Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The highlander is almost as large as a minivan, except that without the sliding doors it is harder to get in and out.

right? I honestly don't understand people who insist on driving ginormous SUVs

We have a Toyota Camry, and the highlander is same length and width -- definitely taller but not huge.

I haven't seen ANY minivan with a length of 191" -- which ones are same size as Highlander?

Mazda5 only holds 6, really need 7 passenger (3 kids)

^ I will say, the 3rd row in the rogue is TIGHT. But, I've sat back there myself and it was okay for a short trip. The neighborhood kids just have to deal with being squished (and right now, with the oldest at age 9, they still fight over who gets the honor). I wanted the option of hauling a lot of kids when I need to, which the Rogue enables, but did not want a behemoth of a car for just my family of 4.

I have the Rogue with a third row and really like it. The third row is tiny, but it works for us (2 kids, but carpool several times a week).

Anonymous wrote:mazda5

The Mazda 5 only holds six people rather than seven as most third row SUVs do. It is also a very tight fit for all but the smallest passengers when all the seats are full. Not too much cargo space either.

Not sure how old your kids are but some of the small SUVs that technically have a 3rd row are not functional for older, bigger kids. The 3rd row can be hard to get to and super small.

Did you look at the Acura MDX? That had a tight 3rd row and was smaller than the SUV I ended up with...but it was a great car.

Anonymous wrote:The highlander is almost as large as a minivan, except that without the sliding doors it is harder to get in and out.

right? I honestly don't understand people who insist on driving ginormous SUVs

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:mazda5

I was going to suggest this one as well. It has the footprint of a sedan almost.

it does. My husband has a Fusion - parked next to each other in the garage, they are the same length (the mazda may actually be slightly shorter)

The highlander is almost as large as a minivan, except that without the sliding doors it is harder to get in and out.

Anonymous wrote:mazda5

I was going to suggest this one as well. It has the footprint of a sedan almost.

We had same issue and went with highlander. Very happy.

mazda5

I have a 2010 Murano (bigger version of the Rogue) with 80K miles on it and haven't had any issues. But I love the exterior styling of the Land Rover Discovery Sport, in your shoes I would (irrationally) lean toward that one. But for the size, the fuel efficiency isn't great.

I own the rogue with all the bells and whistles (minus the third row). Very easy to drive and doesn't feel like you're driving an above average size car. It's also super easy to park in tight spaces or backing up if you have the surround view camera. I'm not sure about the cargo space if you add that third row though.

So we definitely want a 3rd row suv or minivan for hauling kids and carpooling.

Limitation is that both at home and work we have to park and navigate tight spaces (parking garage at home and work).

Current fave is highlander, but it is still kind of large.

Anyone have experience on these smaller cars:

Mitsubishi Outlander (a little smaller)
Nissan Rogue (3rd row optional) -- this one has the smallest envelope so i think will work for us, but not sure about the reliability
Land Rover Discovery Sport (3rd row optional) - we like this one a lot, and its actually the shortest suv, but it does seem to be kind of wide -- anyone park this.

Also, we would be using the seats with booster seats.