going on 3rd child and need new car advice

[dex_millie]

We recently found out we are expected our 3rd. We are now wondering if to get a 7 passenger vehicle(we don't like minivans, infact I don't even like big vehicles but I don't have a choice now) or go with a roomy 5 passenger vehicle that will have the exact about of space for our family. We want to raise money for it, more than likely we are thinking buying a used car like we always do. The 5 passenger will be less expensive and will be an exact fit while the other option will be opposite.

WWYD?

Oh..this vehicle will be in use 4-5 times a week between PT preschool and speech therapy.

[LaughingHyena]

One thing I would think about is how much stuff you need to carry in addition to the passengers.

For example will you want to carry a double pushchair? they can be pretty big. What about camping trips or visits to relatives. How often do you do those sort of things and how much stuff do you take?

Do you want to be able to accommodate extra passengers, do you ever pick up your children's friends? is it something you see yourself doing as they get older?

[A&A]

5 passenger, definitely. A 7-passenger will be a lot more expensive.

[pbjmama]

The problems with 5 passenger for me are #1 car seats - yes you can get 3 across but it usually has to be 3 specific seats in a certain order. Are you willing to buy those seats and are they the best seats for your kids? And #2 sanity - those 3 kids can probably all touch each other and in my experience that leads to alot of fighting.

[dachshundqueen]

I was seriously contemplating moving from an 04 civic to an XC90, DH wants a Sienna.

I have decided that we're going to stick with the civic. In this economy I don't want to spend any more money than necessary and the civic is in good working order and can get at least another 100k miles without major repairs needed (DH is an insurance agent/side mechanic).

The loss of gas mileage, our general lack of super long car trips, and the added cost in terms of insurance/tags helped make the decision for me.

Liz

[StrawberryFields]

We chose to stay with our 5 passenger Pontiac Vibe and it has been great. Kids fit fine in the back, with the carseats we already had. I can fit the double jogging stroller in the back, groceries, etc. We have gone camping with it too, no trouble with having enough room for our gear. And the gas mileage is excellent. I have zero desire to move into a bigger, more expensive vehicle.

[sweetjasmine]

My daughter and her husband recently bought a gently used Ford Explorer. It seats 5 and then there's an extra seat in the back that can be raised from the floor for a total of 6 seats. They have a 5 year old, 16 month old and 3 month old. Even with the seat up in the back there's room for some cargo. I don't know what kind of mileage it gets, she mainly uses it for very short trips running errands around town a few times a week.

ETA: Meant to add that the stroller easily fits in the back plus things like groceries, etc.

[mbhf]

What vehicle do you have now? If it is at all possible, I would hold onto whatever you have now (assuming it is a 5 passenger) until the baby comes and you can see how you feel about getting 3 in and out of the car with a smaller vehicle. It's not very nice to buy a car that you think will work out just great when the baby comes only to find that something else would have been much, much better. BTDT!

[Drummer's Wife]

We've done 3 kids in a small sedan - it's doable, but tight.

I would look at a Mazda5. It isn't technically a minivan, but isn't a huge SUV, either. I really want one, but have four kids with hopes to have more.

[lmonter]

Yeah, what kind of car do you currently have?

When we got pregnant with #3, we knew we didn't have enough room to legally put three carseats in the back of a Subaru Impreza (two was snug enough as it was!).

We got a new Honda CRV. I had 3 Britaxes in the backseat. Lots of carseat back there, but it worked (the oldest was in the Frontier in the middle, second on the side in a FF Marathon, littlest in her Snugride then RF Roundabout).

Then we got pregnant with #4. Not planned, not expected, nothing. Oof. We ended up selling our CRV and getting an older Honda Odyssey. I'm not the minivan kind of gal, yet here I am.
My choice was basically a giant SUV for all the kids (just because they're younger doesn't mean they can do without any leg room in my book) that only got 12-15mpg if I was lucky, or sucking it up and getting a minivan that gets closer to 20+mpg. Some people kept telling me to get a Mazda 6 or something, but they weren't going to be buckling kids in the back over the other rear-facing seats, nor were they going to be available to haul hundreds of pounds of apples or strollers or whatnot for me at my whim. I haul stuff and kids on a fairly regular basis, I need a decent cargo-like area regardless of what I drive.

It is nice having the extra seat now, though. Grandma can go with us to the fireworks, or the kids and I can take a mommy friend and child with us somewhere sometimes. I'll get my 1960's Landcruiser in 10-15 years, I'll deal with this in the meantime.

Oh, I do have three Sunshine Radian 80SL's. Would 95% recommend them. The base is 15" wide, shoulder of the seat is where it's widest at 17". I have three, forward facing, across my narrowish older bench seat in the van. Not sure how much room they'd need rear-facing, but they are certainly nice and narrow. Odds are they'd fit nicely in my mom's Camry if needed. Hubby's older Prizm would be a challenge, but still.
Another tidbit I've learned - the more kids in carseats, the more head room you want. Otherwise you're going to have a perma-bruise on your forehead from whacking into the door frame or roof of the car.

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by mbhf

What vehicle do you have now? If it is at all possible, I would hold onto whatever you have now (assuming it is a 5 passenger) until the baby comes and you can see how you feel about getting 3 in and out of the car with a smaller vehicle. It's not very nice to buy a car that you think will work out just great when the baby comes only to find that something else would have been much, much better. BTDT!

We have a 99 or 2000 Nissan Maxima that has started to stutter(DH found oil in the spark plug area) and it sometimes have problem with accelerating properly. DH doesn't trust it for me and the kids as I will be on the highway 3 days a week dropping DS to his preschool and 1/2 times taking him to speech therapy(but that is only 13minutes from our apt. at this moment).

Originally Posted by LaughingHyena

One thing I would think about is how much stuff you need to carry in addition to the passengers.

For example will you want to carry a double pushchair? they can be pretty big. What about camping trips or visits to relatives. How often do you do those sort of things and how much stuff do you take?

Do you want to be able to accommodate extra passengers, do you ever pick up your children's friends? is it something you see yourself doing as they get older?

We rarely have extra passengers. I also haven't reach that stage of carrying around friends for DS maybe it might happen in the next few years but I am more the drop off and pick up kind of person right now.

For camping and traveling I was thinking we can always rent a bigger vehicle if necessary.


We dont plan on getting a new car until we have most or all of the money but at least before the baby is 1/2months old. I don't want to disrupt DS normal school/speech therapy for to long, I already feeling bad about. We have no idea right now how we are going to take him to these things for at least the first 3/4weeks.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by dex_millie

For camping and traveling I was thinking we can always rent a bigger vehicle if necessary.

Take a look at the rental prices. Around here? It's $100/day for a minivan, $140/day for something like a Suburban, plus the cost of gas. So if you plan to camp/travel more than once a year (if that), just keep that added expense in mind.

(sorry, we just replaced the transmission on our van two weeks ago, and were incredibly, incredibly lucky that we knew the repair guy and that he was willing to let us borrow a beater minivan the shop had on hand - it's expensive out there!)

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by lmonter

Take a look at the rental prices. Around here? It's $100/day for a minivan, $140/day for something like a Suburban, plus the cost of gas. So if you plan to camp/travel more than once a year (if that), just keep that added expense in mind.

(sorry, we just replaced the transmission on our van two weeks ago, and were incredibly, incredibly lucky that we knew the repair guy and that he was willing to let us borrow a beater minivan the shop had on hand - it's expensive out there!)

That is a crazy price. I just rented a minivan to go out-of-state and it cost 450 for 10 days(not including insurance, I heard if you have insurance it can cover rentals also). Guess we would have to look out for the deals. If not DH will proberly borrow his mom minivan or we may have to suck it up and get one.

[pbjmama]

If your child is in state therapy/preschool there may be a free transportation option. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

[TheGirls]

Well, we will have 3 children when the twins arrive, and we're getting a minivan. Our reasons:

- I can't fit my double stroller in my sedan at all, or in most sedans I've seen. In very large cars, it fits, but there's no room for, say, a diaper bag also. In my friend's sienna, we recently travelled with 2 adults, 4 children, 2 double strollers, 2 large diaper bags, and the cargo space was half empty still. It gets only slightly less MPG than my little car.

- There's a decent possibility we will have another child in the next few years.

- My family lives 4.5 hours away, so we do overnight trips there regularly. It would be a lot of work to get 5 people's worth of stuff (including 3 people's worth of diapers) in the trunk of a sedan. Add in Christmas gifts and whatnot - it gets pretty crazy.

- It is HARD to buckle a child in the middle of a sedan with two outboard carseats in the way. My DD is two, I will be buckling all three for years yet.

- We regularly have out of town guests, often guests who fly in. It's awfully nice to be able to pick them up at the airport and transport them around town. Otherwise we have to wait for DP to be off work if we want to go anywhere with more than one guest.

- I buy furniture and such on Craigslist or at garage sales. The sedan trunk is pretty limited for bringing such things home. Three children will not fit in our truck.

- A small SUV does not, IME, offer much more passenger space, and often are MORE crowded in the backseat.

- A large enough SUV would be more expensive and have worse gas milage than a minivan

- We like to camp and take road trips. Minivan rentals are at least $50/day (usually more like $80), plus the hassle of moving all the seats, picking up the van, etc. (I often handle this stuff while DP is at work). Even 2 rentals a year would cost more than the additional cost of a minivan to begin with..

- Larger sedans tend to get gas milage that's only a little better than a minivan

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by pbjmama

If your child is in state therapy/preschool there may be a free transportation option. Wouldn't hurt to ask.

They do have a school bus, but we are not comfortable right now with it. If he could talk proberly to let us know how things went or if anything happen then maybe, but he cannot explain situations.


I am looking into an Acura MDX, those seem like it will be in our price range if bought used.

I guess that is the next question... should it matter if it is used or not. It would take too long to raise money for a new one but we can for a used one.

[pbjmama]

Originally Posted by dex_millie

They do have a school bus, but we are not comfortable right now with it. If he could talk proberly to let us know how things went or if anything happen then maybe, but he cannot explain situations.

I am looking into an Acura MDX, those seem like it will be in our price range if bought used.

I guess that is the next question... should it matter if it is used or not. It would take too long to raise money for a new one but we can for a used one.

I understand your hesitation with the bus.

As far as new vs. used - we only buy used. We considered new with the cash for clunkers program last year but it still did not make sense to buy new. I think you just loose too much money with new.