SUV recommendations

Hi Everyone

My husband and I are planning to buy a new vehicle around the time that the babies come, and we are thinking that we now need to re-evaluate our "short list" as it were upon realizing that we now will have two rear facing seats in the 2nd row for at least a year! My husband is about 6'2 and I'm 5'9 so we both need leg room in the front which means that we can't have the front seats too scrunched up to create extra room in the back for the car seats.

A few stipulations for your suggestions...we are definitely looking for an SUV or crossover, either mid-size or large (nothing HUGE!) and we're looking for something with luxury/limited options. We have thought of minivans, but just aren't ready to go that far just yet haha.

So yeah I'm just looking for some recommendations, hopefully suggestions where you'd actually had the two rear-facing seats in and two taller people riding in the front!

Thanks!

 

My DH and I are both tall as well. I am 5'9" and my DH is 6'4", so I know what you mean about being scrunched up! We ended up getting a 2008 Chevy Tahoe and we absolutely LOVE it! There is plenty of room, and it is nice to drive. We also decided to get the 3rd row seat for the occasional extra passengers, and I would say that is a must. Good Luck with your decision!

 

Hello!

My hubby is 6'4" and I'm 5'10" and we had the same concerns previously. We had a Jeep Grand Cherokee with our 1year old and new born, but upgraded to a Chevy Suburban because the Cherokee it was too small to take even 1 extra person with us with the car seats in there. I was scared of the Suburban (which is just a little shorter but the same thing as the also mentioned Tahoe) at first because it was HUGE but we wanted a little extra room incase we had a "maybe baby" one day.

Well....we had "maybe twins" and were so Thankful that we had the Suburban. My hubby generally drives, the huge diaper bag is on the front seat (and I even buckle it in...lol.) The second row is a bench and holds the twins (currently rear facing) and me on the end. Our now 4 and 5 year olds sit in the third row. I generally sit in the back to keep an eye on the babies, referee the big ones and pop DVDs in and out of the DVD Player. Since we spend a lot of time on the go....it's nice to have a lot of room in the "trunk" area for the double stroller, to do diaper changes on the go (without having to hunch over like in our mini-van), sports bags for the older kids and even a potty in case our four year old has to go while we're out (she is kinda afraid of public restrooms).

The Suburban seems HUGE at first, but honestly, you get used to it and when I'm sitting in traffic sear some other SUV's out there...I feel kinda short because although my Burban is long.....other SUV seem a lot taller than me.
Aaaand....we recently found out that we're expecting again (maybe twins)....and believe it or not.....we feel like we're outgrowing the Suburban. Since I like to sit in the back while the babies are little we went looking for a bigger vehicle yesterday, but sadly there's nothing out there except a passenger van.....Now there's something that is H~U~G~E!!! THAT took my breath away when I tried to drive it yesterday and I just wanted to go back to the car lot....lol....BUT - I know that would best fit our family in the long fun. And - we have a Honda Odyssey for in town quick runs to the grocery store or other places with only 1 or 2 kids. For us...it's better to have something a little bigger and be prepared for whatever the future holds than to upgrade to something that fits us like a glove now. If one of the kids friends goes with us...it's no problem or if my Mom goes out with us somewhere...she fits fine too.

Best wishes in your search!! Car shooping is supposed to be fun, but it's more stressful sometimes. If you already have your Infant Carriers or if you can borrow 2 cars seats....maybe take them along and install them in the test drive vehicle just to get an idea since car seats take up more room than a hiney does!

:wub:
Smiles!!

 

I ran a post similar to this a few weeks back and there are some good responses to review.

http://www.twinstuff.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=135991

 

I am 6' tall; my husband is shorter but my Dad is 6' 3" and also drives my car sometimes. I have a Honda Element. While it may not have all the luxury items you would be looking for, I never sat in a car with as much room; headroom in particular. But the back seats, whoa! There is so much room back there! The way the doors open out, too, apparently makes it easier to access the car seats of the LOs. I'll give my personal experience on this when they arrive!

 

I second the love for the Chevy Tahoe. I havent bought one yet but that's what we're planning to get. And they're cute and luxurious, which is a bonus.

 

Warning!! We have the Element and it is awful with rear facing carseats. Now that they are in the convertible seats it is darn near impossible to take them in and out. I can't wait till they are 1 so we can turn them :grr: !

 

I just traded my Chevy Avalanche in for a Yukon Denali with the third row seating. TONS of room and not hard to drive. Just like driving a truck! I love it. Oh and tons of cargo space!

 

I can't say enough good things about my Suburban ... I got it just before we had our second baby in July 2007. It is surprisingly fuel efficient (really) and easy to navigate - even to parallel park - for such a large vehicle. I realize this does not fall into the not huge category you requested, but if you intend to have (or are surprised to have!) additional children in the future, you will appreciate the extra space for toting pack n plays, stroller & gear. Ours was a demo and we got it for a steal, which was nice as well.

 

I've done a lot of research, test drives, and getting in and out of SUVs as we need a vehicle that will take 3 car seats and be big enough for my DH who is 6'2" and me (5'8"). Our short list included the Chevy Tahoe, the Ford Expedition, and the Volvo X90.

We've decided, in the end, to go with a minivan, as we also have 2 big dogs that come with us on many of our excursions, and nothing seemed roomier or allowed for as much versatility as a minivan (tho' my DH is NOT thrilled).

Good luck!

 

Yeah, we had SUV's and a crown victoria but after being scrunched up for 7 months we said "F this" and I got a minivan.

 

I would suggest the Honda Pilot. It is a bigger SUV, with lots of room, easy to put 2 RF seats in front, as the seats do slide back and forth. The backk row also folds down to make the trunk area bigger if you need to bring anything big home. It has an eco saver on it, and shuts down a cylinder while highway driving to save on gas. Has excellent gas milage as well. Has all the luxury offerings you can have on an SUV as well. Leather heated seats etc. I drive it, and to be honest it has such good stearing control, and great turning radius it does not feel like a truck at all. Good luck in whatever you decide to buy.

 

Thanks everyone for the recommendations. I think we now will have a few more to add to our "maybe" list once we start going for test drives. I think we'll definitely get both our infant car seats, and convertible car seats to take with us for test driving so that we can make sure that we'll fit in the car for the next few years at least!

 

My brother and SIL both drive Volvo XC90s. They love them. They have had hers for about 3 yrs and just traded his 80 in a few months ago. I used to have a Toyota Highlander - it drove just like a car but I loved being higher and it had a ton of room. Happy shopping!!

 

Does anyone have experience with crossover sized SUVs - Audi Q5, Ford Edge, Volvo XC60, Acura RDX, Chevy Traverse, BMW X3, Chrysler Pacifica, Mercedes M...?

 

We have a Ford Escape, which is a smaller SUV. My husband is 6'1" and I am 5'8", and it worked well with rear facing carseats. It's not a luxury car by any means, but it does have really nice options.

We also looked at the Ford Edge crossover, which we loved, and the Ford Flex, which we loved and will probably be our next car. I like the Volvo X90 for a more luxury feel, but it's out of our price range right now.

 

We looked at a BMW X3 after we had our singleton (We ended up with a BMW 335xi). We found that it didn't work well with a rear facing car seat. My tall DH, as a passenger, had his knees up against the dashboard because the rear facing car seat required it. You might like at the X5 -- we didn't. Out of our price range . . . .

We kicked the tires a few times on the Chevy Traverse. I liked it, and it might be roomy enough, although we didn't have the car seats with to be sure.

 

We have a honda pilot as well. We wanted a mid-sized SUV, we couldn't afford the larger ones although i would have loved a Tahoe or soemthing like that, but the Piolot was the largest mid-size out there. We wanted as much room as possible. We have been pleased with it so far. We got it when the girls were 5wks old, it is a 2009. It does have an awesome turning radius, and drives smooth. It doesn't have great get up and go but the thing is a beast. The 3rd row seating in the '09 is improved on the older models and a small adult can fit in the back, granted not a large person but a small adult can fit now.

I am 6'1 and DH is 5'9, We have the graco safe seats and while i have to manuver my seat to fit while driving DH is fine. I can drive but not "cadillac-ing" as DH would put it.. We are able to fit all our twin junk while going out of town with the 3rd row down. All and all for the size and price we are happy with it..

 

One more note for whatever you get - you may be driving it around with the carseats and being 36 weeks pregnant....one of my friends had to do a 4 hour drive (each way!) at 38 weeks and she was so UNCOMFORTABLE...keep that in mind.

 

I was asking about cars and someone mentioned the Honda Odessy. (yes mini-van) it sounded so good ! They mentioned that having the automatic car door openers is so worth it when your hands are full. The middle row the one seat can be removed ? so you have extra room to manouver to strap them all in. Check them out if you find the time.

 

My husband and I have looked at the Traverse. We haven't test drove it yet, but did go check it out at the dealership. I was REALLY impressed with it. Chevy / GM have obviously put some money into the interior design of this car. It is a larger SUV / Crossover - is actually longer than the Chevy Suburban, but I love the interior design. I think that is what we are leaning towards. Seems really roomy. We are expecting twins in July and have a larger dog and I think it will have plenty of room for all. I recommend you check it out.

 

We almost bought a new vehicle but decided to stay with our Jeep, but if we were to buy new, the Toyota Highlander is really great.

 

Well, the new Toyota Highlander 2010 has just been recalled (grrr!) but it is our new vehicle and we love it! They will have a fix for the issue soon I'm sure.

Anyhow, I posted earlier that it was one of two or three vehicles that could comfortably accomodate my husband and I as both driver and passenger (we are both taller than average) and our Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats in the back with a bit of room to spare. The cargo room is decent as well, enough so far to fit the snap n go and a good load of groceries in there and be able to close the cargo cover over it all. T

The only other vehicle with nearly as much room (without going into Suburban, Sequoia, Armada territory or to a minivan) was the Mazda CX-9. This is based on reading the specs, we never actually tested the seats on in the back.