Erin Baker: Is 2018 the year of the seven‑seater?

I’m particularly sensitive to this market because we’re a blended family with four boys so have had seven-seaters for the past few years. I’ve been through most of them: Kia Carens, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Ford S-Max, Volvo XC90, Hyundai Santa Fe, the Bentley Bentayga V8 Diesel (for a week), Mercedes GLS, Audi SQ7 and currently the new Land Rover Discovery.

And you know how it is: when you have a particular model or colour, suddenly every car you spot on the road is either that colour or that model. We’ve currently got a roof box, and it seems to me that the whole population is driving round with roof boxes on their cars. But the rise of the seven-seater is an actual Thing, according to my market research, which consists of about 40 families at my sons’ school and among my friends and family.

Take my oldest mate, Sarah. She has two very young children, but they’ve just swapped their Skoda Octavia vRS estate for an Audi Q7 with seven seats. Why? For the same reason, everyone else is following suit: their lifestyle means they carry kids around all day long. The rise of the playdate is to blame. We just used to call it “going round for tea”, but for the current generation of Under 10s it’s officially, “a playdate”. I know, it’s dreadful – blame America. 

Playdates, coupled with the inability of the middle classes just to let their children be bored at home, and instead organise constant clubs and activities all week long after school, means that parents, au pairs and nannies are forever shuttling van-loads of kids around. Even the single-child family now requires a seven-seater to share the responsibility of lifts to rugby or Beavers or chess club. It also seems to be a response to families visiting each other in different parts of the country. A friend regularly hosts her sister and her nephew and niece from Leeds and wants to be able to take them all out for lunch or to a National trust place or whatever floats their boat. 

Nowadays, the industry’s reliance on SUV sales means that seven-seaters come in far more luxurious and spacious specifications. A decade ago, we were largely reduced to MPVs such as the Citroen Grand Picasso, Renault Espace, Ford Galaxy or Seat Alhambra. Nothing wrong with any of these; everyone got very inventive with cubby holes and folding trays, for a start. But now, you no longer have to forgo luxury in return for shepherding a large flock (as long as you’ve got the extortionate budget needed). The Volvo XC90 and Land Rover Discovery are magnificent cars. 

The Bentley Bentayga, in seven-seat guise, knocks them all into a cocked hat of course, but it costs more than a small country. On the other hand, it’s got the biggest boot of the lot with the third row up and I got 32mpg out of mine, so hey! You can combine luxury and practicality after all! Happy days.