Family vehicle with bigger kids (3 of them!)

[Anonymous]

Another Sequoia owner and we love it too. It has the best turning radius and is one of the easiest vehicles to park we've ever owned.

[Anonymous]

Love our Sequoia as well! Best car we have owned.

[Anonymous]

Minivan. We always have 4 or 5 kids in our van, despite only having 2 kids of our own. Sometimes (like last night) I don't even know the name of the kids I'm hauling to practice. The kid showed up with my son asking for a ride. Totally normal.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks for the suggestions! Especially the Sequoia, it hasn't even been on our radar, so we'll check it out.

[Anonymous]

Where is smallest 7 passenger vehicle? We have a tiny garage and only can fit Honda Accord length/width?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is smallest 7 passenger vehicle? We have a tiny garage and only can fit Honda Accord length/width?

Unfortunately, the smallest 7 passenger vehicle will not likely solve the problem. There are several options that technically seat 7 but in reality the third row is a miserable ride once the kids become teens and the cargo space is nowhere near large enough to handle the gear of multiple teens.

[Anonymous]

Mom of four (three teens and one almost there). Between all of their sports/instruments/school stuff, we need a Suburban. We no longer fit into a minivan (we have one of those too). But when we haul kids around it's always in the Suburban. That last seat holds a couple of kids easily and some of their stuff, but the minivan just didn't have the room at the back for their stuff - and we have one that has the fold into the floor seats so they have those deeps wells at the back. The Suburban has made life a lot easier though. We looked at the Tahoe (to fit into the garage) but that was too small. The Suburban lives in the driveway.

[Anonymous]

At first I thought this was for people who had BIG kids - I"m 5 11 and was the shortest in my family as a sophmore! My brothers were all over 6 ft as freshmen. We had a ford econoline growing up - we literally outgrew the mini van on height of kids.

I currently have a mini van and it holds the kids and gear fine. We briefly had my dead uncle's old Cadillac that we called the grandpa car - the kids loved it - the trunk was huge for sports gear and cooler and they had plenty of room across the back and it stood out from the mini vans during pick up. I was hoping my oldest would learn to drive on it, but it didn't make it. We did have to park it on the street, no way it was fitting in the garage, it was longer and wider than the mini van.

Do pay attention to the size of the kids. My cousin, a football player - linebacker (we grow them big in my family) still jokes about never go out for burgers with 4 linesmen in your dad's Oldsmobile - ruined the struts on the car - and that was just 4-5 years ago!

[Anonymous]

Minivan is the quickest and easiest car for kids to get into and out of. they don't have to climb around. it is super efficient and holds a ton of stuff.
It's also $20K cheaper than most of the comparable 3rd row SUV alternatives.
Get over the "image" problem you have with it, and really, who cares what the kids think

[Anonymous]

Minivan poster above. I do agree with the "Suburban" mom's comments. Many big families in my hood have the Suburban. It is great and huge. I looked into it, but it is about 2 feet longer than a minivan, and won't fit in our garage.
Whatever car you buy, measure the length to see if it will fit in your garage. Unless you are happy leaving on the driveway (we live in cold weather, so I hate digging a car out of the snow in the morning)

[Anonymous]

We park our Sequoia in the street. It's a breeze to park with its big side mirrors, easy view out, back up camera, and amazing turning radius.

If an issue for a home garage, the length of the Honda Odyssey is 202.9 inches and the Sequoia is 205.1. Practically identical.

Width: Sequoia is 79.9 inches and Odyssey is 79.2. Less than an inch difference -- Again, almost identical.

There are a variety of differences but exterior size isn't one of them to a significant extent, other than if height is an issue in your garage (Seq (with roof rack): 77 inches; Honda (w/o roof rack): 68.4).