The 10 best cars for extra-large families
While a seven-seater may be the last thing you want, needs and wants are two very different things. If you need to carry seven people or more, you’re out of luck if you want to do it in an Aston Martin, Ferrari or Porsche — even if all three now offer SUVs to keep the company accountants smiling.
But, driving a seven-seater doesn’t mean surrendering to the world of automotive anonymity. Here you’ll find ten machines that prove practicality doesn’t have to be boring, and that family transport can, occasionally, still be something to look forward to.
BMW X7
The uber-posh SUV market used to belong solely to the Range Rover and Mercedes G-Wagen, but now we’re tripping over options from the Ferrari Purosangue to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Which leaves the BMW X7 — Munich’s biggest SUV — searching for its place in the pecking order.
Happily, it’s carved itself a niche as the seven-seat SUV that edges towards sporty on-road handling. Unlike the Porsche Cayenne, you can actually get it with seven seats; inside, it’s not Rolls-Royce plush but it’s still deeply luxurious. The design may feel familiar — it’s the same as you’ll find in every other BMW — but everything works beautifully. Long journeys are effortless and the refinement borders on limousine-like. Go for one of BMW’s lusty six-cylinder diesels for continent-crushing economy, or if you want the full performance-SUV experience, the V8-powered M60i will fling you and six passengers from 0-60 mph in just over four seconds. It’s a car that makes the school run fun.
Hyundai Santa Fe
For years Hyundai has been living off the “it feels like an Audi for half the price” line, and for years it wasn’t really true. Until now. Because while Hyundai has moved upmarket, Audi seems to be heading the other way. Where an Audi once meant clean design, razor-sharp lighting and interiors worth drooling over, the latest cars are more hit-and-miss and you can thank the financial black hole caused by the VW Group emissions scandal for that.
Enter the Santa Fe. It’s about £3,000 cheaper than the Q5 yet noticeably bigger and seats seven. Its blocky, almost brutalist styling is more handsome than the Audi’s oddly masked face, and inside, Hyundai’s materials now feel more premium than Ingolstadt’s. Even the Q5’s new lattice taillights can’t out-shine the Santa Fe’s Tetris-cool LEDs. The third row, meanwhile, isn’t just a token gesture and boot space remains generous. The hybrid and plug-in options make it cheap to run for its size, and refinement is quietly impressive. On a long motorway cruise, it feels solid and planted. And the best bit? It costs thousands less than similarly specified Audi.
VW ID.Buzz LWB GTX
The sensible will tell you your seven-seat SUV doesn’t need hot-hatch performance. They’ve clearly never felt the grin when your VW van leaves a GTI in its wake. With all-wheel drive and instant electric shove, the GTX has a fair chance of doing just that.Corners? Forget about it — nobody buys an ID.Buzz to chase apexes. What you do get is space. Thanks to its stubby nose, almost all of the 4,962 mm body is devoted to passengers, so even the third row suits tall adults.
The driving position gives you that old-school microbus feel but with all the modern calm of an EV. The downside: with every seat in use, the boot is actually smaller than a GTI’s. But when you fold the seats flat, it becomes a lounge on wheels, perfect for family camping trips. A range of around 200 miles won’t worry diesels (or petrol for that matter) but the calming electric drivetrain will be a revelation to owners of campers of old.
Land Rover Defender 130
There’s no denying the Defender 130 looks like a 110 that’s had its rear end… enhanced. Medically. The proportions aren’t elegant — even by boxy Defender standards — but the utility is undeniable. With a front bench and third row it’ll seat eight, and even with everyone on board, the boot isn’t as tiny as the ID.Buzz’s.
Coolness is the 130’s ace. It’s far easier to make an eight-seat SUV into an off-roader than to make a seven-seater into a sportscar, and the Defender 130 proves it. Few owners will ever test its approach, breakover or departure angles, or wade through rivers like a submarine, but knowing it can is half the appeal. Add the usual Land Rover blend of leather, luxury and tech, and the 130 is a rare beast — a car that makes practicality look heroic.
Volvo EX90
In your early driving life, car choices can be gloriously selfish — a two-seat yellow sportscar with no boot, no dog and no thought of children. Then life happens and it’s around about this time you start to think about owning a Volvo.
Why? Because you know they come as standard with a multitude of safety features that will keep your family safe, stopping you from ever crashing and, if they don’t, the Volvo’s tank-like boron steel safety cell will shrug off shunts like you’ve had a head-on collision with a gnat. The EX90 is just the latest iteration of this philosophy with powerful electric drive, an even tougher safety cell and even cleverer LiDAR autonomous driving which should avoid accidents before you even see them. Seven passengers couldn’t possibly be safer.
Mercedes V-Class
It's hard to see past a van-based MPV – both literally and figuratively – if you need as much interior space as is physically possible, but not even the V-Class’ Mercedes badge can mask the strong scent of a commercial vehicle. The payoff comes from within, though. The V-Class has room for up to eight people, and unlike most conventional MPVs you get plenty of space left over for luggage, particularly if you go for the Extra Long model.
In fairness to Mercedes, it makes the V-Class feel posher than your average van. On the outside, you get a glitzy grille and alloy wheels; inside, you'll find pretty infotainment screens and large slabs of wood trim. Sadly, noisy engines and jiggly suspension blow away any misconceptions of true luxury.
Dacia Jogger
The Dacia Jogger proves that seven-seaters don't need to be expensive. Prices start from just £18,000, or about £4,000 less than you'll pay for an entry-level Volkswagen Polo.
The Jogger is as cheerful as it is cheap with pseudo off-roader looks thanks to its plastic wheel arch extensions, roof rails and trendy colour options like Dusty Khaki and Urban Grey. All Joggers come with bare essentials like a stereo and air conditioning, and you can choose two relatively thrifty petrol engines. Inside, hard plastics are everywhere, and the rearmost seats don't fold neatly into the floor as you might expect. Otherwise, this is a cracking choice if you need a cheap people carrier.
Kia EV9
The EV9 is Kia's statement car, showing that the South Korean manufacturer, once known for building economy boxes, can mix it with the big boys producing flagship electric SUVs. Things get off to a strong start with the EV9's handsomely chunky styling, which make it look like an old-school offroader, not a state-of-the-art EV. The inside is almost as convincing, with large infotainment screens and space for seven with boot room to spare. However, some cabin plastics feel unbecoming of a £75,000 SUV.
Electric motors that instantly serve up all their power mean the EV9 feels punchy even when fully loaded, and 800V charging speeds mean a 10-80% charge takes less than 25 minutes. The downside of the EV9's heavy, 99.8kWh battery is it feels clumsy in corners and can suffer from a choppy ride.
Lexus LM
If Mercedes wants to know how to build an appropriately luxurious van-based people carrier, then it need only hop on the plane to Japan and set up a meeting with archrivals Lexus. Lexus' LM brings 'luxury' of an entirely different level to the people carrier class, with thickly padded multi-adjustable seats with a massage function, a fridge and – icing on the cake – a 48-inch TV that sits on the bulkhead between you and your, er, driver. Cabin quality is superb – even by luxury car standards – and you can choose ultra-plush four or seven-seater configurations.
Okay, so the Lexus isn't the driver's tool craved in these parts. Still, its petrol-electric powertrain runs in eerie silence at town speeds, and Lexus has another trick up its sleeve: brakes specifically programmed to stop the car as smoothly as possible. Noice. The Lexus' engine can feel a little strained out of town, and the ride quality also suffers at higher speeds.
Range Rover
Seen as unbecoming of the full-sized Range Rover, Land Rover used to leave seven-seater duties to the rabble at the lower end of its line-up in the form of the Discovery Sport, Discovery, Defender and Range Rover Sport, but that's changed for this latest model. The new Rangey is available with a third row of seats that can accommodate tall adults (once the middle row has glided, electrically, out of the way), and stadium seating means everyone gets a good view out the front of the car.
Everything else is as you'd expect, which is to say, it's very luxurious. A large central touchscreen controls all the car's functions, leaving the way clear for Land Rover to plaster the cabin with expensive leather and wood. Power comes from your choice of six-cylinder diesels, PHEVs or petrol V8s, all of which have plenty of power. And, this being a Range Rover, it can get almost anywhere you car to point it.
road
news
list
volvo
ex90
land rover
Defender 130
Volkswagen
ID. Buzz
Hyundai
Santa Fe
bmw
x7
mercedes
V-Class
dacia
Jogger
kia
EV9
Lexus
LM
Range Rover
