OP here. Thanks for all the suggestions! I tend to be one to keep my cars forever and drive them into the ground so I think I'll need to consider the future of shuttling multiple schoolkids around to sports and whatnot. Which leads me to think we need a larger car. But, oh my gas saving environmentalist self has a hard time with this!

We have a Subaru Outback. Love the AWD!

You want room for at least one more child, if not two more. Once your kids are school aged (preschool and elementary) you'll often have other kids with you. It's nice to be able to ride share to sports, school, etc.

Anonymous wrote:The Passat Station Wagon. It's beautiful and has tons of space.

No longer made, but you could get a Jetta Wagon. We had the TDI and the gas milage was great. It was good for space, but not great.

I love my Murano.

The Passat Station Wagon. It's beautiful and has tons of space.

We have two kids and we just got a Subaru Outback.

We love the AWD and the extra cargo space is perfect for BJs/Costco runs. It seems like plenty of room for us. We've never had the need for a third row of seats, and we hate the idea of driving a mini-van "just in case" we need more room.

If you want a hybrid (or hybrid plug in), you might check out the new Ford C-Max.

I have 2 kids and LOVE my Odyssey. It does not drive like a tank, or feel like a tank. We normally don't have more than 4 people in it, but we have taken trips with the grandparents and with a friend for each kid, and there's plenty of room for that.

Also, sliding doors. LOVE sliding doors. And if you ever need to haul big stuff - appliances, rugs, furniture, you can fold the back seats down and get just about anything in there.

We have the Rav-4 with the pop up 3rd row. Also love the highlander, which comes in a hybrid (but was out of our price range). Pop-up third seat has been a great fit for our family - can put an extra person back there for quick trips (grandparent at the airport, give a friend a ride home, etc.), but don't have to drive a giant SUV or minivan all the time.

I know others that really like the Mazda5 for similar reasons. Mazda5 and Rav-4 get the same gas milage, and we prioritized 4WD over sliding doors, but I think the other decision is totally valid.

Honda Pilot. The CRV seats only 5 and if you want to bring a friend for each of your kids somewhere, or even just two family members, you need the 8 seats of the Pilot.

We have a Honda Pilot, has extra 3rd seat. Love it. Now buying a Lexus SUV. Very wonderful car.

I love our 10 year old Toyota Camry and have the entire 10 years.

We also have an 8 year old Hyundai Santa Fe and I have never liked it--loud, chinzy on the inside and difficult to service sometimes. (the closest dealer when there are bigger problems is in Fairfax). Also we've had more problems mechanically with it.

I think one sedan like the Camry and one bigger car (SUV or minivan) is perfect for a family of 4. Agree with the other poster though that minivans are tanks and they eat gas and are harder to manuever.

How often do you have other people in your car? If it's almost always just the four of you, you can get just about anything with four doors.

I would not get a minivan, but I'm not a big fan of big vehicles, and today's minivans are tanks.

I would most likely get a new Honda Accord, which is very spacious and has a cavernous trunk for road trips. If you need AWD, try a Subaru Forester or Honda CRV. Or even the new Subaru Crosstrek, which is small, but still has 4 doors and AWD.

I know this has been asked a million times, but please humor me and provide your insight. We have a 2 year old DC and I'm due with DC #2 in March. We have a small economy car currently and my husband thinks we need to buy a minivan when DC #2 arrives. Anyone love their minivan? Or have other car suggestions for our family? Thanks!