Here's a challenge for you all! We want to replace our trusty Honda CRV (11 years old and counting!) and splash out on a new car.

And before you all start, yes, I know a new car is a bad investment, it loses most of its value as soon as you drive it out of the dealer's, better to buy second-hand, yaddayaddaya... Our minds are made up though, so bad investment here we come!

We've been hankering after a Subaru for years. Size-wise, the Outback suits us. So, the challenge is, what other car on the market is as good or better than the Outback 2.5i for a similar price (around $40,000).

We need a car that has enough space in the rear for 2 child seats and an adult, loads of boot space and it has to be a hatchback.

So can anything top the Outback?

As it's a car, I'd say the new Holden Commodore SV6 wagon. Surprisingly good.

The new Outback is butt ugly IMO. Most of the other suv's at that price are to narrow for 2 kids seats and someone in between. I should know, got one and tried it and failed!

We had a budget of $30,000 (secondhand) for that kind of car and we bought an Outback (2.5i) with 35,000km on the clock.

Love it, rock solid

BUT .... not sure about 2 childseats and an adult, the previous owner was selling for exactly this reason ... go and take a look.

We are looking at the Mitsubishi Challenger at the mo but I'm not sure about two car seats & an adult in the back of that either! It does have great boot space though.

Have you thought about a 7 seater?

Yeah, the plan is to go and test drive it and plonk the seats in the back with me in the middle. Sales guy assures me (as he would ) it all fits, even with my rather large behind.
Not taking his word for it though.
Thanks Sally. I was wondering about Mitsubishi and which one of theirs is the equivalent of the Outback. They seem to have a few too many models to choose from and I find their website not very user-friendly I'll check out the Challenger and do the child seat test with it too
I'm not too keen on 7-seaters for safety reasons. I remember a thread on this very subject on here and it seems that if you are rear-ended and you happen to be sitting in the back, you're toast Also, I just always find that the boot space is not that great if you can't remove the back seats completely, like you used to be able to in a Renault Espace in the olden days...

There are some 7-seaters with rear seats that fold flat into the floor space (eg Nissan Pathfinder) so don't eliminate them without a bit of research - I am sure there are other car manufacturers with this feature.

Don't have a clue about boot size etc but I think the Nissan Murano is lovely looking

The issue I have with the folding seats is that they often eat up some of the boot space, even if they fold flat. A friend of mine bought a Volvo SUV something or other, and the seats fold flat but that means that the floor of the boot is higher than the rest of the car, and the boot is quite small, even when the seats are folded down. You are right though, I'd better research a bit more before we choose.

Have a look at the Toyota Kluger. The rear bench seat folds down completely flat, huge amount of boot space. Also a wider car in general, so should fit 2 child seats and an adult in the middle.

yes, 5 seat Kluger is available for 40k driveaway sometimes, sure you could get it for that (or less!) with a bit of haggling. Better quality product that an outback too

I've had a Mits Challenger and currently have Pathfinder.

Love the Pathy to bits - we're looking to change at the moment too and we think we'll end up getting another one.

The 6th/7th seat fold flat into the floor space, it's got a great lift up hatch boot and excellent space, much better than friends who have Landcruisers etc It's big enough for adult in between two car seats too - my brothers in the middle all the time!

We can't comment on rear end safety but I will say it's much better than the Challenger and actually I had two Discovery's in the UK and it's better than that too - AND servicing is cheap!

We did a lot of touring with five adults in our Outback , would say a better fit
would be the adult on the side , not the middle.
As for the Outback , its resale value is very high , Toyota has started buying
Subaru engines because they are superior to their own ones. No lack of quality control in manufacturing as per Toyota.

I started a thread on this a while back. Basically, I wouldn't touch any vehicle that had seats at the very back ie most 7-seaters. In a rear end collision there is no crumple zone to protect the passengers in the rear row of seats. These passengers are usually children. Dead/maimed kids ain't cool.

Yeah, Toyota haven't really been endearing themselves to the public recently. I guess it's only the engines they buy from Subaru, not the brakes I have to say that the resale value of the Subaru is one of the main reasons we're considering it.
I had thought of the seat configuration you mention and I figured the adult on the side may be a better fit. We'll just have to drag our child seats around with us for all the test drives and play around with them!

Definitely going to check out the different offerings from Mitsubishi!

It was indeed your thread that I read and I did a bit of research after that on 7-seaters. Definitely will keep the safety issue in mind.

As mentioned above, not sure about Toyota at the mo! We still might include them in the round of test drives...

Thanks all for your input. It's given me plenty to think about.

I picked up a 2010 Nissan XTrail demo with 5000 k's on it, the diesel version, think they retail at just over 40k but got it for 34k plus some extras. Really happy i went diesel as i am saving about 40 bucks a week in fuel. This was from a Nissan dealership so got 3 years warranty plus 3 extra years if you service through them plus 3 years roadside assist. Great space in the back, drives ok for an SUV plus its 4 wheel drive which you can just switch on and of.