Baby Car Thread

allie456 · January 2020

@m6agua you drive into FIELDS with your non-AWD car? I feel like a big baby, lol.

@shamrocandroll I'm much more like Boston suburbs than rural NH. MH's car is AWD (Ford Escape) but it's old and we couldn't fit the whole family in it. So in the blizzard zombie apocalypse we would have to drive my car.

@sunshinesea22 we test drove the Ascent when we thought both I and MH would be replacing our cars and I love love loved it for him, but I think ultimately I want a minivan and not an SUV. I think when he replaces his car it will be between that and the Kia Telluride, but I think I'm going to replace mine first.

I think the answer is I don't really need AWD, it would just give me some peace of mind to have it, and the question is how much is that worth and what else am I giving up in terms of snazzy styling etc to have it.

bananapanda · January 2020

@pourmeanothermocktail our lives sound very similar from this thread! I'm also in IL but more in central/southern IL and have a 40 mile commute! I do love our Traverse. DH wants a Tahoe someday, but I don't see the point because I had also heard they have less cargo space than the Traverse but are just so huge and would be a pain to park. We usually have the third row down in our Traverse since nobody sits back there and it's easier for taking our golden retriever with us if it's already down. I do think there are still some perks to a minivan, but I'm not sure if it's enough to make the switch just yet. But I guess we'll see how it is with 2 in rear facing seats in the captain chairs and decide after that.

pirateduck · January 2020

One other point to add to the 4WD/AWD discussion. I don't know if other states have this or not, but it's a serious consideration. In Colorado we have traction control laws (there are different levels depending on severity of the weather), and there are many days I literally would not legally be allowed to drive the roads between my house and work/town without 4WD and/or snow tires and/or chains depending on the level of the restrictions they have enacted. Having 4WD and snow tires I can pretty much always get through safely and legally. As long as we live here we pretty much always have to own at least one 4WD vehicle. As a compromise my husband drives a little fuel efficient sedan which we take when the weather is good and try to take when we can to save on gas and wear and tear on the jeep.

pourmeanothermocktail · January 2020

@bananapanda We bought ours already having two kids rear facing, and will have at least two rear facing in June. We keep our third row up because our reusable grocery bags slide and fall over it it down. I can fit maybe 6 of them (they're HUGE from aldi) plus 2 cases of soda with seats up. Tahoe is like 1.5" wider inside, 2" longer inside, and starts at $20,000 more, plus is harder to park.

I think the difference between Tahoe and Suburban is 15-18" inside length but only $7,000 more than Tahoe. I figure if I ever need more than Traverse, the Tahoe is totally overrated and over priced, so I'd go super size! We get the crazy snow and cold from Minnesota and Wisconsin up here (Wisconsin border is real close to us) so minivan would never feel safe without AWD.

@pirateduck That's really interesting about the laws. We get terrible winters and snow here, but tire chains are illegal. Maybe it has to do with our roads ALREADY being in awful shape, and it's at least super flat here. But I've never heard of mandated AWD/4WD even in bad conditions. My husband does have the cheap little sedan for commuting, but unfortunately we can't take it with all of us. It can't seat two rear facing kids with one adult comfortably. We could do it in an emergency, but would be having a really hard time with more than 15 min in car. Getting family of 5 in would be a borderline miracle without getting all new super pricey car seats, and that's never going to happen.

chewie5990 · January 2020

I am so jealous of all you mamas getting an ascent! I want one sooo bad, but we just bought my Subaru Crosstrek 3 years ago and MH has a Honda C-RV that works fine. Right now our plan is to upgrade to the acent but not until baby #3.. we will see how it goes though - I might start trying to convince MH earlier rather than later!

catem07 · January 2020

@chewie5990 You can usually get a discount from Subaru if you trade in within 5 years. Plus they hold their value so well--at some point check how much you'd get on a trade in, my mom recently got a lot more than she owed on her Forester!

lisush · January 2020

@chewie5990 we're looking into getting a Subaru and are currently both driving sedans. Since we're first time parents we weren't planning to go as big as the Ascent to start, so I've been looking into the Forester. That's a little bigger than the Crosstrek right? I don't think we'll have baby #2 for another 2-3 years and MH will probably be ready to trade in his car by then and we could get the next size up. Do you feel like your cars are actually going to be cramped with 2 or it would just be nice to have something bigger? Should I be considering going bigger from the start?

ruby696 · January 2020

@lisush Jumping in, just to recommend you take your carseat with you when you test drive the Forester. Rear-facing carseats take up a lot of room and if you're on the taller side, can make it uncomfortable when you're in the front seat. But if you get good clearance, there's no reason to upgrade to something bigger when your second comes along, unless you want to. We had both kids in our Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it worked fine. We would have done three across, until we found out we were having twins.

lisush · January 2020

@ruby696 thanks! I'll try to hold off on the search until I actually get the car seat then haha. I was planning on getting the Chicco keyfit travel system to start and then not sure yet about which car seat we'll go with for the next step. MH is 6'6" and I'm 5'1" so there's always one seat with tons of room behind it and one seat with none. If it's going to be mainly my car he'll probably just make me drive it whenever we're together so we don't have to move the car seat. So much to consider!

ruby696 · January 2020

@lisush Once you turn the seat around, it's NBD, but that will be a few (at least two) years out. I'm 5 ft, and I can even drive a mini cooper with a rear facing carseat behind me. So as long as you're the primary driver, you have lots of options.

Also, the Chicco should have an option of just buying a second base. You can always just keep a base in YH's car, on the passenger side, in case he needs to drive baby around, too.

soprano19 · January 2020

@lisush we have a Subaru Outback, which doesn’t look big on the outside but is quite roomy on the inside. I think it’s even a little bigger than the Crosstrek. I’m 5’2” and H is 6’1”, and when he drives we didn’t have any issues with his seat colliding with DD’s car seat (she’s forward facing now, so it’s even less of an issue). You may want to check out the Outback if you’re also looking at the Crosstrek and the Forester.

sunshinesea22 · January 2020

@lisush We just got the Ascent. For us it made sense to go straight to the bigger car because we plan on having at least 2 kids. I figured if we got a Forrester we would run out of storage space quickly by the 2nd kid and have to upgrade again. It just didn’t make sense to have to upgrade again in 2-3 years, but that’s just the way I think and how I feel about it. MH had a front seat only pick up truck, so we sold that and now he drives my Subaru Impreza sedan and I have the Ascent. We figure we only need 1 “family sized” car for now, since I’ll be doing most of the kid transportation during the week and we will always use the Ascent for family outings.

lisush · January 2020

I'll have to check out both and see if the Ascent feels like too much for me right now. Thanks!

shamrocandroll · January 2020

@lisush I'm currently leasing the Crosstrek, and I love it, but I will probably up-size to the Outback or Forester next year when the lease is up. I am 5'10" and MH is 6' and we're able to fit a Graco 4Ever (a bigger sized convertible seat) rear facing behind either seat. Probably not quite as much room as we'd have with no seat back there, but enough to be comfortable. Oh, an I also have the Chicco Keyfit infant seat, which will also fit back there without issue, so I should be able to keep them both rear facing for a while longer (DS1 turned 3 in November and is still not at the 40 lb rear facing limit yet). However, we have a Santa Fe as our main family car, which is similarly sized to the Ascent. I absolutely LOVE our Santa Fe! We had another one before DS1 was born and traded it in for the same model, just 10 years newer after he was born. I have to say I've honestly been more impressed with the Santa Fe's handling in the snow with all-season tires than I am with my Subaru with snow tires. We'll look at the Ascent next time, but that won't be for a while. We plan to drive the Santa Fe until it's about 10 years old, since we got that out of our last one with no major issues, and now we drive even fewer miles than we did back then.

afranzen85 · January 2020

@bananapanda I am also in central IL. I was sooo against a minivan, but I will say after driving one now for almost 8 years, I don't think I could drive anything else while having small children.

I was pregnant with my first when we bought it. Husband convinced me that it was the smart purchase because we wanted more than 1 child, 3rd rows of SUVs just don't have the same space and gas mileage.

We will be adding child #4 and so glad we won't have to buy another vehicle and still have plenty of room. We have friends that have SUVs and only 2 kids that wish they had minivans now because as the kids get older, you begin transporting your kid's friends around with you too. Just a thought.

m6agua · January 2020

We have a 2013 Kia Sportage and a 2008 Kia Spectra. DH and I are both short (I'm 5'1" and he is 5'6"). We used the Chicco Keyfit and then the Graco 4Ever rear facing behind the drivers side with plenty of room. We will probably continue to have the Graco 4Ever rear facing for DD (until 4 years old) and the Chicco Keyfit rear facing and will have room in both cars for us to sit.

The one thing though is packing space for weekend getaways to my parents lakehouse and/or the farm. It is only 45 minutes away from our home and we have stuff we keep there (crib, toys, books, etc) but my SUV is still always packed full. I have no clue how we are going to do it with 2 kiddos. I do have a roof rack so maybe we will need to start using that or we will just take 2 cars since it really isn't that far. Whatever we choose we will probably just make it work. I think we are a couple years off yet from upgrading the Spectra.

catem07 · January 2020

When we travel we basically manage to stuff whichever car we take...I like having a big SUV and a smaller efficient car (hybrid) so we can try to minimize gas use when possible but also can pack in a lot of stuff.

chewie5990 · January 2020

@lisush like others have said - I LOVE my Crosstrek, but it will be a little cramped with 2 when we go on trips. There isn't a ton of trunk space and we also have a dog. Right now when just the 3 of us go camping or on a short roadtrip the trunk is packed to maximum capacity with stuff on the extra back seat as well. But for just regular day to day driving I don't think we will have any problems with 2. I do kinda wish I would have gone with the forester though just to have more trunk space.

chewie5990 · January 2020

@soprano19 the outback is definitely longer than the Crosstrek and has more trunk space!

emlettuce · February 2020

DH and I were just at a Honda dealership to compare the Odyssey and the pilot. Our salesman was very pro minivan so I think I almost have DH convinced that's what we should get so that's exciting for me but what is up with the gear shifter on the newest model? Why would you do this?

lisush · February 2020

@emlettuce oh yea my mom's Acura is like that too. Not a fan. I also hate all the screens and touch pads, they are not easy to use when driving (or as a passenger). Just give me my buttons!

shamrocandroll · February 2020

@emlettuce That looks like a really easy way to accidentally blow your transmission. I hope it has safeties built in so you can't accidentally throw your car into reverse while doing 70 on the highway.

bananapanda · February 2020

@emlettuce DH's terrain is like that also and it's so weird driving it! It's crazy the technology these days that makes vehicles seem outdated after just a year or two. I have a 2017 traverse and still have a key rather than push start and so when I switch between mine and MH's I feel like I'm going back in time when I have to pull out an old school key.

pourmeanothermocktail · February 2020

@bananapanda I love that my traverse has an old school key.
@emlettuce The first push button transmissions were actually on luxury cars in the 40s, but they weren't loved. I still don't love it though.

emlettuce · February 2020

@pourmeanothermocktail It was a bad idea then and it's a bad idea now. I just have to decide if it's a deal breaker for the car or not

allie456 · February 2020

@emlettuce I have no idea how I would even drive that. but my current Mazda 5 is a literal old school stick shift so I might not be the target audience, lol

pirateduck · February 2020

I shift too much while driving, even though I own an automatic, I don't think I could do it. I'm constantly in and out of 4WD and shifting into lower gears to save my brakes on the mountain passes.

allie456 · February 2020

I just put a deposit down on a minivan! It's a Toyota Sienna LE with AWD. I won't get it for a few weeks but they were doing a cash back/financing special that seemed best to take advantage of now.

I think buying this car has made the way our family is growing feel more real than anything else so far!

pirateduck · February 2020

I’ve never had a car with anything other than a key, I knew there were other options now, but didn’t realize that they were standard and keys are out

pourmeanothermocktail · February 2020

pirateduck said:

I’ve never had a car with anything other than a key, I knew there were other options now, but didn’t realize that they were standard and keys are out

My newest car is still a 2014, and we've only had it a year. It's got a normal key, with a fob on a ring. Our other car is a 2014, but we bought it in 2015, that has a slightly fancier key with fob built in, where the key folds into the fob. Suggestion? Don't ever lose them. But also make sure you have 2, because if you lose all the keys, now you have to pay for a flatbed tow, a key or two, and programming.It was $500..."for a friend."

pirateduck · February 2020

@pourmeanothermocktail my husband and I both only have one key for each vehicle. Mine also has a fob with a chip built in. I think the dealership quoted me almost $300 to cut and program a spare key. I vowed never to lose my key, but then we don’t exactly do that on purpose. Also my BF this week is that the battery in my fob died which meant I was locked out of my car at the post office with my purse and phone safely locked in the car.

pourmeanothermocktail · February 2020

@pirateduck We only had one key for my husband's car, and last winter it apparently fell out of his pocket in our yard. In the snow. It was $225 for one key, but then only $100 for the second one at same time. But the towing screwed us, $500 total. But, mobile locksmiths can't program all dealer keys apparently. And, this happened in middle of a blizzard, so we had to wait 2 days on a tow because our car was safe at home-not in a ditch, etc. Learned our lesson. Both cars have 2 keys now.

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