Family Car

I really like my traverse. I also have two children in carseats and a big dog. I would suggest getting the two bucket seats so that you can still access the third row without removing any car seats. Not as easy as the minivan is with the sliding doors and all but comparable.

I'm expecting #3 in May and posted a question similar to this a little while ago. I am so NOT a minivan mom, so I was looking for alternatives. I went and test drove the Buick Enclave (basically Buick's version of the Traverse) and I LOVE IT!!! Now I just have to find one in the color and options I want for a reasonable price.

Good luck in your search!

PS - We also have 2 dogs...a St. Bernard and a Westie.

We owned a ford Freestyle (7 seats, bench for 3 in front and for 2 in the 3rd row) and loved its versatility while we only had one child. We got rid of it due to a financial crisis and are now considering getting another one. However now that we have 2 kids, we're not going to get one with a bench in the middle, but one with only 6 seats, 2nd row has 2 captains chairs and back bench for two. The reason is that its a pain to move car seats around and car seats don't fit well on the middle part of the 2nd row bench. Also we don't want one with a center console as that makes getting to the back bench rather awkward/impossible. The Freestyles/Taurus X's that have a split back bench would work well for 3 kids as you could fold down half of the back bench to accommodate your dog rather then putting him in the last seat, or use that part for storage. With all seats up there is room for a medium sized cooler and our stroller, but that's about it.

I don't know if the Traverse has the option of captains chairs. If not you might want to look elsewhere, or be sure that all three car seats can fit on the bench, because moving a car seat to flip up part of the bench to access the back row on a regular basis would be really inconvenient! :)

Unfortunately the Freestyle/Taurus X is no longer available and though the Flex does have 6 seats, it has a center console between the 2 captains chairs of the middle row.

We're also considering getting a mazda 5 (mini mini van they call it), it also has the 6 seat configuration that we like, but gets better gas mileage. Its a little smaller though.

Hope this is helpful. Minivans are great for seating if they have captains chairs, but I'm just not interested in getting one. :)

Hope this is helpful, we've been researching for a few months as we await our tax return. ;)

I am married to a mechanic, so when we look, we also buy based on his knowledge of the mechanics of the car.

I have owned:
1. Dodge Grand Caravan (good vehicle, decent gas mileage)
2. Chrysler Town and Country Limited (very nice vehicle, poor of gas)
3. Jeep Cherokee (great on gas, great for a small family, 4 wheel drive, very safe)
4. Jeep Wrangler (my midlife crisis car - beyond fun and very reliable! I will get a 4 door model some day!)

5. Honda Element (LOVE this car EXCEPT it only has 4 seat belts. 28 mpg and rubber floors. I can fit full size bikes STANDING up inside the car! And 8 airbags!)

If we ever have a third child, I will have to sell my current Element and I will get a JEEP COMMANDER. Though I loved a minivan, they were not great in snow and the MPG was lousy. Space-wise though, they cannot be beat!

I would at least look at the Jeep Commander (they seat 7). My husband likes it for the engineering from a mechanic's perspective, I like the Jeep name for sturdiness and resale (and the 4x4, built like a tank aspect).

don't buy a ford exploder they catch on fire I know from experience.

We have a five year old and a seven week old. I am absolutely not a mini van person. We bought a Saturn Outlook (Saturn's version of the Traverse) two days before our youngest was born. I absolutely love it! It's huge. There's plenty of room for the booster and the baby carrier plus four extra seats for other passengers (like my parents, niece, school friends, etc). It's all-wheel drive and it plowed through all of the February snow like nothing! I have never felt so safe in a car. We've only had this car for seven weeks, but I give it an A+!

I just recently purchased a used GMC Acadia and I love it! I have two small children age 4 and 11 months and my granddaughter was just born last week. Since I will be babysitting my granddaughter I needed a bigger vehicle. It has captains chairs in the middle row so I don't have to mess with pulling seats down to get to the third row seat. The only thing that I don't like about it is the seatbelts. They are difficult to buckle with a carseat. I have to shift the carseat to one side in order to get it to latch and my 4 year old can't do it by himself at all. I test drove both the Acadia and the Traverse which are basically the same vehicle but I got a really good deal on the used Acadia so that's what I went with.

I was never a minivan mom either and have to say it is the absolutely best decision we have made in buying a car in our marriage. I was so against it we actually bought another SUV crossover type car and finally took it back because it wasn't serving our needs.

We have two young boys and are expecting a third child and we sometimes have to take long trips too. (We bought it before knowing about #3). It is so much nicer. We tried out a few in between but I agree about never banging doors into other cars and the SPACE is amazing! We have storage beneath both of my kids' seats so the van is almost always spotless except for the car seats and stroller and I love that we can all get into the van when it is cold or rainy and I can buckle the kids in their seats with the doors closed. Good luck!

I have Traverse and it is just over a year old... My boys are a little older, 7, 5.5, & 2.5, but the Traverse works great for us! We went with the middle row bench and I keep two of the boys' booster seats in the back and always have the one seat forward. Then my oldest two can just jump in. I am fortunate that they can buckle themselves in but when they need help, I have no problem getting in and helping. My youngest is in a car seat directly behind me.

This arrangement seems to work great for us when we have out-of-town family visiting (which is pretty much all we have) because we can fit everyone in comfortably when we venture out for dinner or other adventures.

The Ford Flex is AWESOME. Best veh I have ever owned!!! Backseats are super roomey and the last 2 rows fold flat if you need to haul anything like a bike or golf clubs. Great drive!!

Ford is ALL about safety these days too. Don't hear a bad word about them....why wouldn't you want the BEST for your family? We won't drive anything but a Ford!!

Good luck!!!

I currently drive a Dodge Durango and my husband drves a Jeep Grand Cherokee as his demo. He works at a Chrysler dealer in Montague and so we have had the opportunity to "drive" a variety of cars. I love the Jeep and also really like the Town and Country both handle real well and have quite a bit of room. We also have 2 children and a large dog along with all the stuff that kids take along with them when they go places. Good luck in your search

I asked this question in the archives. I have 3 -- 3 and under. We went with the Toyota Sequoia. Love the car. Happy with it. Best trunk space for 3 row cars. Also, we got the captain's chair-- means that the 2nd row has a cup holder/etc that you can remove and you can go back and forth. Looked at minivans- not a fan- not for me. But others love theirs. Also, looked at Lexus big suv, Volvo, and quite a few others. Go hit a carmax and you can see tons of different brands.

J.,

We just bought the Traverse and love it. We test drove and looked at the Traverse, Enclave and GMC Acadia (they are all basically the same just different brands). We ended up going with the traverse b/c we got the best deal on it (we got all options we wanted, the color we wanted) and paid $10,000 less than the GMC or Enclave. We also got 0% financing for 60 months. That was the big one in swaying us that way. We have 2 children and love all the room we have. We went with the captains rows so we can easily access the back from without moving car seats. Good luck!

I have an 8, 10 and 2 year old. I have driven a minivan for the last 5+ year (2 dif ones). Our current Chrysler Town and Country lease is up in June and while my 2 older kids and husband would like me to get something 'cooler', I can not understand why the whole world would not drive a minivan. The cargo space is unbelievable even with all of the seats up/in-tact! The convenience of everything is unbelievable (automatic EVERYTHING). I looksed at the Ford Flex, but the stow/go seats in my Chrysler are too hard to part with! Packing for long trips is a breeze (no car carrier needed!) and if I ever need to ship large items or purchases around, the seats disappear and I can fit almost anything in that thing. We seem to often have a lot of kids (friends included) in our car, and if I need my back row for seating, I want to be able to fit a lot in the back (trips to Costco, etc.). My mom and dad have the Acadia and it is gorgeous, but it does not have near as much room as my minivan. And the carseat accessibility is so easy in my minivan and I LOVE automatic doors. Mine also has the dvd player with 2 screens, headphones which makes long trips grerat. So at this point in my life, I couldn't care less about the image (swore I'd never drive a minivan :), I LOVE the convenience.

I have always driven SUVs...but last year we bought a mini van against my better judgment.

Now that I've had a vehicle with automatic, sliding doors, I'll never have it any other way again. No more banging your door in a parking lot because of little ones pushing it into the car parked next to you. I also can control all the doors (opening and closing) from my key fob or driver's seat which is EXTREMELY handy when trying to get everyone loaded or unloaded.

I really never thought I would be a fan, but I love my minivan (Chrysler Town and Country.) If you haven't test driven one, I would strongly encourage you to at least give it a test drive since you will have 3 little ones.