Five great family SUVs for rear-view vision with child seats installed

When you add child restraints to the back seat of any car, it suddenly gets really squishy for space and can often affect both rearward and, in some cases, over-the-shoulder side visibility for the driver.

But some cars still allow you a good view out of the back, even with child seats installed.

When you have your first child and add just one child seat to the back, this can slightly alter your visibility but you can usually work around it.

However, once you add two or three kids’ car seats it can start making visibility really tricky, especially out of the rear windscreen in a lot of cars.

There is often enough going on in a car with kids and all their distractions, so when looking for your new family car, visibility is something to consider.

Some new vehicles have a digital rear-view mirror, so you can see behind the car no matter how many child seats you have installed in the back. These also help with driving in the rain and at night to make visibility clearer.

In other cars, you can turn a rear-view or side-view camera on in the media screen while you are driving, giving you a much better view out of the back and down the side of the car while you are driving along.

The side views can particularly help with visibility out of the rear side windows when turning at junctions and roundabouts.

When looking at different cars, keep in mind that deep rear windows help, as does a full rear windscreen with no large panels or split windscreens that will obscure your view.

Every car is slightly different and varying combinations of child seats – and height of the driver – will play a part too.

Cars that have centre-rear seat belts retracting from the roof rather than the rear seat itself will also quickly impinge on rearward vision as soon as it’s employed. Ditto for child seat top tether strap anchor points that are positioned overhead rather than behind the seat.

There are some fantastic family cars out there that have great visibility with child seats installed, which I have tested with my family over the past seven years as a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au.

Here’s my list of five-seater family SUVs that have great rear and side visibility with child seats installed in the back…

An affordable and practical five-seat mid-size SUV for families, the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro has excellent visibility out of the rear and side windows with three child seats installed across in the back seat.

There are also a great rear-view and side-view cameras that you can have on in the media screen while driving to give you extra visibility.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro has good legroom for both rows of passengers and the boot will comfortably fit a twin side-by-side pram.

The all-electric Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra mid-size SUVs are built on the same platform, so share their suitability for families. Both have great visibility out of the back with three child seats installed and have a surround-view camera in the media screen too for extra visibility while parking.

Legroom is good, the rear footwell is flat giving extra kick room and space is good for front passengers with child seats installed behind them.

The boot is practical for families with two young siblings and even a large twin pram such as the Thule Urban Glide 3 fits comfortably in there.

This is a really practical option for families. The GWM Haval H6 is a very spacious and affordable five-seat mid-size SUV also available as a hybrid (which has benefits for families beyond fuel efficiency).

The boot is big enough for a Thule Urban Glide 3 twin pram and the back seat easily fits three child seats across with excellent legroom for taller passengers in the front. Visibility out of the back with three child seats installed is very clear as you can see over the top of all the child seats.

If you want extra visibility when parking and manoeuvring, you can turn the cameras on in the media screen.

Visibility is very good out of the rear of the Kia Sportage when three child seats are installed across in the back with a clear view out of the back window.

There is also a rear-view camera you can turn on in the media screen while driving for a big, clear view of everything happening behind you.

Our reigning Best Mid-Size SUV, the Kia Sportage is practical for families too, with good legroom and a boot that will fit a twin pram for families that need to. Kia also recently added a hybrid option.

The Nissan X-TRAIL Ti is a great five-seater mid-size SUV for families that is available as a hybrid. It fits three child seats across the rear seats, has good legroom and is one of very few cars of its size to have built-in rear window blinds providing shade for rear passengers.

For families with two young siblings, the big boot is roomy enough for a Thule Urban Glide 3 twin pram.

Although the central top tether anchor point is in the rear ceiling, slightly obstructing the view of most X-TRAIL models, the top-spec Ti has a digital rear-view mirror which overcomes this problem and makes visibility out of the back really easy with three child seats onboard.

Images: Supplied and babydrive.com.au