My husband and I are expecting our third child in November and are starting the search for a new car. We currently have a Chevy Trailblazer but it only fits two car seats. I am looking for car suggestions that fit a booster, covertible carseat and infant seat comfortably. I was hoping not to go the minivan route but I am open to those suggestions too.
Honestly, I found myself in the same situation when my now-3-year old was born, and found that I had to set aside my vanity and go with the mini-van, which was the most sensible option. We looked at a variety of SUVs, crossovers, etc. but none had the seating space AND the rear storage space that the mini affords. I have to say I love my Ford Freestar. We are a family of 5 (soon to be 6) and traveling has been great with it.
I second the Mazda 5. The Radian seats help a lot if you get 3, but I ended up having to sit on one child's lap to buckle the middle seat (a booster). Once, I was trapped in my sedan in the back seat with 3 kids by a minivan mom who forgot that doors on a car have to swing open!
In terms of practicality, space, and gas mileage, I vote for minivan. I have my honda odyssey for almost 9 yrs and love it dearly. If I have to trade, I want to trade to a newer model, still the same odyssey :)
The remote sliding door (vs the swing door)is space saving, the kids can be easily in and out in a rather tight parking space. The height, is a lot better than sedan to lift a baby/car seat. Now they have the pop up trunk, the split back seat so you can just fold one side. Trunk is huge, almost can fit anything. Now they have the 8 seater. I can walk around inside to tend to my children's needs. When someone come to visit, we have extra room for another person or two. When the kids are older, it is nice to have extra room for their friends, hauling baseball bats, bike, etc. I have some friends who said never want a minivan, but ended up buying one :)
I said I'd never drive a minivan...but I do now. We have the Honda and I love it. It's so convenient for 3 kids, in boosters and carseats. We still had our Pathfinder for a few months with the 3rd baby and it was such a pain to heave the infant seat in there with the 2 other seats.
there is tons of storage space, the kids can 'walk' around,and the gas mileage is much, much better the huge SUV's.
The short answer is: go for the minivan - you'll end up loving it!
We also had two kids with a GMC Jimmy & were adding a third child. After a lot of research & asking around, we ended up going with the Honda Odyssey. We've had it since October now, and my husband and I have really loved it, even though we thought we'd never have a minivan.
There's tons of room, you can walk through the van, it has an 8th seat you can add if you need it...
The sliding side doors are one of my favorite features, as we're not banging the doors into stuff.
Let me know if you need more info! Good luck with the new baby and car.
Hi,
We have the dodge durango. It is the limited. It has 3 very roomy rows and the seats fold down and up very easily. The first row all 3 seats fold separately, so you can have the arm rest down in the center etc. The 3rd row, folds in 2 sections. We LOVE ours. It has the DVD etc. Very nice ride comfortable, not noisy etc. The only bad thing is the regular street milage: not good! Highway: same as our van was. Good luck in your search. We just went with this for the same reason.. Tired of our van. Actually we find that the SUV had a TON more room that the van!
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I love my mini-van. It's a Mercury Villager as was the one previous the that. The first one was used, lasted several years, got to about 120,000 miles. The one I have now (2002) was new, but no bells and whistles (I was excited that I got a second sliding door!). Regular maintenance, no big problems; I do a lot of in-town driving with my 14, 11 and 9 year olds. They have loved it as well since they were little-they get to spread out, never had a "he's touching me!" issue, they get to bring stuff, gear, friends. Great in a pinch--one winter I even gave 8 kids a ride to school (including 4 middle schoolers) when their bus didn't show up! Wish they had a mini-van hybrid...Good luck with your search!
Go with the minivan. I always had small cars (a cavalier and a civic) when I had my 2nd child we bought a Honda Odyssey- I will never drive anything else again. My husband uses the Civic now and I don't like to drive it even for errands- I am totally in love with my minivan. It's so nice to press the button and the door opens for you, my oldest climbs up all by herself while I get the baby in :)I have friends with SUV's and they hurt their backs getting the kids in and out! I know minivans sometimes have a bad rap (liking you are giving in) but I wouldn't trade mine in a heartbeat!
You can fit 3 Sunshine Kids Radian 65's across in almost any vehicle (they'll fit in our very small car). They hold from birth to 65lbs.
3 new car seats is a lot cheaper than a whole new car!
I would say maybe a expedition. I have one and love it. I have also had a durango loved it to but someone hit me and totaled it. I then got a minivan I bought from my mom I hated it. Ended up trading it in for the expedition I have now. I have had it for 5 years and have not had any problems with it and its a 99. I am going to be getting a new car this summer and have decided to go with the expedition or durango.
I had a friend in your exact situation. What she did was, instead of buying a new car, she invested in buying new thinner car seats for her two older girls. They are somewhat expensive, but much less than buying a new car.
If this is something you are interested in, let me know and I can find out what car seats she bought.
I know the GMC Acadia and the Saturn Outlook are nice but the third row does not have latch for a car seat. I have to read your responses again, I thought someone mentioned an SUV that has latch in the back. So far in my research for the same, I've only found I could get a 3rd row latch in a minivan or a Mercedes.
I have 3 girls, 11,7 and 7 and we just bought a Nissan Quest minivan. My kids are older,but we all love it, especially me. We had a Dodge Durango a few yrs back that had alot of space, but was so hard to get into the 3rd row, and so hard to buckle 3 kids in carseats. We then bought a Isuzu Rodeo, as we had gotten a good no interest deal. It was nice, but only had room for 5.
As kids get older they have more activities, and carpools, so having the room to get in and out easily and fit 7 people is great.
We just bought the Ford Flex about a month ago and love it. It has a lot of room for multiple car seats and for adults too.
we have a Mazda 5. Not a minivan, but more seating than a car.
As much as I loathed the minivan, we gave in and got one... And I LOVE it! It's got way better space than any of my friends with SUVs, and the third row is actually functional, which is not the case with almost every SUV. Gas mileage is better, they're safer, and waaaaaaaaay more practical. Plus when your children get older and want to have playdates, you can actually fit a few extra carseats in!
Best of luck!
We are in the same situation now, as we have #3 due in a few weeks. I have looked and researched CUVs and have not found something that suits me. The ones I looked at that fit 3 car seats seem great for when the kids are little, but have very litle leg room/seat room in general when they are older. We were looking at the ones that hold 7-8 people and most reviews and things said the third row seating is very small. They also said not alot of cargo room in the back. We have a double stroller, so we need something that can hold the stroller plus some groceries or things like that. In the end we have bought a Chevy Venture used. It is in another state and we are waiting to have it picked up (my in laws are going out this weekend to get it), so I don't know what it's like yet, but I'm ok with the minivan thing now. Most SUVs/CUVs just don't seem to have the room or get as good gas milage.
We've been looking into the same option for cars and hate to go the minivan route. We found the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Chevy Traverse all have the option of two captians chairs in the second row and then a third row seat as well. Good luck!
we just bought a toyota sienna today after an extensive research done by my husband. we are expecting our third in a couple of weeks. he's not one to buy the first thing he sees, he read a LOT about different minivans and the toyota siennas get best reviews. They are comparable to honda odyssey, but too many people complain about the transmission going bad, which is expensive to fix.
Toyota sienna gets really great reviews, we got a used one and they last really long too, you can get a lot of miles out of them without any major problems, just as long as you take care of the regular things, like changing oil and other parts that need to be replaced....
I am in the same situation with my trailblazer. My third is coming in July. We tossed around the idea of a new car, but decided we didn't want the payments. From what I have seen, it will work. My friend has 3 seats in her Envoy and another in her Jeep. We also have Britax car seats which are huge. We will have to invest in a small size booster and use the bigger seats in my husbands truck. It will stink, but it will work. So, if you are not looking for a new car, go to Babies R us and try to see what seats will fit. They usually let you take the displays out to try them in your car. Good, Luck! We haven't tried it yet, so we will see. :)
My Toyota Highlander fits 1 car seat and 2 boosters, not sure if that means it would work for you, too. The Honda Pilot is quite a bit bigger so I'm pretty sure that would work. Both are great cars, lots of safety features, always highly rated, not expensive to upkeep. Good luck!
Chevy sells a 5 passenger mini type van. If 5 adults fit, the babyseats should be no problem. Good for you going AMERICAN made!
We just purchased the Buick Enclave and love it. It comes standard with the 2 captains chairs in the second row and a bench seat in the third row with a split 60/40 so you can put one side down for cargo still. It does have the rear latch system as well in both the 2nd and 3rd row. It also comes with a automatic rear gate so you can open and close it with your remote. It is great and we are really happy with the choice as I too was not ready to get a mini van but wanted the ability to use the third row which we can't do in our Pilot!
look into getting Radian car seats (they sell them on Amazon). Then it really won't matter what car you get you will fit 3 across. The seats are expensive but they go from infant up to booster seat age, so totally doable when you look at the life of the use of the carseat. And this will open up your shopping to a less gas guzzling option.
We are thinking about the Mercedes GL550, it's really amazing although a bit pricey.
We have the Chevy Tahoe which is a bit bigger than the Trailblazer. I currently have a booster and a convertible seat in the back and it does look like an infant seat would fit. It also comes with a third row seat that comes out in 2 sections. We chose that over a minivan because I didn't want to do that either. Good luck!
