One of the biggest challenges we face with adding a third child to our family, other than losing the whole man to man defense thing, is that we don't own a car that will accommodate three car seats -- or really, two car seats and a booster.
Truth be told, we've been enjoying a good solid year with no car payments, so the idea of having to fork over money, even be it a trade-in and cash, is pretty painful. We're not necessarily in the market for a brand new car, but the challenge of finding something that is economical (both on the pocket now and when you hit the gas pump) as well as family friendly is pretty damn tough.
Okay, so far, it's been nearly impossible.
For the last few weeks, I've been testing out a few cars, two of which (The GMC Acadia and the Tahoe Hybrid) offer enough space to accommodate our growing family and none of which are the dreaded minivan. To be clear, I'm not entirely against a minivan and honestly, if push came to shove, I would drive it if it was the best option for us.
But, I would much rather find an alternative.
Now the third vehicle I tried, the Volvo V-70, doesn't necessarily have enough room, but it does offer an exciting feature that's perfect for families, so I figured I'd give it a try even though three car seats across one seat wouldn't work.
I'm no car reviewer, so if you want the nitty gritty details, you should go to the cars' websites, or check out my podcast guest for July 2, 2008, Jody DeVere, the Founder and CEO of Ask Patty. It's a fantastic resource that aims at enlightening women about cars.
The GMC Acadia was definitely our top choice in terms of being family friendly. It's just slightly bigger than the Chevy Trailblazer that I drive now, but with an extra row in the back. The two bucket seats in the "second row" provide a way to easily get to the back without necessarily having to pull down a seat each time.
Overall, it drove really well -- in fact, my husband commented on the transmission being great. And while it's not a hybrid, the fuel economy wasn't too bad (16/24) for a car of its size. The starting price is around 30K and while it's probably out of our budget (we're definitely thinking that used is going to be the way to go for us), it's a fantastic minivan alternative.
The Tahoe Hybrid definitely garnered a lot of attention from passers by as well as our neighbors. People would stop and ask us how we liked it. To be honest, it drove just like a regular gigantic car, and while I know that the gas mileage (around 22 city) is great for a gigantic vehicle like that, I wasn't hugely impressed.
It's clearly not a family friendly car, at least my family with soon-to-be three small little ones. It was hard to get to our daughter in the back seat with the 2nd row also being a bench of sorts. And the price tag, a whopping $55K, was waaaaaay out of our budget.
An aside that didn't really affect how we felt about the cars was the terrible navigation system. For the price those features cost, we were surprised at how utterly useless it was. I'm sure we should have read the directions, but it we both had one heck of a time trying to figure it out, which isn't what you need when you're lost.
Both cars had no trunk room, which we understand due to the extra seats, but still. EEP!
Now the Volvo V-70 was a great ride. I'm a fan of Volvos, particularly their wagons and wasn't disappointed with the ride. The best part of the V-70 is the built in child safety boosters for kids 35 lbs +. It's a fantastic option and definitely worth checking out. It had tons and tons of trunk room, and the bare basics model that we got starts at around 32,5K.
Note to people lending reviewers cars: Do not give a family a car with BLACK LEATHER SEATS during an Atlanta summer. IT SUCKS!
My thanks to Volvo and GM for lending me the cars. If anything, our family appreciated the free gas for three weeks which was particularly helpful in a city where you have to drive to get anywhere and gas prices are just under $4/gallon.
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