fisher lass

Im a full time mum too with 2 girls (7 and 12) plus our Lab.

I/We are just starting to look before we arrive in Oz -Rockingham area.
We have always had big cars and if we had been staying in UK we would of had a jeep type car now.

I drive a 4x4 now and it is great in the snow but haven't used it off road. So maybe that is not quite so important but I certainly dont like the idea of driving a minibus and neither does my husband. He likes big chunky cars.
I just like something I can feel safe in and would protect us in a bump.

Great advice and suggestions

lapin_windstar

SUVs are OK so long as you plan to hit something dead on, rather than swerve to avoid something... (google "SUV rollovers")

Amazulu

The problem with 7 seater (3rd row of seats) SUVs and cars is that in a rear, heavy shunt, the people in the back row - usually kids - are f**ked. I saw an interesting segment on 5th Gear about this.

I'd steer well clear of anything with 3rd row, fold away seats and go for a proper people carrier.

BadgeIsBack

Problem is, I find sone of the people carriers remind me of tin cans with small wheels.

There seems to be a bit of a new niche this last few years with medium sized (not necessarily 4x4) cars that had 5 seats but now have 7. Mazda? - I forget. We are waiting for secondhand ones to come on the market and gauge how good they are.

We've held off for years as we don't want a Prado, Land Cruiser or Patrol, neither a Carnival. We don't want a small-medium 4x4 as we don't want to run out of space.

The Kluger actually ticks the boxes. So does the Pathfinder.

kar-kier

If you have a look on the UK Nissan site, it shows you a comparisson between the Prado and the Pathfinder (they call it Landcruiser, but it is our Prado). The Pathfinder comes out top - more agile, better pulling power, better interior layout regarding space and seat arrangement options!!

If you have a look at the Australian Nissan site, there is a review about it's off road capabilities!

Amazulu

Whichever one you go for, do your research into how it would fare in a rear shunt - there are usually kids in these rear seats.

Amazulu

Found it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fUsWCsxnuc

Do your research - I wouldn't put kids in these seats.

Family of 3

If we can afford it, I'm tempted by the Peugeot 308 when we come over. VERY fuel efficient. Optional third row of seats which are fine for kids, but I climbed in the back myself and they'd be OK for short journeys for adults.

Family of 3

Hmmmn, but now that I've seen the bit about rear shunts I'm thinking twice.......

fisher lass

Just watched the video....................what can I say!!

Scary to see what can happen. But surely there are stronger more substantial cars with more space between rear seats and back of the car.

Or am I just being naive.

Broad Shoulders

I needed a 7-8 seater and I researched it for a good year before buying. I knew I didn't want a 4x4 so that ruled out most of the 7 seaters your average Aussie drives. So I was essentially left with 4 cars. Toyota Tarago, Kia Carnival, Chrysler Voyager or Honda Odysey. I did a few searches on the Kia on forums and no one seemed to have a good word to say about them except for the fact that they were very cheap to buy. There are some real horror stories online for that vehicle (some having their engines changed 3 times under warranty!)
I found that when you allowed for the back row of seats in the Odyssey that there was hardly any boot space. I must say though, looks wise and features wise it is a great car, plus it's a Honda so very reliable!.
So that left me with the Chrysler and Toyota. Both of these were 8 seaters and both were the more expensive of the four. I was very tempted by the Chrysler as there were some pretty damn good discounts going on at the time but in the end the thing that swung me was that it guzzled 15L/100km!!!!!! Then added to that it is American so parts would be expensive if anything ever went wrong with it.
So that left me with the Toyota Tarago, which was by far the most expensive of the four but we have had it for 3 years now and it hasn't missed a beat, as reliable as their reputations suggest. LOADS of space in the boot even after you have the third row of seats down and does 10L/100kms. Plus it is a Toyota so parts are very cheap if there is anything that goes wrong with it. If you want more power you can now get it with the 3.5l engine, but I have rarely needed anymore than the 2.5l that comes standard. Plus it has a very handy slide door, which is priceless if you have little ones in those tight Aussie car parks.
We came back from a 2 weeks 4,500km round trip to Cairns via the very dusty outback and the car never missed a beat!
Highly recommended.

There is a new contender in this space since I bought my Tarago and that is the Hyundai iMax. I don't know much about it, but being Hyundai you will get a 5 year warranty, which is pretty damn good!

Broad Shoulders

yep, the Carnival, Tarago, Voyager and iMax all have plenty of boot space

Buzzy--Bee

I did the full research on this some years ago - here's the results of all 7-seaters available in Australia at the time, the prices will be a bit out of date but you will get the general idea -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376751

Buzzy

pproehann

I have a Pathfinder and much prefer it to the patrols that I've driven as they are more like clunky trucks where the Pathfinder still has car type comfort but ability.

It only lags behind the Patrol by a fraction in what it can do off road and the two back seats are reasonable for small adults or children but once they get to 6 ft it's a bit of a squeeze.

Broad Shoulders

This is going to be controversial but I do not believe that SUVs or 4x4 should be allowed to carry passengers on our roads. They are a massive safety liabilities and I know many people in this country buy them so "their family can be safer" but they are just adding another death trap to the roads for other users of other vehicle types. If you are driving a normal passenger car and you are hit by a 4x4 SUV you are 12 times more likely to be killed than if you are hit by another passenger car.

I strongly believe that if 4x4's were banned for passenger carrying then you would hardly have any on the roads as the majority of their drivers over here do not use them for offroad purposes and therefore there would be a good chance of us having some safer roads

http://www.nosuv.org/safetyproblems.html