoda Superb Estate (looking for either a Sportline Plus with the Canton sound optioned, or an L&K trim) or a Skoda Kodiaq (7 seat version, Sportline, Canton if we can find one, possibly a vRS if budget allows). We did quite like the XC90 but it’s too expensive for an older car with higher mileage, and I actually prefer the infotainment in the Skodas.

The wife is going to test drive both on the weekend coming and we’ll make a final decision on which one she wants to go for (I’d prefer the estate personally but she has to be happy with it) and then it’s just a case of finding/waiting for the right one with the right trim and options to come up.

Thanks for everyone’s advice so far, it’s been a huge help.
 
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