What kind of vehicle for family of 4 who might keep growing?

virginiagirl11

What kind of car would you all recommend for a family of four who's not sure it's done growing yet? We have one car, a RAV4 right now and, while it's awesome for a family of two or three, it doesn't scale so well once you put two car seats in there. We need a second car and we're looking at something a little bigger. Here's what I'm looking for:

- exceedingly safe

- good gas mileage

- high quality brand, excellent reputation

- can scale if we have another child or two and/or our kids have brought friends along

- won't look totally silly and unnecessarily huge if we decide to stop at two kids

- cost of maintenance is not prohibitive

- good resale value

What would you all recommend? Thank you!

thedash

Sounds like you're in minivan territory to me! We just bought a Toyota Sienna and I love it so much. I am driving a rental GMC Acadia this week and don't like it at all. It's very high and hard to get in and out of. It feels top heavy when I drive and the ride is very bumpy and truck-like. I can't wait to get back into my minivan!

We are expecting our second LO in a few weeks and will likely have a third in the next few years. Plus we do lots of road trips and sometimes bring our nanny or my SIL along. So we liked the idea of a big vehicle even though we obviously could get by with something smaller. Mine can seat 8 but I keep the second row center seat stowed in the back so it's like having two captains chairs and then a third row bench.

My commute is typically short so gas mileage was not a huge concern. We are getting about 20 mpg around town and over 25 on long highway trips.

EastCoastBride

Minivan.  I have an Odyssey and love it.  A few friends have Sienna's and love them.

And honestly - no one pays attention to how many kids you have vs the car you drive.  You aren't going to look "silly" w/ 2 kids and a minivan.  Heck -I only have ONE kid!  But we go a lot of roadtrips and the van makes it very, very easy to do this.

financialdiva

I big pink puffy heart my Honda Odyssey.

I average about 22 mpg. I was getting 26 in my accord and can't imagine you are getting any better then that in your Rav4. IMHO, it's not that far off.

The Odyssey seats 8, and you can fit 3 carseats in the middle row. Powersliding doors and power liftgate are amazing and a must.

VTFutureMrs

I drive a CRV now and we needed something bigger, so we just bought an Odyssey and DH is obsessed with it. Being able to rearrange the seats is so nice and the automatic doors make things so much easier. 

jf198400

We also have a Toyota Sienna and love it!  Vans are so much better because of the power sliding doors, there is nothing better than that!

SoMoNY

Sounds like minivan because you mentioned gas mileage.

We have a Jeep Commander that seats 7, space is great but gas mileage is not.

Mercedes makes some nice 7 steaters and there is also the Toyota Sequoia if you don't want a minivan but gas mileage won't be great

Stephorse

We have a Honda Odyessy and love it! While we only have one right now and have a second one, I'm a music teacher and sometimes am hauling instruments around and we travel sometimes 1,000 miles to see family back in Chicago and with the baby and all our stuff we had enough room. We have an 05 model, but I heard that the new ones are really nice, but our older model is great for us and no car payments!

skyejo

GMC Acadia lover right here. Both girls are in their car seats in the captain chairs so we have the entire third row free.  Even when we have our third and have to move DD1 to the back there's still a lot of room in the thing. We take lots of trips and can fit all our gear plus the dog and still have a bunch of room. We may have a fourth and even then I'll stick with an SUV. Minivans are not up my alley.

Heated leather, back up camera, auto opening trunk, and AWD (necessary for me in Michigan where it snows what seems like 9 months out of the year) all sold me on it.