Top cars to impress kids for the school run

They demand the right clothes, footwear and smartphone. But what about the choice of transport for the school run? You can’t just rock up outside the school gate in any old people carrier.

Here are 19 seven-seaters that are guaranteed to stand out for all the right reasons. Your children would thank you for buying one if they could tear themselves away from their iPhone for a few minutes. There’s no truth in the rumour that these are little more than 19 cars we’d like to use on the school run. No truth whatsoever. No siree.

It doesn’t matter if your home address is the Sandringham estate or a council estate, a Land Rover Defender 110 is the ideal school run transport. Tough enough to cope with traffic calming measures, tall enough for you to lord it over the countless crossovers, and large enough inside for six demanding children. Later versions come with seven forward-facing seats, while earlier models feature two rear benches for that special ops vibe.

Let’s pretend that you’re a kid growing up in the 1980s. You’re having lunch in the playground, chatting with your mates, enjoying a packet of Smiths Salt ‘n’ Shake crisps, and sipping Just Juice through a straw. The conversation turns to the topic of the family car. Your mates are ferried to school in Montegos, Cortinas, Cavaliers and Escorts. But not you, because your parents own a Toyota Space Cruiser. How cool does that sound? It’s like something from outer space.

In the days before people carriers and SUVs, parents in need of seven seats were limited to estate cars or minibuses. In many cases, the children found themselves sitting on a rear-facing bench, which was fun until a milk tanker driven by an erratic driver loomed into view. Children are not a good substitute for a crumple zone. Cars like the Citroën CX Familiale were a little different, not least because all seats were facing the front. The kids in the very back were still the crumple zone, but at least they couldn’t see the milk tanker coming.

Speaking of children in the back… Mercedes-Benz was very late to the estate car market, leaving it until 1977 before introducing its first wagon. Based on the hugely successful W123 saloon, the T (Tourism and Transport) had the internal designation S123, and could be equipped with a pair of rear-facing child seats. This was one of the safest family cars of the day, while all estate models came with self-levelling rear suspension for a controlled ride, even when loaded with family gear.

You could equip a Tesla Model S with a pair of rear-facing child seats, but your kids would probably prefer a Model X. Not only are all seven seats facing in the right direction, but the children will look like they’re starring in the latest Marvel movie when they exit via the ‘falcon wing’ doors. An electric car is like so down with the kids right now, etc, while an EV offering up to 360 miles of range should be enough to tackle a week’s worth of school runs.

Your children will probably switch off when you attempt to explain why the Toyota Previa is such a cool people carrier. Mid-engined, rear-wheel drive, manual gearbox – it’s the stuff sports car dreams are made of, in an MPV. The Previa can seat up to eight people, with the cabin accessed via a sliding door, which remains one of the most underrated features you’ll find on a car. Kids would prefer built-in wi-fi and a pair of USB ports, but you can add those later.

Cover the number plates and remove the mountains, and this photo could have been taken in a Cornish car park in August. It’s as though every other vehicle is a VW Transporter in the height of summer, and it’s not uncommon to find a few stricken Dubs on the hilly sections of the A30. The T1 and T2 (bay window) versions have a huge following, and prices reflect this, but the later versions are more affordable and easier to live with on a daily basis.

Here’s a couple demonstrating the handiness of a Peugeot 504 estate when the kids are at school. For family duties, you need the 504 Familiale, which came complete with three rows of forward-facing seats. Long-time readers will remember the million kilometre 504 we featured back in 2013, and while the car in question was a saloon, it highlights the rugged dependability of this old workhorse. It’ll look like your children have arrived at school straight from an African expedition.

Okay, so it’s a five-seater, but the donor car was a right-hand drive Renault Espace from the UK, so we’re happy to include it. Come on, why wouldn’t you want to include an Espace roadster? Power was sourced from a 3.0-litre V6 engine producing 194bhp, while the driver and front-seat passenger are cocooned in their own cockpits. Note the seating arrangement: one in the middle and two in the back, Carol.

The Pontiac Trans Sport is clearly an American MPV, but you may have spotted one or two examples on a European holiday. That’s because the Trans Sport was sold in Europe via Opel dealers, so you won’t have to travel too far if you fancy a ‘dustbuster’. It earned the nickname thanks to its visual similarities to the vacuum cleaner, rather than it sucking as a people carrier.

There have been seven-seat versions of the Land Rover Discovery since the launch of the original in 1989, with children loving the inward-facing rear seats. In the days before tablets and smartphones, kids would have a conversation. How novel. Times change, and so has the Discovery, which now comes with seven forward-facing seats. We’d opt for the Disco 4, not least because it looks and feels like a Discovery, rather than an elongated Discovery Sport.

The XC90 was a gamechanger for Volvo. For a car steeped in estate car heritage, launching an SUV was a big deal, but the company hasn’t looked back. Soccer moms and dads were quick to warm to the XC90’s blend of MPV practicality, car-like dynamics, off-road capability and family-friendly safety credentials. The XC90 was there at the beginning of the shift from MPVs to SUVs; it’s the modern definition of a people carrier.

Has there ever been a cooler MPV? We’ll come back to that question in a moment, but for now, please revel in the bonkers brilliance of the Peugeot 806 Procar. Built and run by Kronos Racing, the 806 featured suspension and running gear from a 405 Mi16, the engine block from a Group A 306, and a cylinder head from a 405 Supertouring. It raced at the Spa 24-hour race in 1995, but despite initial optimism, it was forced to retire just ten hours into the race.

“Is Vauxhall’s Zafira VXR the most pointless car since the automatic Mitsubishi Lancer Evo?” was the question we posed at the beginning of our 2005 review. In isolation, it was a lot of fun – having a 237bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged engine helped – but we said it was too harsh for everyday use. “Am amusing diversion for a day or two”, was our conclusion. Great for spicing up the school run, then.

No company offers a larger range of SUVs than Mercedes-Benz. You can choose from a total of 12 models, from the GLA to the Mercedes-Maybach GLS. Seven-seat options are thin on the ground, which is where the GLB comes in. It might be one of the smallest and most affordable Mercedes-Benz SUVs, but the third row of seats makes the GLB more family-friendly than the more expensive GLC. The chunky styling puts us in mind of the G-Class.

The Kia Carnival is a seven-seat MPV, but you wouldn’t know it from the styling. It looks more like the kind of SUV that would be mixing it with the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator outside the American school gate. It’s cheap, too, with a starting price the equivalent of £23,000. Power is sourced from a 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine, while even the entry-level model features seven USB ports. Your kids would be in heaven.

Nobody does large, softly sprung and wood-clad station wagons quite like the Americans. Why do the school run in a crossover when you can do it in something that looks like it has rolled straight out of a Hollywood road trip movie? Climbing out of a Roadmaster boot is way cooler than getting out of a Qashqai, EcoSport or Grandland X. Just make sure your child’s school is in the middle of nowhere, as parking the 5342mm-long wagon will not be simple.

Arrive home in a Cadillac Escalade, and your children won’t know if you’ve got a new job at the US embassy or as a rapper. The large SUV might be a bit in your face for the UK, but if you’re looking for some one-upmanship over your pals with Range Rovers and Mercedes SUVs, the Escalade is just the ticket. All models come with seven seats as standard, while an eighth is a £360 option. As with the previous car, this one too is designed for US parking conditions, not UK.

We’ve saved the best until last, because the Renault Espace F1 is unquestionably the coolest MPV on the planet. Built by Matra, the extreme machine featured a 3.5-litre, 40-valve V10 engine producing 800bhp and 520lb ft, and was capable of revving beyond 13,000rpm. From standstill, it could hit 62mph in just 2.8sec, yet it could still seat four people. Forget ‘daddy cool’, you’d be ‘daddy sub-zero’.