Cars for carting kids - Page 2

[Tigerchild]

Love the Odyssey and I despise large cars. I test drove lots of large cars and vans in anticipation of our twins, the Odyssey was the only one that didn't turn my stomach with anxiety about parking, being able to see the road, ect.

Though both Honda and Toyota have excellent reliability. I think you cannot really take other people's advice on this one. You need to test drive all of those. Be sure to test drive parking, check out the turn radius, ect. Then you'll know which ones give you the willies and which ones don't.

[Quinalla]

I vote the Honda Odyssey unless you really, really want the 4WD (and I have 4WD on my car and it is nice for sure, but for me it wasn't a deciding factor, I just got it because it was available on the car I liked). But of course test drive them all (and make sure you get highway and stop & go driving and get to see how it parks and all that) and really get in them and try out the features, try to do everything like you would IRL, see how easy the seats really are to use, where you will have car seats or booster seats, etc. Fold down flat seats are so nice as long as they fold up and down easily, that is what my car has, and my 60/40 bench is easy on both sides to move the seats up to get people in the back so I don't mind that especially as I don't use the back seat very often (it is mostly folded down). I also really like having a bigger car because if you have to cart 4-5 people around, it's nice for them to (1) be able to spread out (2) have room for luggage if you travel and (3) have room in your car to lug things around.

And hey, if you want another consideration, I love my Saturn Outlook and it is the same size-wise as the Odyssey. I think I will miss having the slide-open mini van doors in tight parking spots once my baby arrives, but I am very happy with the car And it parks just as easily as the Honda Accord I used to have which is nice too.

[momofmine]

I did look at the Saturn Outlook a couple of months ago. I test drove it one really loved it, but DH was not keen on it given the economic situation. He also thinks Toyota or Honda are longer running, and the plan would be to drive this car as long as it lasts.

I am probably overthinking this, but I am really trying to think about not just what car will work best for right now but also over the next ten or even more years. Right now, my kids are 5 and 10 and I have grandma with us all the time. But in five years, grandma will not likely be staying with us anymore and I will have a teenager who will be learning to drive in this car. Because we homeschool, I also envision that when the kids are a bit older, we'll do more travelling, more outdoor stuff, adventuring, etc. We go camping, canoeing, etc now and I want to do more of that when the kids are older.

Which car can I imagine my future teenager driving? Moving my kids to college in? That seems far away now, but I likely would drive a new car for that long. I'm also really torn on the four wheel drive option too.

Thanks for all the feedback here, it is so helpful!

[aran]

(Disclaimer - didn't read any of the replies)

We love love love our Odyssey. And I am someone who vowed up and down I would never buy a minivan. I hate the way they look. However, it drives great - better than our regular cars - and has so much room to cart around my kids stuff, and it is comfortable for long trips, and it has great visibility for the kids so they are less crabby about driving. I love that ugly thing.

We were tempted by the Siena because you can get 4 wheel drive, and it would be helpful here in the winter. But I like the ability to put three people across the middle row in the Odyssey, and that's not possible in the 4 wheel drive version of the Siena. It is not terrible to sit in between the two car seats in the middle row for short trips, if needed. When the car seats are out, three kids could be in the middle row comfortably with no problem.

[siobhang]

mazda 5. seats six, great gas mileage, cheap ($19K), great resale value.