need help deciding on the right vehicle for our family

i am expecting twins and have a 2.5yo dd that will be 3 by the time the twins get here (if nothing unexpected happens!). i would like to keep dd RF. she is currently in an Evenflow Triumph. we also have a Cosco Scenera that is in dh's car. we've registered for two Chicco Keyfits for the twins.

i currently drive a 1997 Honda Civic, so getting a new vehicle is a must. however, we are having a very hard time trying to decide what will work for us. so i thought i'd ask for some help here are some things we are trying to consider:

we can only spend 15k, max (so we're looking at mostly used cars or leasing)
we should be able to sell the Honda for around $2500, meaning we could buy a vehicle that is around 17k
we want to seat at least 7 ppl so that the car is not full with just our family
we would like to have all the kids in the same row...i don't want dd in the back row, RF, all by herself
i also need to be able to get to dd to buckle her b/c her carseats are hard to buckle and i don't see her being able to do it herself anytime soon
i'm assuming we'll need decent cargo space for a twin stroller, etc.
decent gas mileage would be great

so....suggestions? we're open to cars, SUVs, minivans, whatever is in our price range and fits our needs!

Welcome and congratulations on the upcoming arrival of your twins!

I'm sure there might be some SUV options for you, but I'm not personally familiar with them, so I'll leave that recommendation to someone who is .

For sedans, a Chevy Impala or a Hyundai Sonata are usually both great choices in safety and in fitting 3 carseats across the back seat.

Re minivans, an 8-passenger Toyota Sienna is a great option for keeping 3 kids across the middle row. I looked up in Kelley Blue Book the suggested retail for a 2006 8-passenger LE with standard options and it was $17,125. I currently have a 2005 8-passenger LE and I love it. I've had it since it was new and it's taken us from 3 kids to 5 kids so far with no problems. The 3 middle row seats are all individual seats that adjust independently of each other. It has a deep cargo well behind the 3rd row that I've fit amazing amounts of "stuff" in (LOL),including strollers. If you need more room, the 3rd row seats fold down into the cargo well, leaving you with all of the space behind the 2nd row (I'd use some tie-downs for things for safety reasons if you use this option).

Like I mentioned above, I'm sure there are SUV options for you that allow you to put 3-across a second row, but I'm not super-familiar on what they all are. Hope this helps and again, welcome!

thanks!

i'd love to hear more opinions.

Man, if you can swing a current model Sienna or Odyssey, that'd be awesome. Otherwise, look into a 2006 or newer Hyundai (or Kia) minivan. The 8 seater Sienna is much better than the 8 seater Ody. Otherwise, I prefer the 7 seater Ody over the 7 seater Sienna.

I'm not too into 7 passenger suvs. Cost is often higher. Plus, by the time you find one with decent cargo room with the 3rd row up, the vehicle is HUGE. Parking can be a pain then. Plus, you'll love the sliding doors on minivans.

I love the Mazda5, but it only seats 6 so if you have one full set of grandparents over, it wouldn't work.

I agree with Codex. A newer Ody or Sienna would be fantastic. Or a 2006+ Kia Sedona or Hyundai Entourage would TOTALLY be in your price range (likely less depending on the options) & they have top of the line safety ratings (at one point they were considered the safest minivan on the road...but only the 2006 or newer body style).

Actually, I'd probably get the Kia or Hyundai & the extra cash saved would go to the many expenses coming with twins. Then you could upgrade to a Ody or Sienna later. Good luck & congrats!

both the kia and hyundai get terrible ratings from consumer reports.

we found a 2003 Honda Pilot, fully loaded that we're looking at.

Do a search on how many tethers a 2003 Pilot has.

Make sure it has enough tethers in the locations you're gonna wanna put your kids. Plus, definitely check out if it has enough trunk space for you.

And make sure you have an independent mechanic check out the transmission before you buy it. Honda had some transmission problems with a lot of their vehicles.

thanks, i'll definitely check that out!

ok i checked and there are 6 top tether points! and consumer reports gives great ratings to the transmissions in a 2003 as well!

we will try and see if we can get someone to check the engine out though. before we can buy it, we have to sell our current car, so it's a wait and see right now.

Check beyond consumer reports. I'm not sure why I still keep my subscription with them. They're sorta helpful, but in the end, they're really only good about appliances and I just don't buy that many appliances.

Check other forums, including a Pilot specific one if you can, and see if there are a lot of complaints about the transmission.

codex57 said:

Check beyond consumer reports. I'm not sure why I still keep my subscription with them. They're sorta helpful, but in the end, they're really only good about appliances and I just don't buy that many appliances.

Check other forums, including a Pilot specific one if you can, and see if there are a lot of complaints about the transmission.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat: I used to trust them about cars, but am starting to less & less. The last thing I used my online subscription for was a good knife set....over a year ago!

As for the Kia/Hyundai, I wouldn't let Consumer Reports sway you. There are a TON of people on here with the Kia Sedona & all love it. I haven't heard anything bad about their reliability...as long as it's the newer ones (the pre 06 ones weren't the best, IIRC).

well i might be willing to consider something outside of consumer reports, but i grew up with my dad trusting it, so i generally do too. but even if i were swayed, there is no way my dh would buy a car that consumer reports said was bad, lol!

i will check out the pilot elsewhere though, especially about transmission problems. honestly, a pilot is what i want, lol. i just like them. but we wanted to consider more than just that before deciding.

i'll take another look at the kia. are there other websites i can point dh to, other than consumer reports? or reasons why we shouldn't trust their ratings?

I'm sort of a car nut, altho I don't really gravitate towards family vehicles. Consumer Reports is good for reliability, but I've learned how to read between the lines very well. Particularly in car reviews.

I've noticed, based on a combo of comparing between what other respected publications say, personal experience, and experience of friends and family (especially those who are really into certain things), that CR really should just stick to appliances.

Their reviews on cars overall are quite amateurish in and many cases, just plain wrong. The electronic reviews are horribly outdated and show a clear lack of knowledge beyond pure basic stuff. I'm talking stuff you could talk with a 5 yr old about. ANything beyond that they don't know.

So, I stopped paying attention to CR. Their reliability reports used to be good, but they rely on their readers reports and they project based on that. It's very much a self fulfilling prophecy. JD Power reports are much more current and more objective. Unfortunately, they don't want to get into projections. Perhaps in fear of becoming a joke like CR.

CR also has had some major fails in things like their car seat report. I don't think it was quite as bad as people here made it out to be, but it's just another glaring example that CR really doesn't know anything beyond reviewing appliances and guessing reliability on appliances. They're just totally out of their depth on stuff beyond that, even when they spend a ton of money trying to set up tests.

Read the Wiki entry on Consumer Reports. Look particularly on the lawsuits regarding the Samurai and the Isuzu Trooper. There was something related to Audi I think, but I don't know if that was CR or not or even Audi. But basically, like the car seat testing, CR was trying to make a car fail spectacularly artificially in order to create headlines.

An 8 passenger Toyota Sienna, all the way. Three fit across EASILY in the middle row, and then there's still lots of room for spreading them out when they get to that, "Mom, she's touching me!" stage. We have the 7 passenger, but mostly because DH really wanted the huge captain's chairs for when we have larger people with us (like my dad) and because my kids are old enough to already be at that stage where they need to be apart. In my old car, I had three across and there was constant fighting about someone touching someone, or someone kicking someone. No fun.

I agree with Codex. I would trust JD Powers when it comes to reliability over CR any day of the week. :thumbsup:

well i checked out the wikki article...all the lawsuits against CR were settled with no money passing hands. and that video tape is questionable as even being real. i really see no reason to not trust CR.

but the sienna and pilot are both highly recommended by CR. i think we're going to end up with a pilot b/c used siennas are much higher.

also, IRT the honda odessey...can you put 3 seats across the middle row? i've read that the middle seat (of the middle row) has metal pieces that stick out in the seat that keep a carseat from being buckled tightly enough.