what is your favorite family car/vehicle?

[Flynn]

In honor of Fluff...what is your favorite family car. This can be a vehicle you've rented, own or are going to get "some day."


What's "ideal" to you and why?


Aside from the price and the fact that it's an environmentl nightmare (I realize these are BIG asides) I am embarassed how much I love our Suburban. We can fit our family of four (two kids in car seats), my parents when they visit and our big dog all in one vehicle. It handles extremely well and it's not nearly as difficult to park as one might think. Parallel parking is no big deal. DH didn't fit into a minivan -- too tall so that's what we ended up with.

[mommax3]

I also confess that I LOVE our Suburban, which has 127K more miles on it than when we got it almost six years ago. I have also wished for two bucket seats in the middle row, though.

I am struggling with the fact that some of the time, I am the ONLY one in the darn thing, which makes no sense, but then when the kids and their stuff and an extra kid or two need rides, it is perfect. Right now, we are considering getting either a minivan (probably an Odyssey) or a smaller SUV (Tahoe) without the cargo area, and renting a Suburban for long road trips.......we still have a while before we need to make that decision, though.

With three kids who are daily (hourly, sometimes it seems!) growing into BIG kids, the family car thing is not an easy decision. I know all three of my boys will be 6 ft., and two of them are likely to be well over six feet, as is my husband. I plan on taking road trips with them when they are teenagers, and the more room, the better, you know?

But in the meantime, we will drive our Suburban until it dies, and I hope it lasts for a couple more years at least! DH is driving a '94 Olds 88 with over 150K on it, and he hopes for a used (low miles) Corolla or something similar next. He drives six miles to work and six miles back home, so he doesn't really care what vehicle he has. I drive quite a bit more, and mostly at higher speeds, 85% of the time with kids......so I will take size and safety, even if it means more $$$$ to spend on gas. My dream is that E85 will become a more viable option the longer we wait to get a new vehicle, and I will try to get a flex-fuel car when the time comes.

Sally

[JaneDoe]

Thank you, Flynn, I'm curious to read the responses. We will soon be in the market for a bigger car. My BIL has a suburban (or the GMC equivalent - I'm not sure if it's also called a suburban), which has third row seating. It very comfortably fits our family of 4, BIL, MIL and SIL. However, he told us that it gets 12 miles to the gallon. I can't bring myself to buy a car that gets that kind of gas mileage.

I've been talking to DH about a minivan - I really like the Honda Odyssey and I've heard great things about it. But, Dh is pretty much anti-minivan.

So, even though we don't drive one, at this point, our dream vehicle probably would be one that has third row seating, gets much better gas mileage than 12 mpg and is not a mini-van. Does such a car even exist?

I think the GMC is the Yukon? I've driven the Yukon and Suburban (around '99 or '00 models) and preferred the Yukon. Just my two cents.

We had my FIL's Toyota Landcruiser for a while and I didn't like it. Too big and the third row was a PITA to access with car seats in the second. I traded that in for a Volvo wagon which I just sold reluctantly. I'll spare you my three car seat/booster seat across rant.

Now we have a Honda Odyssey minivan. It's, uh, not the sexiest beast on the road but it is the car best suited to meet our needs. I like the double sliding doors that I can open with the remote. It has great storage in the rear and it is very easy for kids to access to third row, even with car seats in the second row. The third row seats are easy to fold up and retrieve and I could almost do it with one hand. I haven't tried, but I'm pretty sure I will be able to get my bike, the bike buggy, kids bike, and kids in the car without needing a hitch or roof rack. It's not as much fun to drive as the Volvo but is still surprising zippy and handles nicely.

[alison]

I don't know if I'm allowed to post here, but I will anyway, because we recently bought a car.

We ended up with a Toyota Matrix (we wanted to trade in my gas-guzzler Jeep Grand Cherokee). It's not a kid car, but we love it.

When we were looking, I really liked the Toyota Highlander, which also has a third row of seats. I don't know what the two of us are supposed to do with 6 empty seats, but I thought it would be a good car for hauling and dragging kids around in. Or am I mistaken? Is it harder to strap kids into an SUV than a minivan?

Growing up, my parents had a VW Vanagon. Not with the kitchenette, but with the seats and the airconditioning vents all up and down the body of the van. It was great. We kids saw a lot of Mt. Rainier, Port Townsend, Chuckanut Drive and Dungeoness Spit in it. I don't think they make those cars anymore.

[quote="alison"]Is it harder to strap kids into an SUV than a minivan?/quote]

The difficulty lies in accessing the 3rd row of seats. If it's something they have to climb over the 2nd row to get to, it's kind of pointless. That kind of 3rd row is good for the occasional "we need extra seats" but not daily use.

I've started to lust after the Toyota Sienna or the Honda Odessy. I've only driven the Toyota so far though. We have a VW Passat Wagon, which I love, but can't fit 3 carseats, so if we have a third, we'll need to upsize.

[fluffhead]

I like my honda civic hatchback. Fits 2 kids absolutely fine in the back seat, and all the groceries I might care to buy in the hatch.
I mourn the passing of my hatchback days. This is my third hatch, and I've lived in them for the past 20 years.
Time to grow up, I guess.

[migirl]

I've not done any extensive research yet, but I would love for my next car to be a Toyota Highlander.

[Amiens]

We bought a Honda Odyssey last year, and my anti-minivan hubby loves it- it's sporty looking, and has lots of "cool" gagdets. I love it as well- smooth ride, lots of room, and again cool gagdets.

Crystal

[Momo]

I do have to admit that for convienence my Sienna minivan is the best (sorry Fluff). The kids can get in and out themselves, I love that I can automatically open the doors, it handles great on the road, and it fits all of our junk.

ditto! Come May, God willing, we will have 4 car seats in ours! It's reassuring to read how well it accomodates a family of 6!

[Malpka]

We have the Sienna also. Love it! I was so not ready to be a minivan mama, but then some beeotch totalled my cute little Maxima, and with more kids on the way we needed the easy and cheaper solution. There is defintely no goign back now. We have the 8 seater, and we love being able to load up the whole family when they fly in. Also, with DH's triathlons, we can have allthe kids on the middle row, and fold down the back for his bike and stuff. Even if I had money for a fancier car, I would probably just get another Sienna.

[Cumberland]

I have a Honda Pilot, and I really like it.

[Stella]

Well, since it's still really new to me, I love my M430! I was looking at Highlanders when I bought the Mercedes and they drive nicely. They are built on a Camry frame so it drives nice and smoothly like a car. However, none of the Highlanders I looked at had a third row of seats. My mom and stepfather bought a Cadillac Escalade to fit our family of 6 and we all are madly in love with it. It seats 7. I also like the Suburbans - my dad had one when I was a kid and I remember countless baseball games where we sat on the tailgate. I know it's bad for the environment, but I LOVE my SUV. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

[DCJenn]

I was very happy with the MINI but things got cramped when it was more than just me and the dog or me and Nikolai. We bought the Toyota Yaris because of the gas mileage- 35.5/gallon at my last fill-up. We have the Audi A3 Wagon for bigger trips. (That gets about 24 mpg.)

I will never, ever, ever own anything that gets less gas mileage than what I'm getting now. I just can't wrap my head around how that can be a good thing. Who needs that much space? Of course we have ONE kid and ONE dog. I grew up with the Volvo wagon (learned to drive on a '73 volvo wagon, stick shift with no power steering and no power brakes- thing was like driving a truck- but this girl can park anything anywhere anytime!)

If the manufacturers can start improving the mileage in the larger vehicles then I'd consider it, but for now, I'm content to hug my trees in my little cars.

Jenn

ETA: for those who are considering children, don't forget to factor things like how much car you will need and the relative cost of gas and maintenance. We've had spouses here hit rock bottom financially when their beaters finally gave out. Plan ahead.

I'm content to hug my trees in my little cars.

Just make sure you're not hugging trees WITH your little cars.