Quote:
Originally Posted by WishIhadatruck
Yes some people NEED the 3rd row.
We have 3 kids and we consume the entire first 5 seats in the car with just our family. Sometimes we really need (or want) to take one of our kids friends with us or perhaps their cousins or Grandma. I'd love a smaller more fuel efficient way to do this.
People keep calling this a CUV but to me it looks like a minivan without the sliding doors and flender flares. It has a lower flat loading floor and minimal ground clearance like a minivan would have (although that is hard to tell from the pictures). If it is a version of the Zafira then I'd love to have one, those vehicles are great.
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You're in the same predicament I'm in. Three kids (twins, 7, and a 15mo). We refuse to drive a minivan on principle and neither my wife nor I care for SUV/Crossovers, but we love wagons.
Currently the only thing in the Orlando's class are the cramped Mazda5 and the cheapo Kia Rondo. My wife's sister in Australia has a Holden Zafira and we fell in love with it the first time we borrowed it. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for something like the Zafira to arrive. We've test-driven a dozen crossovers and bottom line was we didn't like any of them. Neither my wife nor I like high seating or the jacked-up feel of a crossover. I'm waaaay too spoiled to my BMW. We recently started to seriously consider the Mercedes R-class LWB (the SWB only seats 5) but it's a pain to park — an important consideration in this parking-starved city. And while we can afford one, we're both tightwards who aren't wild about blowing 50 grand on a family car that'll get nicked by bikes and the interior sprayed with baby snot, but we want something nicer than a Kia.
With the Orlando, we could put the twins out back (though that makes me a tad uneasy on the safety issue), our littlest one and his endless paraphernalia in the middle row, and us up front, with room for an additional passenger. We've been scrunching into a BMW 3 and Honda Accord for years and desperately need elbow room. We could comfortably fit into a Mazda5, but it'd become a tighter squeeze as the kids got bigger and would be completely useless if we have another child.
I only wish this wasn't two years away.