2020 carsales Best Family SUV: The most child friendly

It goes without saying that seven-seat family SUVs should be designed with the needs of even the smallest passengers in mind. To help pick the 2020 carsales Best Family SUV, we enlisted expert, BabyDrive.com.au’s Tace Clifford, to investigate child-seat safety, ingress and egress, visibility, technology, security, carrying capacity and everything else important to our youngest family members.

Never work with children or animals – unless you’re testing seven-seat SUVs. For family buyers, accommodating both the kids and the fur-babies is an important consideration. So in scoring our nine rivals, this category formed an important chunk of the overall score.

Our junior judges for this test were primary school aged, and perfectly matched to the family demographic. Our canine adjudicator was three-year-old adopted greyhound, Arlo.

The Holden Acadia has ISOFIX child-seat anchors in two positions and top-tether child-seat anchors in the rearmost five seats. All were deemed easy to reach and, owing to the Acadia’s size, it was possible to install five child seats at once.

Find out if you’re installing your child seat correctly here.

The rear doors and windows of the Holden can be isolated so that children cannot inadvertently open the doors from inside. Importantly, the Acadia does not feature an anti-jam function for its power windows, meaning little fingers can get stuck between the glass and the door frame. Ouch!

In ANCAP testing the Holden Acadia scores quite well for child occupant safety (87%) and includes airbags to all three rows. The Acadia is equipped with seatbelt reminders in all three rows of seats, plus a child presence alert provided the seatbelts remain fastened.

The Hyundai Santa Fe features a pair of ISOFIX child-seat mounts in the second row, and three top-tether mounts as well. However, there are neither ISOFIX nor top-tether mounts in the third row of seats, meaning only three child seats can be fitted at any given time.

The rear door latches can be isolated from the driver’s seat, as can the rear power windows. Like the Holden Acadia, however, the Hyundai Santa Fe does not include an anti-jam feature for the power windows.

The Hyundai Santa Fe scored almost as well as the Holden in ANCAP testing. The child occupant safety rating (86%) is backed by curtain airbags in all three rows and the Santa Fe is also equipped with seatbelt reminders in all seating positions.

An ultrasonic child presence alert is offered in higher-grade Santa Fe variants, including the Highlander model tested here.

Sharing its fundamental architecture with the Santa Fe means the Kia Sorento offers similar child occupant safety features. Like the Hyundai, the Kia includes ISOFIX child-seat anchors in only the outboard positions of the second row of seats, and includes three top-tether child-seat anchors to the second row.

The Kia Sorento uses mechanical door-lock isolators inside the rear doors but is equipped with a rear power window isolator on the driver’s side door. It also features an anti-jam feature in the power windows so that little fingers are protected when the glass rolls up.

At the time of our testing, the Kia Sorento was not assessed for child occupant safety, but did achieve a five-star ANCAP rating. The curtain airbags extend to cover the glass in the third row of seats, and the Sorento does feature seatbelt reminders in all seating positions. It does not, however, offer child presence alert in the event a child is left in an unattended vehicle.

The Mazda CX-8 on test is equipped with two ISOFIX child-seat anchors and five top-tether child-seat anchors, and despite its narrow (CX-5-based) body was in fact able to accommodate five car seats at once.

A rear-door, mechanical-style isolator switch secures the rear doors from accidental opening and the power windows can be isolated from the driver’s side door. Like the Kia Sorento, the Mazda CX-8 also features anti-jamming technology for the power windows.

The Mazda CX-8 matches the ANCAP child-occupant safety rating of the Holden Acadia (87%) and includes curtain airbags to all three rows of seats. Seatbelt reminders are included for all seven seating positions but not child presence alert. This feature is not offered in any Mazda seven-seat SUV.

The larger Mazda CX-9 matches its stablemate’s child seat anchor tally – a pair of ISOFIX anchors and five top-tether child-seat mounts. The CX-9 easily accommodates five child seats at once, and is able to accommodate an adult comfortably between a pair of child seats in the second row.

The CX-9 shares the CX-8’s mechanical door-lock isolator and rear window isolator controls, and includes anti-jamming technology for the power windows.

At the time of testing the Mazda CX-9 was not assessed for child occupant safety, but did achieve a five-star ANCAP result. Its curtain airbags extend to all three rows of seats but, like the CX-8, it does not feature child presence alert to notify the driver that a child remains in their parked car.

Nissan’s seven-seat Pathfinder offers two ISOFIX and four top-tether child-seat anchors, meaning it can only legally be fitted with four child seats. At the time of testing, the Nissan Pathfinder was not assessed for child occupant safety either, but did achieve a five-star overall ANCAP result.

The Pathfinder has mechanical-style isolators for the rear door mechanisms and a rear window isolator on the driver’s door switch bank. The Pathfinder does not feature anti-jamming technology for the power windows but does feature curtain airbags to all three rows of seats.

The Nissan Pathfinder is equipped with seatbelt reminders for all seating positions but there’s no child presence alert.

Moving from the Nissan to the Skoda was like stepping forward a generation. The Czech brand’s largest SUV is considerably newer in its design (see below), meaning safety technology is more advanced.

The Skoda Kodiaq Sportline on test features two ISOFIX and three top-tether child-seat anchors, which is acceptable given the vehicle is a smaller, 5+2-style SUV and not a full-size seven-seater. The Kodiaq can therefore carry three child seats at any given time, and in ANCAP testing managed a score of 77% for child occupant safety.

Rear doors and windows can be isolated electronically from the driver’s seat and the Kodiaq also features anti-jamming power windows. Curtain airbags and seatbelt reminders cover all three rows of seats. But the Kodiaq misses out on a child presence alert.

One of the larger vehicles in the 2020 carsales Best Family SUV field, the Toyota Kluger is only equipped to carry child seats in the second row. Here, the Kluger is fitted with two ISOFIX and three top-tether anchors.

Mechanical rear door-lock isolators, electronic rear window isolators and anti-jamming power windows are standard. There’s ample room for an adult in the second row with two child seats fitted.

At the time of testing, the Kluger was not compelled to provide a child occupant safety score, but is equipped with head-protecting curtain airbags in all three rows of seats. Seatbelt reminders are included throughout, however, the Kluger does not feature a child presence monitor.

Much like its Skoda twin-under-the-skin, the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace features two ISOFIX and three top-tether-style child-seat anchor points, and can (just) fit the three seats in at once.

The Tiguan Allspace’s rear door locking and window switches can be isolated from the driver’s door and Volkswagen includes anti-jamming power windows. It scored a five-star ANCAP safety result and managed an 80% score in child occupant testing; three per cent better than the Skoda Kodiaq with which it shares a platform.

The seven-airbag-equipped Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace features curtain airbags in all three rows and is equipped with seatbelt reminders in all seating positions. It does not feature a child presence alert.

In assessing the nine SUVs gathered for 2020 carsales Best Family SUV testing, we scored each model against a set of weighted criteria.

For this part of the test, the scoring included the ease of entry and exit for children, the provision of child-seat anchor points, accommodation and visibility for smaller occupants and the use of technology such as seatbelt reminders, airbags and child presence monitoring.

In the end, and despite the lack of a child occupant ANCAP rating and child presence monitoring, the Mazda CX-9 rose to the top.

Our judges led by BabyDrive.com.au’s Tace Clifford found the CX-9 to be the easiest and roomiest family SUV in which to carry a mix of occupants – whether the vehicle was fitted with child seats or not.

The CX-9 was also voted the easiest seven-seat SUV for children to get in and out of, and with good visibility to both rear rows of seats was also the one least likely to induce travel sickness.

Top three Scoreboard:
1 Mazda CX-9 (13.0/15)
=2nd Holden Acadia (11.5/15)
=2nd Hyundai Santa Fe (11.5/15)
=2nd Nissan Pathfinder (11.5/15)

Click on the links below to discover which seven-seat Family SUV takes the win in each section of our test:

2020 carsales Best Family UV