SUVs or wagons for families with a 6 foot+ member

Hello and welcome to the March edition of Right Car. This month I will be giving advice on a request my aunty gave me at Christmas time. This request was that since they were going to have a 2nd baby and her husband is an ex-rugby player, they needed a car with more rear legroom as a child seat would not fit behind the seat he was sat in. They also wanted more boot capacity so they could fit a pram and a fairly large Labrador in the boot together. So, all in all, this meant they wanted a car with a longer wheelbase to give more rear legroom and a bigger boot. So in today’s post, I will be giving you the options that I gave them and some details about these cars. As always, I will leave a picture of all the cars I mention at the bottom.

Land Rover Discovery Sport: The Land Rover Discovery Sport is a compact luxury SUV from the British luxury car company, Land Rover. The Discovery Sport is a smaller version of the regular Discovery and also quite a bit cheaper. The Discovery Sport is 35.9 cm (14.13 inches) shorter, 9.6 cm (3.78 inches) narrower and 23.6 cm (9.29 inches) shorter. It is also AU$13,000 cheaper for the respective base models (before options) and about AU$46,000 for the respective top of the range models. Although the Sport is AU$13,000-AU$46,000 cheaper than the Discovery, you still get most of the stuff. For instance, on the top-spec discovery sport you get Premium LED automatic and self levelling headlights (will move the direction of the beam to show you as much of the road as possible), active cruise control (will steer and work the pedals for you), 20-inch wheels, Blind Spot Monitoring, emergency braking, electronic gauge cluster, leather steering wheel and memory front seats along with many more for AU$82,900. If you wanted these features in a similarly speced Discovery, you would have to pay AU$10,000 dollars more. The wheelbase is 247.1 cm (97.28 inches) long and since the Discovery comes standard as a 7-seater,like the bigger and more expensive Discovery, the boot capacity is enormous at 754 litres (26.7 cubic feet).

BMW X3: The BMW X3 is, like the Discovery Sport, a compact luxury SUV but instead of being British, it’s a German one. This car, unlike the Discovery Sport though, is only a 5 seater. Despite this, the BMW X3 is about 20cm (7.87 inches) longer than the Discovery Sport. This would benefit occupants both in the front and back as they would have more room for their feet. Again, despite the BMW X3 being longer than the Discovery sport, the BMW X3 only has a boot capacity of 550 litres (19.42 cubic feet). This is due to the fact that the X3 is only a 5 seater and therefore doesn’t need a massive boot to put seats in. The X3 starts at AU$63,900 and goes all the way to AU$83,900. The base model has 19 inch wheels, rain-sensing wipers, tri-zone air conditioning, Sat-nav and automatic LED headlights and running lights. The top of the range has all of these things but adds leather seats, keyless entry, an electric boot-lid and a 360-degree camera.

Mazda 6 Wagon: The first wagon on this list is the absolutely superb Mazda 6 Wagon. Being a wagon, you would expect the Mazda 6 Wagon to be shorter than the SUVs mentioned above. Indeed it is with a height of 145 cm (57.09 inches). The 6 Wagon is 21.9 cm (8.62 inches) shorter than the X3 and 24.2 cm (9.53 inches) shorter than the Discovery Sport. Being Japanese, the Mazda 6 offers great value for money with prices ranging from AU$34,490 to AU$56,500. Also, the Mazda doesn’t miss out on creature comforts as as standard on the base model you get radar cruise control, sat-nav, LED headlights and running lights, heated power mirrors, head-up display, rain-sensing wipers and one-touch front and rear windows among a very long list. On the top of the range model you get all this plus heated and cooled front seats, 360-degree camera, sunroof, heated rear seats, nappa leather seats and a heated steering wheel among other things. It has a wheelbase of 2.75 m (108.27 inches) and a boot capacity of 506 litres (17.87 cubic feet).

Skoda Superb: Speaking of Superb, let’s talk about the Skoda Superb. The Skoda, over the last 10 years has been the station wagon to buy if you want a station wagon. This is because it has an enormous boot with a capacity of 660 litres (22.07 cubic feet), is very comfortable, has an enormous amount of rear legroom and has a price range of $43,990 to $61,690. Like the 6 Wagon, the base model does have some creature comforts in the form of adaptive headlights, Apple CarPlay and android auto, a chrome grille, LED daytime running lights, cooled front center console, cooled glove box, heated front seats, keyless entry and go, leather seats and a leather steering wheel among other things. The top of the range gets all this plus paddle shifters on the steering wheel, hands-free boot opening as well as an electronic boot-lid, Adaptive Cruise control and chrome exhaust tips.

Mazda CX-5: The Mazda CX-5 is like the SUV version of the Mazda 6 Wagon. This is because it has the exact same boot capacity as the 6 Wagon, is actually 31.5 cm (12.4 inches) shorter than the 6 Wagon and is the same width as the 6 Wagon. As it’s an SUV, it’s taller than the 6 Wagon by 22.5 cm (8.86 inches). It also has similar technology and creature comforts and a similar level of value for money.

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