2 car seats and an adult in the back of a holiday hire car....any bright ideas?

[evie2000]

Hi - I'm trying to sort the hire out of a car when we're on holiday. We will have three adults and two children (a 11month old plus a two year old). The hire company have suggested a ford mondeo - does anyone have any experience of whether we will all fit in - together with a phil and teds and luggage...it's that or a renault espace. Nothing worse than finding the third adult can't squeeze in between the car seats!!
Not sure if I'm posting this question in the right place but if you happen to think I should put it somewhere else please say!
Thanks so much.

[cravingcroissants]

Not sure about a Mondeo or Espace but I can fit between 2 car seats in the back of a Picasso and a Scenic (I'm not sure how big they are in comparison?) Do you need the P&T? Because they do take up a hell of a lot of boot space. We're going away in our Scenic - me, DP, and 3 DC's all in car seats- and have decided to buy a small buggy for 6 week old dd (she will be a big bigger when we go) and let 2 yo DD1 walk. If we took our P&T there would be hardly any room for luggage!

[evie2000]

Craving - I think you're probably right and we might just take the maclaren and buggy board and hope he's up to it. That will certainly help boot space! Now just have to lose a few pounds to get my bottom between the seats!

[ruddynorah]

c-max. we have one. an s max would be even better if you have mucho dinero. but yes a c-max would be fine. i often sit in the back with dd and ds.

[turkeyboots]

We have a mondeo. I could just about get in between the baby car seat and my DDs, but its not comfy! But we had a small baby car seat. With two proper car seats in, there is not a hope of getting an adult in between. Go for something else!

[evie2000]

thanks turkey boots, quite a lot of driving so that doesn't sound too good.
Ruddynorah what's a c-max of s-max?

[ruddynorah]

c max is 5 seater, s max is 5 seater plus 2 more boots seats and a fair bit bigger all over. then there's the galaxy which is a true 7 seater. i did the ford test drive on here at christmas of the s max. result was we bought a c max!

[evie2000]

thanks ruddy, I'm going to see if we can hire a c max rather than the mondeo as sounds like that would be better.
thanks all - much appreciate it.

[BertieBotts]

Is the baby still in a rearfacing bucket seat? It's the wide bases and lack of shoulder space that makes it uncomfortable to be in the back between 2 toddler seats. So if you have one RF and one FF seat, it's not as bad.

You could always put the 2yo in the front seat, if you push it back as far as it will go, if it's really uncomfortable. Might mean the baby needs to go behind the driver's seat but that's not too bad as you'll have two adults in the back so won't have to get the baby out on the road side of the car when you park.

[plantsitter]

You can squish an adult in between 2 car seats in the back of my Fiesta, so I should think a Mondeo would be fine; maybe even comfy!

[beccas]

totally depends on what car seats you have. We have recaro. FORGET IT!
But our solution is to put the biggest car seat in the front seat and two adults in the back.
Are you hiring the car seats as well? They tend to be a pile of chav compared to what we Brits consider good quality. And likely to be a lot smaller anyway. Hire seats might not go in front seat tho.
Have a lovely holiday