Vehicle Suggestions for Families with 3 Young Kids

The funny thing with a minivan is that you never meet anyone that hates their minivan. Wanna know why? Once you have the automatic doors, there is no going back, especially when you have young children that cannot open car doors. Wanna know another secret? Most minivan owners LOVE their minivan. Wanna know why? They really are the best vehicles for families with lots of young children.

J.:

Don't want a minivan but have 3 kids with a lot of stuff??

Suburban.
Yukon XL
Denali XL
Excursion EXL
Escalade

The Denali is a great car!! No freaking kidding!
The Honda Pilot is a great car as well. However, if you put that 3rd row seat up - you might not have a lot of space.

I say this sooo often...take some of your stuff with you. Take the kids with you. Get in the car. Do you fit? If not? Not the car for you.

That's how I chose my first minivan. I found one that my stroller would fit into and I could still put groceries, etc in it. AND not worry about passenger space. I chose the Dodge Grand Caravan - loved it (except for the maintenance!).

The Sequoia is good as is the Highlander Platinum. Expensive. But good!

Check out http://www.consumerreports.org

Have fun shopping!! Good luck buying!! It is a stressful time!! Wondering - will it all fit? Will it be what I want?! Take your stuff!! makes the choice MUCH easier!

My friends have the Infiniti and love it. They do not use the 3rd row, so I don't know how storage would be with it up. I don't know how much bigger the Denali is to the Acadia, but we have the Acadia and after we put our stroller in the back, we have no room for anything else. We have a huge double stroller, and when the back is empty there is a lot of room in the Acadia. Because our kids are 4, 1, and 1, we have to have the stroller and when we vacation we put a cargo bag on top of the car. What I like about the Acadia, is that when we do use the bag on top, I can easily fill it and empty it by standing in the open door and I'm 5'2".

I want a suburban. We have lots of stuff too. There are 3 rows of seats and the seats are for adult hineys, not narrow kid butts, but full grown adults. I can sit in any seat in a suburban and be comfortable. I don't have a seat belt digging in one side and the strap connections digging in the other.

There is a ton of room behind that 3rd seat too. Enough that a months worth of groceries could be carried back there, a playpen can be set up back there if we're out camping and I want to let the little ones take a nap. There's enough room for bikes, camping equipment, model airplanes, all sorts of odds and ends for sports too.

Well I only have 2 kids, but my cousin has 3 kids so I can only go off of what she has said... they do a lot of travel, lots of sports and tons of outdoor activities (fishing, etc.). She LOVED her Suburban. She recently traded it in for a Pilot and said she misses the Suburban.

I have a Pilot and it rocks! But, as I said, I only have 2 kids so we don't have to access the 3rd row very often. It's a bit of a pain to get back there I think.

Love love love my Honda Pilot. Just bought it. Second seat slides up for easy access to third seat. Highway I get 24 mpg n around town 21. Has great features. Can't beat Honda. They live forever.

My sister has 2 kids, 6 & 3.5, and they have a Denali. They love it, and it really is a great car. From time to time they have also transported my kids in it, and my husband and I have ridden in it as well. It has a ton of room, even for adults in the 3rd row.

They used to have a Honda Pilot, but since they frequently have adults in the 3rd row, they traded it in for the Denali, which is more comfortable for 3rd row adults.

We have a minivan, a VW Routan, and the only thing that I think is better about my car for my family is the automatic sliding doors. But, that is really just a convenience factor, and not a necessity. I'm sure all of our parents had to manually unlock and open each door of the family car when loading us kids into the cars, so the auto sliding doors certainly isn't a deal breaker for me. It is just very, very nice.

Love my Suburban! There is plenty of room for my family of 7 and a TON of cargo space for all our "stuff"! We had a Yukon Denali before that and I also loved it. We had plenty of room for seating, but not enough cargo space-which is why we got the Suburban. I think if you really want room for your "stuff", you should go with a Yukon XL or Suburban.
We just bought our Suburban in November and we also looked at minivans (ughh). I will admit that there are some nice conveniences, like the sliding doors and other kid friendly features, but honestly, we have more room in the Suburban. The kids have larger seats and more leg room, which makes for a much more comfortable drive. There is also significantly more cargo space in the Suburban. The biggest pro to me about the big, gas guzzling SUV's is the safety. I feel so much more confident driving my precious cargo knowing how much steel and bulk is around my children when we're on the road- to me, that is priceless.

Added- we also had a Pilot before our Yukon Denali and that was a great car as well. The car itself was smaller than the Yukon, but we actually had more cargo space in it. When the third row was down, it was flush with the floor, instead of the seats stacking, like with the Yukon.
Also, if it comes down to either a Yukon Denali vs. a lower trim level Yukon, Tahoe or Suburban, the gas mileage isn't terribly significant. I thought since we were going to a smaller engine (from the Denali to the Suburban) that I would see a significant change in mpg-but I really haven't. In our Denali, we got around 11-12 around town and the best we ever got on the highway was 17. With my Suburban, I usually get right around 14 in town and 19ish on the highway. To me, that is not a huge difference. So, if it comes down to it (and the money isn't a large factor) I would definitely go with the Denali. I do miss the power of my Yukon!

Think about how your young children will get in and out of Denali, QX or Sequoia and strap themselves in with seatbelts. If there is a car seat involved, then think about it even more. If there is a 3rd row involved, imagine the logistics of getting one into that 3rd row...seat flipping, climbing into the seats, the others having to wait outside of the car while one is climbing in ...you holding onto them for dear life so they don't run into parking lot. It may be "only few more" years. My back hurts as I recall the exercise.

I worked for a car company once and was fortunate enough to be issued a company car. My kids were newborn, 3, and 5. Only downside was that I didn't get to pick what kind of car. I went through numerous version of the all cars you listed. I remember being in my suit, with heels, standing on the running board, leaning in/over to strap in my children, and tugging down my skirt to keep from flashing people.

Then, they gave me a minivan...heavens choir singing...that was 8 years ago. I went out and bought one immediately. Now I happily joke about the minivan but until my kids can drive on their own...I'm looking at that next model.

We have a Yukon, but not the Denali model. It will seat 9. But if the third row is in use you lose most of your cargo space. You may want to look into the Yukon XL which is the same size as a Suburban. If you need all three rows you still have all your cargo space. Yes they are big, but I love ours and you will get used to driving it. The gas mileage isn't as bad as you think. The newer models have this thing were the engine will switch to 4 cyclinders when you are at a constant speed. You are looking at about 18 in town and about 22 on the highway.

We have a 4 y.o, a 2 y.o. and one due in 8 weeks, plus plans to have one more. I drive a Yukon XL and love it. Plenty of room for the carseats and extra people, the big BOB Dualie and a run to Costco. Gas mileage isn't as bad as it could be, but it works for our family, so we just deal. I have the two little ones in the 2nd row next to each other, freeing a seat still and my oldest in the 3rd. Still able to reach back and help her with her buckles at 32 weeks. We just bought my hubby a Traverse and it works great for us too. He keeps the smaller Combi umbrella double in his car and there's a lot less cargo room, but we have the carseats in the same arrangement and still free seats.

We've had a Jeep from the time the kids were young. All 3 fit in the back perfectly with a carseat.

I love my Chevy Traverse.

I loved my Saab 9.5 wagon! but, they are built by Chevy now and so the insides kind of suck, but, it was still a great car until I blew up the engine. You must do the maintenance when it is due on that one!

Now I have a Volvo wagon that is wonderful! It only has the 2nd seat, but a 3rd row seat is only about $200 to have put in. It has a ton of room in the cargo area, a wide square opening for lots of things, and you can even bring home a refrigerator in it if you lay down the seat.

It also has a roof rack on top so you can put or take whatever you want to with you. I personally don't like the captains seats in vans so that is why I don't have one. But, I love the versatility of them and I think a wagon is a good compromise.

I haven't driven the others, but I did test drive the Sequoia and I LOVED the room, but I felt like I was going to run over all the little cars and I didn't like driving anything that big and/or tall.