Which five family cars have the best rear-seat access and widest opening rear doors?

Some families have babies and young children and getting child seats in and out of the back of the car is so much easier when you have a bit of space to work with. Lifting your kids in and out of their child seats and leaning in to fasten their harnesses and seatbelts is easier with a wide door opening.

Those with tall teenagers watch in wonder as they fold themselves up to get into the back seat. A wide doorway entry makes it more comfortable, and less contortion is definitely needed!

For some families, it’s when the grandparents come and stay, as they can have trouble climbing in and out of the back when the doorway is narrow. Stiff joints, muscle weakness and other factors can change their method of getting into a car. It is often easier for them to lower backwards into the seat side on, and once they are down, they rotate and lift their legs into the car, which is much easier with room for you to help them.

It’s easy to assume that access to all cars is the same and that they all have the same size doorways but this is definitely not the case. Some cars have very wide-opening doors and large doorways, others have sloping roofs, angled doorways, narrow openings, or seats that are too high or too low.

When looking for a car with wide-opening rear doors and good access for passengers, it’s not something that is widely advertised. You would need to go and test a lot of vehicles! That’s why we have done the hard work for you here.

There are some fantastic family cars out there that have great rear-seat access, with wide-opening doors and generous doorways. I have tested them with my family over the last eight years as a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au. Here’s my list of family SUVs that have great rear access and wide-opening doors for infants, toddlers, teenagers and all the way through to the grandparents.

The Hyundai Palisade is a great car for families who want easy access to the rear seats of their vehicle. Available as a seven- or eight-seater, this large SUV has long rear doors that open very wide, which helps enormously when getting in and out of the back of the Palisade.

The seven-seat model has two captain’s chairs in the second row, which creates a walkway between them and the third-row seats. This makes it easy for some passengers to get to their seats in the third row, but you can also slide and fold them forward.

In the eight-seat model, the second-row bench seat is split 60/40. You can bring the single seat forward even with a child seat installed in it (provided you are using ISOFIX and there is a large space for a teen or adult to step through to the third-row seats.

For older passengers, the large doorway makes it easy to lean into the car and fasten seatbelts or load things through the rear side doors.

Access to the Kia Sorento’s rear seats is great for passengers of all ages. This large seven-seat SUV has a second row bench seat split 60/40. You can bring a seat forward with a child seat installed using the ISOFIX, and there is space for a large child or teenager to climb through to the third-row seats.

Depending on how nimble they are, you may not expect the grandparents to climb through though – they will have to pull rank and relegate kids to row three!

The doorway is generous in size and the rear door opens nice and wide so passengers of all ages can easily get in and out of the second-row seats. And parents can reach in comfortably to fasten seatbelts or child seats and harnesses.

This small SUV has notably wide-opening rear doors, which make getting child seats in and out of the back easy. It’s also much more comfortable for adults to reach in to adjust little passengers' child seat harnesses.

The rear seats are split 60/40 and can slide to distribute legroom as well as sitting slightly higher than those at the front to give rear passengers good visibility.

For adults and teenagers getting in and out of the back, the Qashqai’s large door openings mean they are not going to hit their heads either.

If you’re looking for all-round practicality but don’t want a huge SUV, the Nissan Qashqai is a great compact option for families.

A very affordable mid-size SUV for families, the GWM Haval H6 has very wide doorways, making it easy for adults to lean in and do up kids’ seatbelts and child seat harnesses without hitting their heads.

The doors open really wide, too, so loading child seats into the back is easy through the rear doorways, and there is plenty of space for helping elderly relatives in and out of the rear seats.

Find your own GWM Haval H6 here on carsales

The Mahindra XUV700 is another affordable medium-sized SUV with large rear doors and doorways, which make it easy for passengers to access the second row of seats.

It also has flat rear footwells, so passengers can move around easily once they are in the XUV700.

The XUV700 is a seven-seater but owing to its relatively compact size, third-row access requires the single seat in the second row to be empty so that it can tumble forward to create a walkway through to the rearmost seats.

Because the single seat tumbles out of the way it gives plenty of space for a teenager or adult to climb through to the third-row seats, or to lean in and help fasten seatbelts.

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