Baby/kids hauler, what vehicle do you drive?

[bigbadboss101]

What vehicle do you drive to haul your baby or kid(s) around? Understanding that it is easier to get cars seats, strollers and other stuff in and out in a vehicle that rides higher. Mini van's sliding doors are convenient but OTOH AWD and more clearance is good for Calgary winters. I had thought about something like a pre-owned Odyssey, Sienna van. A mid size SUV would be good too. I have a 2001 MDX now and it works fine but it does have over 300,000 km on it. My wife has a Honda Fit with would work for kids but something larger might be more safe. Don't think I need a Yukon or Escacalde at this point.

What do you drive? ;)

[Maxt]

For family duty, we have a Jeep SRT8, the 77 Ramcharger and a Grand Caravan.
My Wife mostly drives the Caravan, I don't particularly like to drive it, but it's truly cavernous inside and it will blow you away what you can haul in it. We took home a 5 piece patio set of table and chairs in it, along with the kids in their chairs.
The Jeep is more fun and more bells and whistles for longer trips, but is a bit useless in the cargo department.
The Ramcharger is going to be our camping/fishing rig.

[rage2]

C63 Black Series. Kids love how it sounds. :D

[01RedDX]

.

[danno]

Ram 1500 crew cab and audi rs4. 4 doors is a must for the next few years.

[Unknown303]

Ram 1500 Crew and 4 door Jeep Wrangler.

[redblack]

Ram 1500 crew and audi Q5

[SJW]

2500 Silverado and Toyota Highlander.

[benyl]

E63S Estate.

Kid always asks to "go fast!" I have no issue obliging.

[fayzed]

Our family car is a Honda Odyssey, it's great, the space is awesome, sliding doors with younger kids and the extra space over an SUV along with the better mileage is well worth the occasional teasing.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

[blitz]

I drive a B200T as a DD and it can fit 3 adults and 2 car seats. My Supercharged S4 Avant should be back in my hands soon and it'll see a lot of family trips. Wife drives a 2011 Forrester, AWD is great, but it's really doesn't have much more interior space than the B200.

I think a odyssey or sienna is in our future, the latter can be ordered with AWD btw.

[zieg]

Forester.

[guessboi]

R350 Bluetec. Not exactly a minivan and with turbo diesel power. :thumbsup:

[botox]

07 Sienna and 13 MDX. You can't beat a van for a family hauler and utility vehicle. Sliding doors = not having to worry about your kids dinging other cars. Plus vans are lower so easier for smaller kids to get in and out without help. SUV's are fun, but useless if you want to haul anything that's sort of big. I'm pretty sure we will always have a van even if we don't need it for the kids anymore.

[thinmyster]

'00 Landcruiser and '12 Fj Cruiser. Both fulltime AWD both not good on gas.

The landcruiser is much more comfortable with the dogs and baby. The suicide doors on the FJ are a bit of a pain with the baby seat.

[StreetRacerX]

Grand Cherokee SRT8, kid isn't born yet though

[bourge73]

2013 CRV and a 2003 Ford Expedition. Both AWD (4x4 as well on the Exp)
And the required DVD system.

[revelations]

A FWD Sienna would be my choice. Put some winter tires and you are safer than most AWD 4x4 vehicles on the road without.

This past winter was an anomaly and even my lowered Civic plowed through back lanes just fine.

[spikerS]

We reduced everything down to 1 vehicle, and bought the F-150 supercrew. It covered everything we could encounter for our needs, and it has lots of room to grow with us.

My deciding factor when buying it was in talking to the saleman, the kids jumped in the back seat, folded them up, and had a dance party.

[codetrap]

F150 SuperCrew for most things, and a Mazda 3 for running errands. Two kids. One 6, and one 6 months.

[mrsingh]

We have a '13 Lexus RX350 and a '99 Toyota 4Runner, both have been great for getting the kid in and out, storing the stroller and miscellaneous kids stuff.

One is AWD and the other a true 4x4, both run winter tires, and neither is great on gas (4Runner being worse).

[01RedDX]

.

[VWEvo]

M5 when I only have 2 of my kids, honda odyssey when we have all 3.

[brandon]

Flex & F150

[mrsingh]

Originally posted by 01RedDX
Wow, quite a few of you have a dual SUV or truck/van combo.

My garage is only 18' wide, with an older RX330 and a '13 Altima it's pretty tight, have to back out the car on the right to get to the child seat.

EDIT: feet, not inches. :facepalm:

Our garage is about 19'x21', haven't had that problem, but I only have one kid. It'd be a challenge with a car seat on both sides.

[SOAB]

I have a sienna and a f150. They are both great family haulers. The truck is just a little more thirsty than the van. But not by much.

[Phuqu]

Originally posted by bigbadboss101
What vehicle do you drive to haul your baby or kid(s) around?


The bus.

Just like my parents did.

[JustinMCS]

'14 Escape Titanium for 2 fur babies :) works so much better than my sedan!

[TheStigz]

2013 ford expedition.

[CapnCrunch]

Ford Expedition Max.

[danno]

Originally posted by brandon
Flex & F150

How is the flex? I'm one of the few that like the look of it.

[Kloubek]

Mazda CX9. (As my sig suggests).

I had a tough time finding something that had 7 seats (Which generally translates to good cargo space), along with a vehicle that wasn't a complete bore to drive.

The CX9 is no sports car, but drives confidently, has the luxury bits I demand for my daily driver, and has over 100 cubic feet of cargo space. If you're looking for a replacement, OP, I would strongly suggest you take a look at one. If you don't need that much cargo space, it's tough to beat the MDX generation after yours. And then you can wave to all the owners that drive vehicles that look like yours because they are absolutely everywhere. (For good reason, mind you)

[botox]

^^ Yup, we bought a 13 MDX over the RDX mainly because of the 3rd row seating and for a 7 seater vehicle it's not that big and was just a bit larger than the RDX. But yeah don't expect to carry anything other than a few bags of groceries when you have the third row up. The kids love the 3rd row cause it only seats two so they have lots of room to play.

[Masked Bandit]

2013 Santa Fe XL & 2010 Ram 1500 Crew Cab. After a year of ownership I still rate the Hyundai a sold 8.5 / 10. A couple of really small petty things to complain about but nothing enough to make me look at anything else. Neither vehicle are terribly exciting to drive but at this point they are essentially appliances anyway.

[Kloubek]

Originally posted by botox
^^ Yup, we bought a 13 MDX over the RDX mainly because of the 3rd row seating and for a 7 seater vehicle it's not that big and was just a bit larger than the RDX. But yeah don't expect to carry anything other than a few bags of groceries when you have the third row up. The kids love the 3rd row cause it only seats two so they have lots of room to play.

Yeah, it has 83 cubic feet, if I remember correctly. I was looking at RDX's before and they had something like 62 I think. That's actually so small it really makes you think twice as to whether an SUV format holds any advantage at all! So the MDX has about and extra 21 cubic feet - which is a noticeable difference, but still pales to the CX9 which is an additional 20+ cubic feet over the MDX and over 40 cubic feet more than the RDX.

100+ cubic feet of cargo for a crossover-style vehicle is excellent, and is really only matched by the full-size suvs. But then, you're generally driving a brick on wheels when it comes to driving dynamics.

I'm really happy with my CX9 - save for premature rusting on the back hatch (2007) and the fact the transfer case on the AWD models is hit-and-miss as far as longevity.

[speedog]

Utility wise and for hauling 2-3 kids, their car seats/boosters plus all the shit the usually need to accompany them - nothing will beat a van. Most trucks/wagons/sedans/coupe/SUV can not offer the same space utilization - for short trips around town, yeah a truck/wagon/sedan/coupe/SUV can suffice but go on a road trip and especially over night and the real weaknesses start showing up.

We went from an El Camino (no kids) to a small 4 door Honda Civic wagon (1 kid - 5 passenger) to two different Chev Astros (2-3 kids - 8 passenger) to a Chev Trailblazer EXT (3 kids - 7 passenger) and by far, the most useful vehicle of all of those was the Chev Astro. The Trailblazer, while being a larger vehicle, still could not carry the amount of stuff our Astro could. Considered a truck when we had the Astro's and before the Trailblazer but the fact that we'd have to keep a lockable cover on the box to protect stuff and the height of my wife, it just seemed not that user friendly.

Yeah, vans have the negative appeal to them but we looked at it as a phase in our life where the utility of the vehicle had to be balanced against things like where stuff was going to be stored (outside in a truck bed versus inside a heated/air conditioned vehicle compartment), the security of the stuff and how manageable it would be to get stuff in and out for my 5' 4" wife. As far as hauling dirt/crud/stuff - we had a small utility trailer for that and in fact, the Trailblazer was so woeful on what we could pack into it compared to the Astro that it replaced that we were forced to buy a larger, enclosed cargo trailer just for vacations to the cabin and hauling big stuff.

Got four brothers as well as a sister-in-law who all had families of 2-3 kids and the ones who didn't have vans were always taking two vehicles on longer trips or busily moving stuff into the cab at restaurant stops on road trips because they didn't want the stuff left open in the back's of their trucks or they had to climb up/reach into the box to get stuff after unrolling/folding the truck bed cover - always it seemed we were waiting for them.

Ideal world - van and a truck and/or car. Use the van for the road trips, carrying the kids and their friends or taking the kids to their sports activities with all their gear. People need to realize that a family with 1 kid will have very different vehicle needs from a family with 2 kids and again different from a family with 3 or more kids - add in the kid's friends and things change again. Go on a road trip with 2-3 kids and all of the stuff you need and all of a sudden some vehicle's weaknesses start showing up. Many people will not acknowledge these weaknesses (my brothers who had trucks would not) but every time several families went together on an over-night road trip somewhere, it was the ones with the cars or trucks who always seemed to be stuffed into their vehicle.

People need to be mindful that as the kids get into grade school, then the kid's friends are at some point are going to be with you in your vehicle - a five seat sedan/coupe/truck does not fare well in a family with 2 kids who want to have a friend or two with them unless of course you wish to run two vehicles. So it's either compromise for a short number of years with a van or suck it up and operate either one vehicle with it's drawbacks or two vehicles to get the same people/stuff hauling capacities.

[snoop101]

2013 Santa fe. Love the turbo and the gas millage.

Daughter loves looking out the massive sunroof.

[avishal26]

We got an Infiniti QX60 for the future kids :D and use that primarily with an older M35x for recreational use.

Both our cars are AWD and winter tires and both have rear DVD players :)

The QX60 seats 7 and can tow 5,000lbs (probably never going to use that). But its great for occassional small cargo trailer towing and bike racks and eventually a roof carrier to go on the roof racks for snowboards etc. Surprising amount of space with both 2nd and 3rd row seats down. It has a lot of safety tech too which was the main selling point... and exterior looks combined with interior quality.

[lint]

Ford Flex in 6 seater config for hauling 3 kids, GTi if just the older boys in boosters. The flex was fine before we had the third, but with one needing to get into the 3rd row, removing the centre console/fridge made access much easier. Sliding doors would be nice, but we've gotten by pretty well without.

[Zero102]

We have an 05 grand caravan as a people hauler. It fits 3 kids with their car seats and the diaper bags / emergency kit fit under the floor covers for the stow n go seats, strollers barely make a dent in the rear cargo space and with a tight (19 foot) garage the sliding doors are great. Kids don't understand door dings and are fucking vicious opening conventional doors - this way I don't have to worry about what they will do to my car.

It's boring to drive but with the 3.3L it gets acceptable fuel economy if you keep the speed under 120 on the highway. Front/rear A/C keeps everybody happy and the ride isn't uncomfortable.

We have studded altimax arctic tires for the winter and it has more than enough ground clearance. Even with it being so long I don't find it hard to control at all in the winter, drives just like every FWD car basically.

To top it off we bought one a few years old that's already beat up a bit for well (WELL) under $10k so it wasn't a big investment and we don't have to care much if the kids are hard on it.

When it comes to people haulers IMO nothing beats a van.

If you want something a little higher class the Odyssey and Sienna seem a bit nicer inside but less useful overall at a much higher price tag. I guess the newer caravans are a bit nicer inside and more powerful too (~275hp with the pentastar I believe)

[brandon]

Originally posted by danno


How is the flex? I'm one of the few that like the look of it.

Absolutely love it, we picked it up last year after they did the front face refresh! Works great for our little family. Loaded up with car seat, our big dog and all our stuff while towing a boat and it makes no difference to the comfort of the drive.

I refer to it as the man van! Lol

[clem24]

2003 Toyota Matrix XRS. Easily fits 3 Diono Radian car seats in the back. The 2 dogs go into the hatch. And 8400 RPM redline to move it. :D

Well we also have a 2000 Odyssey for heavy duty hauling LOL.

In all honesty no one NEEDS any SUV ever; it's just some manly image of some sort. I'd say though that the minivan IS fantastic because of the sliding doors. Kid in 1 hang, bags on stuff in the other; can't beat open the doors with a key fob. And never having to worry about slamming it into the car beside.

I hate it when we had those bucket seats with the carry handle for a baby - you can park you car super far away, with tons of room to get that seat in and out. Then you'll always get the stupid asshat who can't park and don't leave sufficient space to allow the door to open to get the bucket in.

[ExtraSlow]

Honda Oddessy and Ford F150 SuperCrew. Both are awesome for the kiddies. No regrets and no plans to modify the fleet.