MAGNIFICENT SEVENS
You know how it is. You’re the classic young family of two adults and two children when, all of a sudden, a delightful third comes along. Suddenly, that spacious five-seater SuV is looking cramped. Such challenges clearly prompted the duke and duchess of Cambridge to switch their luxurious five-seater range rover Se Vogue for a more flexible seven- seater land rover discovery, which, as well as having extra space for Prince george, Princess Charlotte, and newly arrived Prince louis, can accommodate a royal protection officer and still have space for one more passenger.
The latest disco, costing from £45,355 to £65,735 with a range of petrol and diesel engines, has three rows of seats in 2-3-2 formation, with the back five folding flat for extra load-lugging space.
But you don’t have to be royal or super wealthy to enjoy the benefits of seven seats. There is a growing number of seven seaters on the market to suit every taste and budget.
I’ve just taken delivery of Peugeot’s surprisingly nimble sevenseater 5008 SuV in gT line trim to see what it’s like in everyday life.
Its two ‘extra’ seats pop out from the rear boot space, while up front there’s high seating, a great dashboard with electronic screen and instrument panel.
You can be on the road from £ 28,720, though mine was loaded with £4,725 of added extras. It’s powered by a frugal, yet gutsy, 1.2 three- cylinder turbocharged 132 bhp petrol engine, which is linked to a slick six-speed manual gearbox.
Fuel economy is a claimed 55.4 mpg (62.8 mpg cruising and 47.1 mpg around town).
acceleration, particularly in sport mode, feels faster than the stated rest to 62 mph in 10.9 seconds, with a top speed of 117 mph.
other seven- seaters on the market include the smaller land rover discovery Sport, Skoda Kodiaq, audi’s Q7, Volvo’s award-winning XC90, BMW X5, Citroen grand C4 Picasso, Kia Sorento, Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford’s funky S-Max and long- running galaxy, Volkswagen’s Tiguan allspace and Touran, nissan X-Trail, SsangYong’s rexton and Turismo, and some versions of Mitsubishi’s outlander.