Does anyone with a 5 person family drive a car?

[kwickimom]

We have a minivan that is getting up there in miles. We are looking at our options for another vehicle.

 

I am toying with the idea of keeping our van and getting a car with really good gas mileage instead of replacing our van because we can barely afford a vehicle payment and almost everything is out of our price range, plus cars get get so much better gas mileage. Then I would still have the van if we needed to haul extra people around in it. It wouldnt be fun but we could make do and I would save a TON on gas if we got something with better mpgs. All 7 seater vehicles I have looked into have terrible mpg's.

 

The downside is obviously the size (I almost always have extra kids to lug around but if I just cant do it, I cant do it)

 

Just looking to see if anyone has 5 people and a car- what do you drive?

[alef]

We drove a Ford Escort up until our 4th child was born--we had three kids in carseats/boosters, and the back seat was so crowded you had to really shove the door to get it closed.

 

If I were shopping for a car to seat five people I would go to dealerships and try sitting in all the different cars, to get a feel for which ones had the most comfortable seating for that many people.

[fairfarmhand]

We have six people in our family and have a (currently non-working) car that I LOVE! We drove it when we only had 3 kids but kept it as a spare when we got the van after #4 was born.

 

I drive it when dh is not with us. It is a Ford Taurus. Kind of cramped for my bigger kids in the back, but doable for short drives.

 

You could get a sedan with a front bench seat that would give you an extra spot for a kid. Look at "old lady" types that are big and boxy.

 

Downsides...kids can touch each other and pester one another more easily. However, my kids do this in the van anyway.

 

Also, fitting in boosters and car seats can be tricky.

 

BTW...I love the trunk space in my taurus. Trunk space in those big sedans is very nice!

[Luckymama]

We have a Toyota Corolla that worked with one kid in a booster seat. I'm not sure how it would do with more than that.

[Iskra]

We are a 5 person familiy and we drive a honda civic. All my kids are still in carseats (you can fit 3 carseats in the back row of a small car if you need to, as long as you buy the right kind of seats). Obviously we can't give anybody else a ride, but our family fits quite nicely in there.

[MomtoCandJ]

I regularly fit three kids in the backseat of my '02 Taurus. 2 in boosters, one not. Also fit dd in her booster and two rather large people back there (I'm sure the large people weren't very comfortable but they needed a ride and we were the only ones able to pick them up). Growing up my parents drove cars as well, and there was 3 of us kids.

Now that we are expecting, we tell everyone we can not have more than a set of twins because we can't afford a new vehicle and I love my car :) dh has a crew cab truck that we are making payments on, so we can also seat 5 in his truck.

[kwickimom]

I'd have 2 kids in boosters and one 10yo.

[Crimson Wife]

We have an '04 Toyota Matrix wagon that is plenty roomy, but the new Matrix is smaller so I wouldn't recommend getting one. The Prius V wagon is the same size as our old Matrix. That's what we will most likely replace our old Matrix with if we don't get a minivan.

 

ETA: We fit 2 boosters and a car seat in the back seat of our Matrix.

[Dory]

My brother has a Honda Civic that he loves and has done some pretty long trips with his three kids. Our kids are now all out of car seats so we are looking at smaller cars ourselves and hopefully will have one before the end of this week. We have narrowed it down to a Ford Focus and a Honda Civic.

[TravelingChris]

We had a van for a few years but it was causing me to get back and neck spasms so we didn't get another. We had a Volvo Station Wagon, a Toyota Tundra truck with extended cab (and that is the car we used twice to go cross country), a Mercedes station wagon (when we lived in Europe), a Hyundai Sonata (after my son was in college but still we used it at times to haul around five) and now a Subaru Outback station wagon.

[Tabrett]

Have you looked at a Mazda 5? It is a "vanlit". That is what we have. It only seats 6. The middle seats are captain chairs and the back seat is a 2 seater bench. It is a cross over between a van and a hatchback. The price starts at 20k and it gets really good gas mileage. It was the perfect solution for us and my 3 littles still at home. Dd at college can still ride with us when home too.

[UrbanSue]

We drove a Hyundai Elantra until our fourth was born and dh kind of regrets that we got rid of it (though our fourth baby somewhat made up for it ;) ). We moved cross country--twice! for a month!-- in it and did a huge road trip from NJ-CO-MN-NJ one summer. We could fairly easily fit three car seats across the back. We did have two Sunshine Kids Radian seats but the Hyundais have a few more inches across the back than the similar-size Toyota and Honda models we looked at. We got the hatchback version and could carry a lot of cargo for such a small car--my oldest uses a non-collapsible wheelchair so all of those road trips had a wheelchair taking up a good amount of space. And when we bought (we had a 2005) the hatchback model came standard with leather seats which are so much easier to keep clean. I really miss that. The mileage was fabulous--above 30 was our average and we'd often be approaching 40 on long freeway drives. We never had a single maintenance issue.

 

Can you tell we really loved this car :)

[Tap]

I drove Honda Accords for 17 years, but I recently bought a Subaru Outback. I have tall kids with long legs so the back seat size is a huge factor in buying a car for me.

 

For your kids ages you may want to look at a Honda Civic. My dh had one that got well over 32 mpg and was fine when our older kids were young. You may need to purposefully buy narrow car seats though.

[Laura Corin]

I have put two teenagers and a child in a booster seat in the back of my Ford Focus hatchback. It worked fine. I wouldn't do it for a twelve hour trip, but to run errands it was fine.

 

L

[LostSurprise]

Before we had our 4th child, we had a Honda Accord wagon and I loved it. It was circa 2000 though. I can't say what the sizes are today, but that version fit 3 car seats.

 

We're talking about doing the same thing. My youngest and I commute for medical stuff and it would make a lot more sense than 2 vans.

[MistyMountain]

I have a family of 5 and drive a station wagon. We have the Volkswagon Jetta TDI. I gets great gas mileage and fits my kids and all the stuff with no issues. We have a roof basket on top and have gone on camping trips with it. It certainly fits everyday driving needs like going to the grocery store or taking the kids on hikes or to school. On vacation we rented a Toyota Corolla and it was plenty big and had good trunk space.

[bettyandbob]

I have a subaru forester. It is an 02. We had an infant and 2 youn children when we got it. It' a little tight with 5 adult size people now, but we can do day trips and errands in it. I believe the newer foresters are wider. I really like driving the forester and would get it again.

[Mekanamom]

I traded my van in for a used Honda Fit. (Actually got the car plus a check for the balance!) For a subcompact car, it has tons of storage space. All 5 of us do fit in there (and my 3 kids are adult sized now) but its a squeeze in the back seat.

 

My van averaged around 20 mpg. The Fit gets a consistent 34 mpg. Up to 40 mpg if I do a lot more freeway driving.

 

Would have loved a Prius, but the Fit was the most economical option overall.

 

 

[Susan in TX]

We have a larger family, but my husband's car is a 2013 Volkswagon Passat diesel. One of the reasons he chose this car is because he needed something that got good gas mileage and could comfortably seat 5 adults/teenagers. It fit the bill. And the trunk is huge.

 

Susan in TX

[Punchie]

We have a Toyota Corolla that worked with one kid in a booster seat. I'm not sure how it would do with more than that.

 

 

We have a Toyota Corolla w/3 kids. It is a tight fit since all are in carseats. If you get a small sedan, you'll need to research narrow carseats/boosters. Radians work nicely, but they're not cheap. If you go w/a sedan, I would stay away from the smaller, compact cars. DH would like to upgrade to a lager one, but neither of us want a car payment!

[elfgivas]

Have you looked at a Mazda 5? It is a "vanlit". That is what we have. It only seats 6. The middle seats are captain chairs and the back seat is a 2 seater bench. It is a cross over between a van and a hatchback. The price starts at 20k and it gets really good gas mileage. It was the perfect solution for us and my 3 littles still at home. Dd at college can still ride with us when home too.

 

Christmas morning 2011, i found keys to a mazda 5 in my stocking! i love it so much. ours has six chairs (no bench seat). it drives like a car and gets good mileage. dh bid on line, and got it for well under 20,000 out the door.

 

dh drives a corolla, and that works in a pinch, but would have worked fine at the age your kids are now.

 

hth,

ann

[Donna]

I have 2 teen boys and an 11yo dd so 5 people in our family. I drive a Honda Civic that I purchased for low gas mileage since I drive a lot. Granted, my oldest drives and I am often running one kid somewhere, so rarely are all 5 of us in the car at the same time but it happens and we fit just fine.

[swellmomma]

We do. We had the chevy cobalt until last august when we were in a crash and since then have had a mitsubishi lancer station wagon. I miss my van but the station wagon fits all 5 of us and the trunk space is great. Oldest sits in the front, youngest sits in the middle in her booster seat, dd13 is behind the passenger side, and ds9 is behind me. If anyone's seats gets changed all h*ll breaks loose. Assigned seating with the booster between the 2 that are like oil and water with each other was a must. The fuel mileage on it is why we stay in a car rather than getting a new van. I will eventually need to get a van again but for now I will keep driving the car with us all.

[MomtoCandJ]

Does anyone know about the all wheel drive cars? We are looking into getting one after Dh's truck is paid off.

[KungFuPanda]

We are a family of 4 with a wheelchair that has always driven a sedan. Right now we're thinking of the Ford Transit. Less expensive, great gas mileage, and cheaper to adapt for a power chair. It has no power, but 99% of my driving is in the suburbs anyway. It might work for you.

[plath]

We LOVE our ford flex. Soon to be a family of five :)

[Halftime Hope]

We have an older Mazda6 that has been wonderful. It has 145K miles on it and the only major thing we've replaced is wheel bearings on the front right side. It has been virtually repair free, once you exclude wear and tear items like brake pads, tires, batteries, and one set of struts/shocks. We can fit 5 adults in it, although 3 in the back seat isn't roomy. We have taken trips in it up to 6 hours with all five of us, but for anything longer than that we take the Burb. It has a huge trunk and the rear seat backs pull down so that if you have something long and narrow, you can put it in the trunk.

[Susan in TN]

We drove a Ford Escort up until our 4th child was born--we had three kids in carseats/boosters, and the back seat was so crowded you had to really shove the door to get it closed.

 

If I were shopping for a car to seat five people I would go to dealerships and try sitting in all the different cars, to get a feel for which ones had the most comfortable seating for that many people.

 

Ditto, except we had a Saturn something-or-other. It was "cozy" but do-able.

[mamaraby]

We currently own two minivans (when dh's car needed to be replaced, it just made sense for the newer one to be the family car and we already owned one minivan), but we have often considered getting a VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI. I *think* it would probably work and it certainly gets better MPG (manual transmission, of course).

 

On the other hand, I come from a family of five and when we got older m parents got a full size van. I'm having a hard time picturing how it will work when the kids get older.

[meena]

We have a 2006 Toyota Camry. It was the primary car for our family of five when my children were all three in car seats/high-back boosters. We were able to fit all three seats across but it was tight. Now we have an SUV as our primary car because we need the room for extra people and/or sports gear, or we want extra comfort (and quiet that the Dvd player/ headphones provide) for long distance trips. :) We still use the Camry for errands and general driving around. The backseat is roomy enough that even though my kids have grown they don't feel on top of each other.

[Violet Crown]

Another vote for the Mazda5. We have the bench seat, so Great Girl fits neatly sideways (which she likes) in the Wayback when dh and I are both in the front. It really is a faux-van, being actually the Mazda3 chassis built up to look vanlike. Good gas mileage, good reliability. A few negatives, but a very nice "minivan."

 

[skeeterbug]

We've been very happy with our old Volvo station wagon. There's even room for the dog in the back! It's been our sole car for about four years now. We like it so much that when it was time for a seven-seater (we will soon be a family of six!) we went with another Volvo, an SUV this time. Technically the station wagon is a seven-seater, it has two rear-facing seats that can fold down when not in use. Very convenient but not for permanent seating.

[Sara in AZ]

I traded my van in for a used Honda Fit. (Actually got the car plus a check for the balance!) For a subcompact car, it has tons of storage space. All 5 of us do fit in there (and my 3 kids are adult sized now) but its a squeeze in the back seat.

 

My van averaged around 20 mpg. The Fit gets a consistent 34 mpg. Up to 40 mpg if I do a lot more freeway driving.

 

Would have loved a Prius, but the Fit was the most economical option overall.

 

 

DH drives a Fit and we love it! We're a family of 6, so it doesn't work when we all need to go somewhere. But we use it for as much of the around town driving as we can since the mileage is so much better than our Odysey. Our kids aren't fully grown, either. I imagine it might be a bit of a squeeze in that backseat for three adults.

[AHASRADA]

We are a family of 5 and drive a Saab wagon. Fortunately, only 1 adult is usually driving with the kids, but on the occasion that we are all 5 in the car, it's tight. DS is 6'2" and cannot fit in the back seat anymore, certainly not squeezed in with dd13 and dd2's carseat. On long family trips I have to smoosh in the back (yuck!).

 

Great, comfortable, roomy car, but for family trips (we drive 2 hours one way to visit family every month), we really want a van or a crossover. Waiting on the $$.