I drive a 2004 Xterra. I really like it as a mom car. I have 2 kids both FF one in a Frontier and one in a Boulevard. I previously had them both installed with latch but my older daughter is right around the weight limit so we just moved her to a seat belt install so we wouldn't forget to do it. I like the install fine with either latch or seat belt. When I only had 1, I used the center install with the lap belt on a RF Boulevard and a Snugride.
My cargo area has a retractable cover that protects everything in the cargo area so it cannot fly around.
Our car now has 83k miles on it and we've had no major issues. We have done regular oil changes and major scheduled maintenance (30k, 60k and will do 90k services) but we really haven't had any repairs. We replaced the tires fairly early on, earlier than I would have thought (like 40k maybe) and we are about to put new brakes on throughout and new belts. And there was one recall on the steering column. But we haven't had anything break. I've been very pleased with how well it's held up.
The things I don't like about it--the raised back seat makes it a little tricky to lift kids into their car seats. I'm constantly bonking their heads when I put them in. I'm not sure if this would be an issue with other SUVs or not since I haven't owned another. It also makes it harder for older kids to climb in on their own. My DD is 3.5 and really tall for her age and has just recently been able to climb into the car to get in her seat on her own. And for this age they want to do everything on their own, so she was frustrated that she couldn't (and still can't in certain shoes or clothes--it's a big step). We have similarly had trouble getting elderly grandparents into the backseat when their weren't car seats installed, but we only very rarely drive them anywhere so that wasn't really an issue for us. In general though I like the raised back seat, it makes it easier to see out of the back seat since you sit higher. If I had older kids not in car seats I would definitely prefer it.
With two car seats in the back the middle seat is unusable for another person. With the latch install there is only about 4" between our seats (we do have WIDE seats though). I believe we were able to get 3 seats across when we had a Boulevard, a snugride and my sister came to visit--I can't recall the seat she brought though (a smaller convertible). It was a super tight fit and I wouldn't have done it for an extended period (we basically just did it to and from the airport). And obviously we had to do all seat belt installs (the latch puts the seats more toward the center of the car).
The mileage is not great. 16 or 17 mpg would be really good and all freeway miles. We probably get around 14 mpg or so. That would be my major complaint.
I really, really like the car actually and I'm really happy with that purchase. I don't know what the pricing is now, but when we bought it was a bit cheaper than the RAV4s or CRVs which were the other cars we looked at. I like it a lot. Next week we're purchasing a Mazda 5 though. We decided we need a 2nd car and we really wanted something with better mileage.
