Right. Where I live, it's illegal to have passengers under 13 in the front seat. Say you have 2 kids and 2 of their friends want to tag along with you. You CANNOT legally fit them into a regular passenger car.
Recently, we wanted a car with built in child seats. A regular passenger car, not a mini van. The ONLY car we could find that had this option was a $130,000 Mercedes.
"Right. Where I live, it's illegal to have passengers under 13 in the front seat. Say you have 2 kids and 2 of their friends want to tag along with you. You CANNOT legally fit them into a regular passenger car."
Our Dil is arguing with our son/her husband that she needs an 8 passenger SUV to handle all of the kids even with booster seats. She gets into a lot of car pooling both planned and unplanned. Their Explorer faces the same situation that you are describing.
She and most of her female friends don't like vans and prefer the bigger SUVs.
If we go to a restaurant with them (4 adults and a 4 and 6 year old, we have to drive two vehicles.