What vehicle for doggy holidays?!

Hoping you can all help!

We've two medium sized dogs and have a Rav4 which is fine for shipping them around, but no good for holidays as we can't fit us, the dogs and all the stuff needed in the Rav4.

We don't really want to go down the roofbox solution and the estate cars I've looked at aren't big enough unfortunately (had considered an Audi A4).

A van/truck is looking like the only option, but I need to be able to use it day to day for commuting too. I don't want to spend a fortune on a Chelsea tractor!

Ideas?

Depends how much you need to carry, when we camped w found a small trailer worked best. When we caravanned we just put most stuff in there. When we had a campervan, a roof box worked well. And now we static caravan dogs are in boot area and luggage on back seat.

CRV works well for us as we love the split back door, dogs cannot get out until bottom half is opened.

Hi and welcome.

An estate car would be better as that would still leave 5 seats of which some of your luggage could be piled onto. Are you happy to have the dogs loose in the back of a car with a dog guard or do your crate them? Friends of ours have a Mercedes Estate (quite an old diesel one) which will no doubt go on for years, and they have travelled all around Europe with 2 dogs, camping equipment, plus two children and it worked brilliantly.
It is their everyday car as well. The Rav4 isn't very big so I can imagine it would be a bit of squeeze.

You say your dogs are medium sized so even a Honda Jazz should be OK as two medium sized dogs would comfortably fit in the back behind the back the back seats. Good luck and let us know what you end up getting.

Our 'dogmobile' is a FIAT Scudo (The Citroen Jumpy & Peugeot Expert are made in the same factory and are pretty much the same)

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We removed the middle row of seats and as you can see the sliding door makes for easy access of dogs or luggage, there is also space behind the rear seats.

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It is also a good 'normal' vehicle, hardly any bigger than an estate car, and easy to park as it has windows all round. Not a 'status' car 'tho

I used to have the Toyota Lucida (the import model where the middle seats turn round) and that was fantastic, I have had my 3 big dogs in there in the middle lounging on the seats like VIP's and the camping stuff in the boot space. The seats also fold right down flat if needed.
I now have the Honda CRV which has the split door and a dog guard up, I have had 2 big girls in the back bit and 2 puppies, only for a short distance mind you, but no one seemed too bothered by it.
I miss Norman the Lucida like crazy, but he was very heavy on diesel and the one I have now is lpg, am looking for a Lucida import running on lpg, or I was, but can't really afford to change cars at the moment, CRV is fine though.

I have a Vito van and it is no more difficult to drive than a
4 x 4.

In fact I would nver go back to a car again I love it

I've been thinking about this in advance of getting my next car, thinking ahead ot having children etc. Currently my two travel in the boot behind a dog guard which is fine, and luggage goes on the back seats. Not ideal if I have passengers or children in the future!

I've been thinking that for my next car I'll look for an estate that is large enough to accomodate both dogs in one half of the boot, using a boot divider and dog guard to separate them from the other half. That way luggage can go in the other half of the boot, and some on the back seats if necessary, but still leaving spare seats.

What car matches that though? I have no idea! Volvo XC70 or V70 maybe?

I just had a quick Google and it seems a Mondeo estate could fit the bill.

I was looking at the Vito, but they're quite pricey for the sporty option I liked - same with the VW version. Shame as I like the styling and room of those options.

I haven't found any estate big enough for two pointers without taking out the rear seats and losing and luggage storage.

Ah, pointers! When you said "medium sized" I was expecting something smaller, as I class my large whippets as medium sized.

Sounds like you'll need some kind of van then!