Family Car Suggestions

I have a 2006 Pilot and absolutely love it. When we were looking for it, I was a Toyota girl and really wanted to like the Highlander, but it just felt small and cramped, it seemed in a smaller class than the Pilot. I liked that the Pilot looks small, but feels really big inside. The only issue that we have had (and may not be relevant in your situation or with the 2009), is the room for rear facing car seats. They have to be in the center spot, or the driver/passenger seat has to be almost all the way forward. If you only have one kid at a time rear facing, it shouldn't be an issue for you. Even with that, I highly recommend it!

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I have a 2008 Subaru Outback and I love it. I would suggest that if you are looking at Outbacks and can afford it, go with a 2005 or newer. The bodies were redesigned in 05 and they got a bit roomier in the backseat starting then. Good luck.

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Hi I had the subaru outback and LOVED it! It was sporty zippy, good cornering and had a lot of storage room because if the hatchback. Take them all out for a drive. I know Toyotas are also great. I have had a few and they are dependable. but I would go back to the subaru in a heart beat if my family was smaller.
Good luck!
A. Lovejoy

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I love SUV's, but would want you to at least be aware of a couple of things:

Due to their height, more children are killed by unsuspecting drivers simply because they cannot see a little one around the perimeter.

Also, the taxes are higher.

As a mom of 3, I have found these to be the most valuable elements in my car:
Automatic doors, dvd player, leather seats - oh especially leather seats. And it's not because I'm a snob... Any car can have leather seats put in, usually for about $1500 or so. SO WORTH IT.

I know you only have one, but our first car was so crusted over with spilled bottles, dumped fruit chews, petrified nuggets and SWAG, the seats were stiff. Judge how you may, but I'm tellin' ya, if you can do it, put in leather seats. And keep scissors and knifes out of the car.

Honda has a great reputation, but you definitely have to keep on top of the oil changes and the timing belt. Hope this helps.

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I don't have an Outback, but I have a Subaru Forester which is a little bit bigger. I absolutely LOVE it! It has a lot of cargo space behind the seat so we have enough room to pack all of our stuff when we go somewhere. We are adding another child in the spring so we have to upgrade to a larger vehicle and of the ones we have looked at I am sold on the Honda Pilot. It is an 8 passenger only now and it comes with a lot more features standard than the other SUV's in its class and it rode like a car instead of a huge truck. I'm keeping my Subaru since it is paid off and will be purchasing a Pilot in the new year. One thing I found helpful was to go to Edmunds.com to see the true cost of ownership on the vehicles I was interested in. Good luck with your decision!

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I think it depends on how long you're going to keep the car and how many kids you want to be able to transport. I had two different Subaru outbacks for the first 7 years of having kids. They are fantastic cars, and they're awesome in the snow. You feel so safe driving them. Their gas mileage isn't great, but better than the pilot. That being said, I upgraded to the Acura MDX (which is very similar to the Honda Pilot, just has one less seat in the back) because I wanted to have the capability to throw extra people (kids) in the back and not have to drive two cars. Once you have more than two carseats in the back seat of an Outback you're pretty much full. I only have two kids, but as they get older you have to take their friends around too, so the MDX (or Pilot) is nice. It's also good in the snow (has all wheel drive), but the gas mileage isn't as good. If you're looking to keep the car for a while, you might want to look into the ones with the third row seat, to prevent you from having to change cars in a few years! Good luck with your decision, I think you've narrowed it down to some of the best family car choices there are! You would be happy with any of them, I'm sure. Consumer reports is always a good place to look on cars too...sometimes they'll find something wrong with one year of a car and not another, so you may want to check that out.

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My mom has a Subaru Outback. I like how it drives, but we hate trying to work with the car seats in it. We have two small forward facing and a booster, and they do not all fit. My mom is limited on who she can take when she takes the grandkids. An adult cannot fit in the back seat either, if you have two car seats in it. We like Toyotas, personally. We have a Sienna right now that we absolutely love! We had a Camry before. I would guess the Highlander would work well. I know the Sienna drives very nicely. You can probably find out if the Highlander is on a car chassy or a truck chassy and that will give you an idea for how it would drive. Have fun shopping!

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Not that this is on your list but I LOVE our Kia Sportage! You might want to check it out.

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Hi,
We have a Honda Pilot and love it. It easily fits 3 carseats across the middle seat. There is enough leg room in the back for my fil who is 6'4''. I have had 5 carseats in it and didn't have any problems. I love that the middle row seats are front/back adjustable. If I need more leg room in the rear seat for an adult, I can just move the middle seat forward while having someone sit there also. I get about 21 mpg which I consider good considering the size of it. Hope you find what you are looking for.

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I have a 2007 Honda Pilot and LOVE it. It's the best car I've ever owned. After walking away from a roll-over accident in a Honda Civic in college, I am quite partial to Honda.

The car has lots of space, including headroom. Drives smoothly and powerfully, and has a tight turning radius. The safety ratings are the highest for SUVs on Consumer Reports, which was our main priority. There are airbags everywhere. We have the 2WD model with stability control, which helps in the snow and if you have to stop short.

The 2WD model I have has a feature called the Variable Cylinder Management. It's on all the 2009 2WD and 4WD Pilots now, I think. The engine uses 6-cylinders when accellerating, then goes to 3 when cruising. This saves a ton on gas! We get pretty good gas milage for such a big car.

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I have had a honda pilot for a year now and LOVE IT!! It's big enough but not too big. It drives more like a car. It's reliable, cute, fuctionable. Our plan now is to ride this one out and then trade it in for another Pilot. It's that good! I also have a few friends who also love theirs.

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My parents have a Highlander, and I love it! I know their final decision came down to either the Highlander or the Subaru Forester (the Outback is smaller than the Highlander or Forester), and in the end they chose the Highlander. It's probably a 2001 or 2002, and it's still going strong. They live in WA state and drive out to Denver every summer, so it's logged a lot of miles but with proper maintenance it's should last quite a bit longer.

The car sits high enough off the ground I feel like I'm not going to get smooshed by the big SUVs when we're in it, but it handles like a car and is very easy to drive. It also feels comfortable and roomy inside and easily fits 5 of us (including one or two in car seats). The back is very roomy too and we've been able to carry large loads without having to put down the backseat. My dad also uses his for pulling a trailer (back and forth between WA and CO every summer, as well as for smaller stuff during the year), and mountain driving (although it did bottom out a few times on a really rocky mountain road that was more like off-roading).

I definitely have the Highlander high on my wish list of cars to buy when I'm looking for a new one because of it's size, comfort, and durability.

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I have a 07 honda pilot and I absolutely LOVE it. It is the best vehicle I have ever driven in the snow even my husband has said it handles better in the snow and he actually gets disappointed because he likes to "play" sometimes in the snow and it prevents him from doing so. There is a lot of room for the kids and the 3rd row has come in handy on several occasions. The only downfall to a smaller suv is that if you have the third row up is that the cargo room in the back decreases dramatically but you will find that in any of them unless you go for a large suv. I average about 20 mpg which I consider pretty good for its size. I wouldn't trade it in for anything (unless it was for another pilot)

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We LOVE both of our Subaru Outbacks. We have a 97 that my husband had before we met, and an 06 that we bought after mistakenly buying a Saab. We can fit a ton of stuff in them, and have a bike and/or ski rack for the roof. We've talked about getting a roof-top luggage box if we have another kid and need to travel with more gear. They both do great in the snow, and we recently drove our 06 up an insane jeep trail of a road up Mt. Princeton - did great! (Would have felt more comfortable in an Army-issue jeep or Hummer, but we made it!) Reliability has been outstanding and service is always good. Our 97 has over 150k miles and is only just now developing some mysterious leak, but problems are very rare with both of them. Just with Subaru would make a hybrid for our next purchase!!

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J.,
I was looking at all of those as well and actually settled on a Saturn Outlook. I LOVE it!! It is good on gas, has plenty of room, drives more like a car than a truck...Saturn gave me an amazing deal on my trade-in. Their vehicles are reliable and they really stand behind them. I have free oil changes, 6months free xm radio and onstar service too.

Good luck!
C.