Cars for three child seats, and car seats

All

Quick one. If you are coming to Aus with three kids in child seats, and need to buy a cheap(ish) car upon arrival, one thing we have found is that a Falcon wagon/estate will fit three car seats across the back. And UK spec seats as well, for info.

It is very tight, but the Falcon is slightly wider inside than the Commodore and thus you can pick up a decent one. We spent $10,000 on a Falcon wagon (2003 model, 200,000k's but the nicest and cleanest by far) and we get three car seats across the back (4, years, 2 years and 8 months). This will do us until we get work and everything sorted and can then change.

Oh, and I know people say that UK car seats are not 'legal' in Aus - which is very true. However, having seen the prices (very expensive compared to the UK) and the quality (some car seats are legal yet shocking quality I would not put my kid in), I feel safe that the ISOFIX seats we bought from the UK and far better than much of the ones here. We did buy one for our middle kid, as we moved the youngest into his old one, and it's good, but I miss ISOFIX.

It used to be that Australia's system, using a top tether together with a seat belt, was one of the safest in the world. However, when ISOFIX came along it gave a far better quality - except Australia has yet to adopt it, thus they are currently behind much of the world. certainly ISOFIX is safer and quite a few cars here have it., BUT you'll find no reference in the literature to it specifically as no-one will know what it means. But new and slightly old Mazda's, Subaru's, Citroen's etc all have it as standard.

Just a point of note. I'm happy we have done the right thing by using our existing seats until the kids grow out of them. And now for a car with ISOFIX in to use the dadvantages of the seats....