SUV/Crossover for a family of five.

[GoingtoWDWagain]

Shopping for an SUV/crossover for a family of five. Suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[Gracie09]

We love our Chevy traverse. It's big but comfortable (dh is 6'7" and fits nicely in it).

 

[starwart]

Diesel Audi Q7 great mpg but expensive
Honda Pilot reliable..period.

 

[3boymthr]

used or new?

 

[Happyjen27]

Car seats or no seats?

If the kids are out of car seats, I would say my Mitsubishi Outlander is awesome. Great price point, I think about 23,000.00 and I love it. Handles great in the snow, has 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive settings so you can lock in the 4WD in bad weather (a must in Upstate NY).

There is a collapsible 3rd row seat that you can bring up from the trunk area in mine which technically means it would seat 7, but it's really made for tiny folks like me. I wouldn't consider the 3rd row suitable for car seats or anyone over 5'4".

My husband's GMC Terrain is far more posh and has more fun gadgety options, however I feel like a lot of the functional features I have in my Mitsubishi are superior (3rd row seat, drop down hatch connection so it drops like a truck's back gate, lock on 4WD, not automatic 4WD where you have to slip and slide for it to kick in). The terrain would fit 3 kids easily.

 

[Shmily1]

I've had a Durango and loved it! It was awesome and had everything. I also love the Journeys. They are super nice too.

DD is looking at a Sorento with the seating for 7. She likes the way they look and they do hold up very well.

 

[Psychodisney]

We have a Journey and it is quite small IMHO for 5. We have the third row but only small kids could fit back there.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We love our Acadia (GMC version of the Traverse).

But, we keep our 3rd row flat 95% of the time. We are a family of 4, so the center row buckets work great for us. If we were 5, a bench in the middle would probably be better.

 

[mckelvey72]

Another Traverse lover here......don't know how we managed without it in the past. We have had it for a year and it is wonderful!!

 

[JanaDee]

For a family of five to be comfortable, I would look at 7 passenger vehicles.

Traverse/Acadia/Enclave, Honda Pilot, etc.

 

[nugov2]

I would only recommend nothing that your 3rd row is also your trunk space so if it is up...no trunk and will fit small children/people. For us that would not work. Other than that I would look at consumer ratings and test drive a couple.

 

[JediBonas]

We have a Ford Flex and love it! I refused to consider it at first because I didn't like the outside appearance but the inside won me over. We have second row captains chairs, which have our twins rear facing car seats, and still have a ton of room. It drives fantastic, too!

 

[arihillfarm]

We love our GMC Yukon XL Denali. It's a 2004 with 185,000 miles and still going strong! We are a family of 5 also and we've considered downsizing a little, but do use the 3rd row seat when all 5 of us are it, so having useable space behind the 3rd row is important to us. Even when it's just me with the kids, I like not having to fold the 3rd row in order to get a large load of groceries in there.

-Astrid

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

NOT the GMC Terrain. It is a great vehicle, but our family of 3 already runs out of space.

 

[wiigirl]

Diesel Audi Q7 great mpg but expensive
Honda Pilot reliable..period.

LOVE the Audi Q7

 

[Gumbo4x4]

NOT the GMC Terrain. It is a great vehicle, but our family of 3 already runs out of space.

Agreed, the Terrain/Equinox is a compact crossover. Not much space for 5.

 

[teCh0010]

Are you going to seat them three across, or use the third row full time? If you are going to use the third row full time I really would recommend a minivan. If I had three kids I would just bite the bullet and get an Odyssey.

If a minivan is out the usual suspects in the three row SUV market are the pilot, highlander, durango, explorer, and chevy traverse/gmc Acadia.

If you are going to use the third row then the space behind it is the most important factor. The traverse has the most space behind the third row, followed by the durango. If you get a durango get a 2014 with the eight speed transmission.

For full time third row I would get second row captains chairs so the kids won't be flipping the seats constantly for access. I know the traverse, durango, and highlander offer this. The highlander has a stow away center seat.

I love our pilot and highly recommend one, but there isn't enough room behind the third row for full time use. It works great to flip it up and haul extra kids somewhere.

 

[goofyredraider]

Another Ford Flex family. Love it!

 

[cvjw]

Would not recommend the redesigned 2013 or 2014 Nissan Pathfinder. Just had to file the lemon law on mine after owning it only a few months and having around 7000 miles on it. The CVT (transmission) has a shuddering/stalling out problem and Nissan doesn't seem to have a permanent fix for the problem yet. I needed my 3rd new CVT at 7000 miles. I made Nissan give me my money back.

I really liked the newly redesigned Acura MDX - it was very similar to the Pathfinder in amenities and size and the transmission works in it! I ended up in the Honda Odyssey Touring Elite, just for the extra space. Our family travels alot and just didn't have enough room in an SUV. Love our Odyssey!

 

[kristinradico]

We are a family of 5 and bought our Traverse brand new in 2009. I still love it! The only issue we ever had was our water pumped was leaking (I hear is common) but was fixed right away under warranty We have 2 in booster seats and 1 in a regular 5 point car seat. All 3 seats do fit in the middle row. The 3rd row is split, so I normally have one half up so my oldest can sit in the back and leave the other half down for space.
I think it has plenty of space. We have driven it round trip from California to Pennsylvania and also moved from Cali to Texas. All times we had 3 kids in boosters/car seats, my 95 pound Boxer Mix dog, plus many bags and such.