Good Car for Moms with Young Children?

Do you plan on having anymore kids? If so, the mini van is the best option. I have had my mini van for 5 years now and I love the space. At first, I was not cool with it at all. I have three kids and we had a Pontiac Grand Am... my fast race car as my oldest son called it. Yes, I do miss having a stylish car. But the van is so nice when we go on trips. And my kids aren't squished in the back seat anymore. Good Luck!

I had three young children and a black lab in a Volvo station wagon. We didn't "outgrow" that until my oldest hit middle school, at which point I got a minivan and LOVED it!
I loved my Volvo too. I especially loved that it came with built in booster seats. Can't remember what the mileage was but I know I didn't fill it up as often as I need to fill up my current car (an Acura MDX.)

We're going to drive our Honda Odyssy into the ground (it's 8 years old now), but if I could buy a new one, I would consider the Hybrid Toyota Highlander.

What about the Chevy Equinox? I've heard they're good on gas and a few friends of mine LOVE them!

The Toyota Rav4 has a great rating in Consumer Reports. I rented 1 for a week and I loved it. I am pretty sure it has a third row, too.

My friend has a 2008 Honda Pilot and it's great !! The 2012 Honda CRV gets great gas mileage & it's the new model. I would check w/ Honda about the car seats.

Lexus is very expensive to repair.

I took a quick look at the Toyota Venza today. I love the Toyota Camry car, too.

Even in my 1st generation Prius (2003) I can fit 2 car seats, and I can fit my big stroller (the one that came with my infant car seat travel system) in my trunk and still have room for some groceries (in the trunk!). Albeit, not a BIG grocery trip, but a moderate one. :) My mom has a Camry, and they are very roomy and have a fairly large amount of trunk space. It's worth a look!

We got a used Toyota Highlander (2007 low miles, great condition, excellent online price and drove out of state to pick it up-just sayin'-I know they're pricy). We finally had to make a safe, good vehicle a priority, and it was most highly rated with a few others by Consumer Reports on every safety count plus reliability, plus mileage.

It's like having a new life it gets such great mileage and is so comfortable (We had a Jeep Cherokee before that). My three kids car seats fit perfectly in back seat with no worries. The back end has LOTS of room for stroller, Tae Kwon Do duffles, groceries etc.

Again, we bought it for high safety ratings, but I'm pleasantly amazed by the luxurious fun it is to drive.

I too can't deal with mini-vans. They're SO hard to reach the kids! We've rented them before and yikes. I don't know what the appeal is. I can haul everything I need to in an SUV and reach back to hand all the kids snacks etc easily. We also need 4WD.

ALSO, even though it has tons of room inside, it's not very big. It's easy to park everywhere even in our extremely tight garage.

I have 2 cars that have plenty of room. The first in an older Saab 9000, but they were replaced by the 9-5. But with a hatch they have a lot of room. I can put in my Graco Double stroller and still put in groceries and a play pen. I also have a Volvo Wagon. It doesn't have the 3rd row seat, but it could. I have so much cargo room its crazy! I could put in 2 or 3 strollers. Right now in my car I have a double stroller, and umbrella stroller, a pair of men's work rubber boots, 3 bags of kids clothes, a little people set (A big one) and various other odds and ends. I also brought home about 10 bags of groceries from Walmart tonight. The kids are in Diono carseats and we still have the built in booster in the middle seat available. The only draw back is leg room in the back seat is not as big as it could be. I worry when the kids get to be teens. My sister has a Mercury Sable and she can fit almost as much as I can in her car and it seats 6 instead of only 5. The only thing is that the trunk opening can be a little small for strollers to go in and out. I would take your carseats and stroller to the car lot and put it in and out and see what works. Then, I would rent the car for a few days or even a week, and see what its like before you buy.

I know how you feel about a minivan...I felt the same way when I test drove them before buying my wagon.

I imagine you can fit two carseats in almost anything at all! :)

We did three across our Malibu and got the 2011 Odyssey 9(and the 2012 also has wide mode for carseats) because we had a fourth baby. We plan to have 6 so that's 6 carseats total. 5 will fit easily, and 6 would be a challenge, so we'll see. Right now we have three in a row in the middle row, and one child in the middle, in back.

No complaints! I can rear-face them to age 4 even with a Diono seat (and even with dad bieng 6'4"), and then they're harnessed for some years after that before going into a booster until age 10-12. So we have carseats galore and have tried lots of combos. I really like our van, but if I had 3 or less kids I'd go with a car. A big one! Not so sure about the gas mileage, though, with a big car.