Fun for all the family and more
Finding space to take all of the family plus some friends will not be a problem in these seven-seat classic cars.
From purpose-designed models to ones adapted to suit, there’s a seven-seat option for all tastes.
Our list is arranged in chronological order, and you’ll find everything from MPVs and 4x4s to limousines and land yachts. Enjoy!
1. 1935 Chevrolet Suburban
Chevrolet recognised a large tranche of customers who wanted a vehicle they could use for work through the week and carry the family in at the weekend.
The Suburban was its answer and it could easily carry seven in its station-wagon body, or even more if you didn’t mind a squeeze.
Originally called the Carryall Suburban, it was hampered slightly by only having a pair of front doors to access the three front, two middle and three third-row seats.
At the rear, buyers had a choice of twin side-hinged doors like a van, or a split tailgate with a lift-up top section and a lower one that could be used as a bench.
2. 1935 Citroën Traction Avant Familiale
Always a company unafraid to try new things, Citroën added the 11CV Familiale version to the Traction Avant range in 1935.
It could be used as an exceptionally roomy five-seater, but occasional flip-up seats in the rear allowed it to carry seven with ease.
Such was the amount of space in the 11CV Familiale thanks to its 129in (3275mm) wheelbase, it could even be ordered with additional seating to carry as many as nine people.
A more powerful 15CV model arrived in 1939 with the six-cylinder 2.9-litre engine, rather than the 11CV’s 1.9-litre four-cylinder motor, which gave the Traction Avant the power to cope with a full load of passengers.
3. 1949 Plymouth Suburban
The Plymouth Suburban had the world’s first all-steel station-wagon body, rather than the more coachbuilt ‘woodie’ wagons that had been popular before the Second World War.
This made the Plymouth an off-the-shelf estate car that lasted until 1978 in three main generations.
Although billed as a six-seater with two rows of three pews, the original Plymouth Suburban could easily carry seven people plus luggage.
Later models came with the option of the Wide View Observation Seat that lifted out of the boot floor to provide a pair of rear-facing seats accessed through the bottom-hinged tailgate.
4. 1950 Ford Country Squire
The Country Squire might have had a very British-sounding name, but this was a Ford for the US market.
Its station-wagon body was part of the 1949 Ford shift in style, and came with two front doors and a tailgate.
This meant access to the second and third rows of seats was less easy, but Ford reckoned this design made the cabin quieter by doing away with a rear pair of doors.
However, by 1952, Ford had relented and the second generation of Country Squire came with a full complement of doors to be a much more practical family estate car.
5. 1950 Volkswagen T2
Volkswagen unwittingly created one of the cult classic cars when it launched the T2 in 1950.
Offered in a wide variety of configurations, the Samba was the one for families looking to carry everyone in a single vehicle, thanks to its versatility that predated the idea of the MPV.
The T2 could be ordered with three rows of seating, with two up front for driver and passenger, a second row for two or three people, and a third row to carry a further trio of occupants.
The clever bit about the T2 is it could transport all of these people in comfort, while taking up no more road space than the average family estate car.
6. 1954 Land-Rover Series One
The Land-Rover went on sale in 1948, but it was 1954 when the 86in model arrived and with it the realistic option of carrying seven people.
This worked by having three passengers including the driver across the front bench, with four more sat in pairs facing each other in the back.
If you opted for the 107in version of the Land-Rover, introduced in 1955 with five doors, its extra length meant you had the potential to carry up to 10 people inside the go-anywhere 4x4.
The later Defender stuck with the side-facing rear-seat method of carrying passengers up to the end of 2006, when the law changed.
7. 1958 Citroën DS Safari
Introduced three years after the first Citroën DS19 saloon, the Safari was no less innovative or arresting to behold.
The long roof ran straight and level rather than making any attempt at a rakish slope like the saloon’s, which gave the Safari generous room inside.
Also, the estate’s roof was made from steel rather than the saloon’s glassfibre, to add greater strength to the wagon’s bodyshell.
There were two front and three middle seats in the Safari, and it could be turned into a seven-seater with two small side-facing seats that flipped up out of the boot floor. Thinly padded cushions made these two spaces the preserve of children.
8. 1959 Saab 95
The Saab 95 was a packaging marvel in the way it offered seven seats inside a car no bigger than the rivals like the Austin 1100 or Ford Escort.
An estate body helped by creating sufficient head room inside the Saab, and you could seat a pair of passengers in the third-row bench that pulled up and out of the boot floor.
Clever engineering meant the space where the bench was stowed offered decent room for feet when the rear-facing seat was in use.
Saab stopped building the seven-seat 95 model in 1976, though a five-seater version continued until 1978, by which time the Swedish car maker had turned out 110,527 95s.
9. 1960 Nissan Cedric
The Cedric arrived in 1960 as Nissan’s upmarket offering for Japanese executives, and those with larger families could choose the Wagon with seating for up to eight.
This was achieved with second- and third-row benches able to carry three abreast, with the rearmost bench facing backwards so its occupants looked out of the tailgate window.
The Nissan Cedric survived through 10 generations up to 2004.
Many consider the sixth generation launched in 1983 as the peak of Cedric Wagons, thanks to its huge body and two rear-facing seats that slid up and out of the boot floor – anyone sitting here would also be treated to the sound of this model’s tuneful 3-litre V6 engine.
10. 1968 Daimler DS420
One of the last off-the-peg limousines, the lengthy DS420 offered seating for up to eight, according to Daimler.
However, this meant squeezing three people on to the fold-up occasional seats in the rear compartment that, given the way they divided down the car’s centre line, were really only suited to carrying two.
The generous width of the DS420 meant there was no unseemly squashing together for those on the permanent three-seater main bench, while the driver could be accompanied by a single passenger up front.
Just as importantly, the DS420 delivered a smooth ride and superb refinement from a platform derived from the 420G saloon’s.
11. 1970 Peugeot 504 Estate
Following on from its launch in 1968 and being crowned European Car of the Year in 1969, the Peugeot 504 range gained an estate version in 1970.
It had a longer wheelbase that aided practicality, but a solid rear axle in place of the saloon’s independent set-up, though few will have grumbled given the estate model’s vast boot.
This boot made it easy for Peugeot to fit a third row of front-facing rear seats and make the 504 a seven-seat rival to the Citroën DS Safari.
It proved to be a very popular family estate car, and Peugeot’s 504 wagon was offered with the same 2-litre petrol and 2.1-litre diesel engines, with a 2.3-litre diesel arriving in 1977.
12. 1975 Citroën CX Familiale
The cavernous seven-seat estate car was now a fixture of Citroën’s large-car model line-up, so when the CX replaced the DS it was no shock to see the Familiale join the range in 1975.
You could have the CX as a five-seat estate with a huge boot, but plenty opted for the seven-seat Familiale, because it made the most of this model’s 10in (254mm) longer wheelbase.
While the CX saloon lasted until 1989, the Estate model remained on Citroën’s new-car price list up to 1991, before it was finally superseded by the XM estate.
13. 1977 Matra-Simca Rancho
Often cited as a pioneer of the current generation of SUVs, the Matra-Simca Rancho also had a strong influence on the rash of MPVs that arrived in the 1990s.
This is clear in the optional seven-seat version where the third row quickly pulls out of the boot floor or stows away to leave a large, flat load space.
The only thing the Rancho did not quite get right when compared to the MPVs that followed is its third row of seats is rear facing.
However, there were still ingenious touches, such as using the same headrests for the middle row and the third row to save weight and space.
14. 1977 Mercedes-Benz 123-series estate
Known in Mercedes circles by the codename S123, this was the estate version of the midsize W123 saloon.
It arrived in 1977 with a similarly broad spread of engine choices, though not the least powerful petrol or diesel motors, and all had the suffix ‘T’ that stood for Tourismus und Transport.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the S123’s popularity and that Mercedes estates had been seen before, this was the first factory station wagon to be offered by the German company.
To make it a seven-seater, customers only had to tick the option box for a pair of rear-facing seats that emerged out of the boot floor.
15. 1981 Mitsubishi Shogun
In the same year Land-Rover finally offered its five-seat Range Rover with four doors, Mitsubishi upped the ante in the large 4x4 sector with its seven-seat Shogun.
Boasting five doors, getting into the forward-facing third row was relatively simple, because outer sections of the middle bench tipped forward to give room to climb through. Alternatively, the whole middle bench could be tilted forward.
Whoever found themselves in the third row of seats in the Shogun had a decent amount of space for their legs, while the high seating position and large glass area made it feel much less claustrophobic than many seven-seat estate cars of the era.
16. 1984 Austin Montego Estate
The lukewarm reception for the Austin Montego saloon was not replicated with the Estate.
Instead, it gained a warm welcome and went on to be a strong seller, helped by its huge boot thanks to the large bodywork at the rear as part of Roy Axe’s design.
This was enough to earn the Montego Estate a Design Council Award.
Buyers were offered a seven-seat version of the Montego Estate as an option with a pair of rear-facing seats.
Thanks to the size of the boot, these occasional seats were roomier than many other such optional seating arrangements, plus Austin also offered self-levelling rear suspension for this body shape to cope with the additional weight demands expected of it.
17. 1984 Renault Espace
The seminal seven-seater? Quite possibly, because the Renault Espace’s influence over MPVs and versatile family cars is still being felt today.
Its monobox design could be had in five- or seven-seat configurations, and all were individual chairs.
The middle-row seats could be moved around or removed altogether, and the front seats could swivel so the cabin became a conference room. The centre seat of the middle row even folded down to create a table.
All of this ingenuity was constructed at the Matra factory and the Espace was built in a way unlike other Renaults of the time.
Much of its body was glassfibre, while a galvanised steel skeleton frame provided the base to hang these panels on.
18. 1989 Land Rover Discovery
The Land Rover Discovery was not the first ‘lifestyle’ large 4x4, but it moved the game on hugely when it arrived in 1989.
The Sir Terence Conran-designed interior was like nothing we’d seen before in this sector, while its simple but effective third-row seats were easy to drop down from the sides of the boot.
Crucially, they also didn’t take up valuable boot space when not needed.
However, the first-generation Discovery’s third-row seats were side-facing, so Land Rover changed these for forward-facing chairs in the second-generation model that arrived in 1998.
19. 1991 Buick Roadmaster Estate
In 1991, the Buick Roadmaster name made a welcome return to US new-car lists.
Using the same basic body as the Chevrolet Caprice, the Roadmaster had a Vista Roof that used a glass panel over the rear seats to give an airy feel to the huge cabin.
In the vast boot, you could specify a third row of seats that meant the Buick could carry up to eight passengers.
However, the nominal eighth seat was squeezed in between the front pair, so the Roadmaster Estate was really only a seven-seater.
Very much from the land yacht school of driving manners, the Buick Roadmaster Estate was superb at transporting its occupants in comfort and quiet.
However, it could also get a shift on when required if you chose the 5.7-litre V8 version.
20. 1993 Volvo 850
Volvo had offered seven seats in several of its other estates and it put this experience to good use in the 850, the first front-wheel-drive wagon to come from the Swedish firm.
With no rear-drive, it freed up space for the folding third row of seats to fit snugly under the boot floor with no apparent loss of luggage capacity.
Volvo also supplied three-point seatbelts for the rear-facing occupants in the boot.
Practicality might have been the main thinking behind this option, but Volvo also offered it for the 150mph 850 T5-R wagon.
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