Vehicle for Family of 5 - Aurora,IL

I LOVE my Honda Pilot. Love it. Very spacious but has a third row in case we have an extra kid (or 2) with us. :)

I have a Chrysler Pacifica that I love! It will comfortably seat 6. mine has all the perks of a mini van, but it's not (that's the one thing I love about it!)

Another vote for the Honda Pilot. LOVE IT! Seats 8 comfortably and when you don't need those extra 3 seats, they fold down flat. Super dependable, its our family work horse.

We have a Dodge Grand Caravan and Honda CR-V.

The CR-V holds five people comfortably but I would not take it on a long trip with 5 people - that's me. I love it for local driving and long distance for the FOUR of us.

I love my Dodge Grand Caravan because it seats 7 and we can take road trips without hearing "he's touching me"...I don't like the maintenance on my van - it's 11 years old.

We are thinking of an Escalade, Suburban or an Expedition to replace it. My husband says they are land yachts. He's thinking Sienna, Odyssey, etc.

We just traded in our Yukon Denali XL for a Camry Hybrid - LOVE it!! My kids are 4, 6, and 8 and they fit fine in the backseat plus you can't beat the gas mileage. My husband drives a Prius to work because he works 2 hours away.

Our SUV that we kept is a Nissan Armada. This is my baby in vehicle terms :). Love it!! It is so nice, drives amazingly well, and I just can't give you enough reasons to buy this if you're looking for an SUV.

Definitely a minivan, not an SUV! They are much more family and kid friendly. We had brought our choices down to Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey (they are pretty similar: lots of room, good gas mileage), and found a good deal on a "preowned" Sienna. We are very happy with it!

We have a 2004 Toyota Sienna and we love it! We have the 8 seater and it is a little squished in the back, so would probably get the 7 seater next time. It has lots of storage, gets good gas mileage, for a van, and is comfy.

I have to second the Volvo Xc 90.. We bought ours used certified with a 5 year warranty. It is a 2005 and we bought it in 06. I like the safety. As well as the built in booster seat. Also great in the snow all wheel drive. This is my 3rd Volvo we always buy used.. But in college I hit black ice on a highway..(in a sports rear wheel drive volvo) The frame held during the roll over .. None of my 3 passenger or I was injured. I remember up a head other cars had rolled and a lot of injuries because the roof of the cars caved in.
L.

def go with a minivan - the design is much more family friendly than an suv, and any savings upfront on an suv will be quickly eaten with gas costs... we recently got a 2012 honda odyssey, had a 2002 pontiac montana before that, i LOVE my odyssey and we got a great deal with a very low interest rate. if you are trading in your dodge, do your homework on it's trade in value and go in with numbers in mind. our honda seats 8, but we dont need the third seat in the middle row, so i just keep it in the trunk to make it easier to get to the back row for my older kids, but the seat is there if we need it :) we are a family of five as well - my kids are 3, 6, and 9 - so very similar to you!

love my honda odyssey. ours is ANCIENT - it's a 2001 but not a ton of miles on it. we had the 4 door, had the SUV and I'm gonna be a minvan gal now...

Volvo XC90 has spilt 3rd row with built in DVD (monitor in headrest) that can be used separate. Kids in 3rd row can listen to DVD, CD or radio all separate from everyone else. Gas milage is average 18 mpg city and if you look at their safety record its pretty impressive

I love my Honda Odyssey. They are expensive, but I was able to find mine used and it's AWESOME.

Recently bought a Toyota Sienna. It's great for our family of 4, but we always seem to have an extra child or two with us.

We like our Explorer with the third row option.

LOVE my Honda Pilot. It has a third row that is actually comfortable and easy to access.

My sister drives a Pathfinder and loves that too (with 3 in car seats).

I have a 2007 Toyota Sienna that I LOVE! It does not have a lot of the bells and whistles that are available on newer models, but it has all the space I need for my family of five (and our double-stroller.) We also looked at the Honda Odyssey, but in the end we went with what we could get the best deal on.

Do some test drives and some research on safety. Some vans come standard with side-curtain airbags, where for others it is an add-on option. Make sure you know which one you are getting.

We found a car salesman we liked, told him what we wanted and what our price point was and waited for him to find the match. He did it so well with our van, we went back the next month and got my husband's truck. :-)

My thoughts when it comes to vehicles is that the kids will be grown ups in a couple of years and any vehicle I buy at this time needs to be able to grow along with them.

So, I would recommend something like a Tahoe, an Explorer, something that has 3 rows with enough room for long legs to stretch out during vacation trips. The Explorer has enough room behind the back seat that all the luggage, bikes, sports equipment, groceries, etc...will all fit and the back seat doesn't have to be turned down all the time. The Tahoe is sometimes a bit shorter behind the back seat but not anything like a van is. The back seats are often right against the back window.

The larger SUV's also have full size seats for adult hiney's so they will be very comfortable for growing kids and other adult friends if you ever get the chance to go on a girls weekend to a spa or something.

They seat 3 adults across, not like a van that is narrower and the seats are belted for 3 but actually only fit 3 kids or 2 adults.

That's what I think about when we look at vehicles. I would not go to anything smaller. It would be redundant.

Yes, gasoline is an issue when you decide on what vehicle to buy. You may find that with a newer vehicle they are really trying to work on more efficient use of the fuel.

I would still take into consideration the cost of taking 2 vehicles on trips so that everyone can be comfortable.

We have a Suburban for our family of 5. It is great because we have options.

Yeah, it's big. Around town gas mileage isn't great, road trip is usually good - around 23 to 28 MPG.

We can bring friends and STUFF!!! Lord knows my girls LOVE STUFF!!! So I can seat 8 AND have storage.