Vehicle

I can't give a personal reccomendation, but I suggest you go to edmunds.com You can read consumer and expert reviews. You can sort them by gas mileage, avg price, exact numbers for foot and head room, etc. It's everything you ever wanted to know and more when comparing vehicles!

I've heard great things about the Chevy Traverse. I had a Jeep Patriot, which I loved, but chose to trade it in for a Hyundai Elantra (40 mpg!).

Gas is just too expensive for me to afford an SUV.

Best of luck to you!

We had a GMC Yukon for five years and LOVED it. We sold it for financial reasons, and really the only thing I like more about my van than the Yukon is that it's easier for loading and unloading kids.
If you have four kids then you have to account for kids climbing over the middle seats to get in the back (muddy soccer shoes on new seats???). And you have to lift small kids into their seats. You also have to remember that kids depth perception and awareness of others isn't quite fully developed and they may swing open the doors and whack someone elses car in the parking lot.
As far as driving goes, I loved it; we never had a problem with it, and I certainly felt safe. It was easy to park even though it seems HUGE when you look at it from the outside.
Good luck and have fun with your new car!

We have a Ford Explorer with a third row. We don't always have 6, but when we do use it, it works well.

We're a family of six and we have a Ford Expedition King Ranch Edition. It has the bucket seats in the middle row, so the kids don't have to climb over a row or anything like that. (It also has two DVD players so the kids can all watch the same movie, or separate movies.)

We love it! It was great on our road trip this summer.