Yes, its essential for your kids’ social life. If you cannot join carpool for various kid activities, you end up driving your own kids in your own car while other kids chat and develop friendship in a van or big suv. My DC was not social but carpooling with other kids for several years helped him to connect to other kids.

I think of the "big family car" as a temporary thing too. We have a minivan (which I LOVE btw) and it's useful. We are in the season of our lives when it's very useful, with a 4 and a 6 year old. In 10 years, we may downgrade and get a different type of vehicle, but for now this car is really made for our lives.

So if you are a "I drive things for 10+ years" type, get a family car. If you are a "I upgrade every 3 years" type, get whatever you want.

It's nice to easily be able to bring more than 1 extra person with us. Does it define our lives? No. It is really nice and what I want out of a car with little kids? Yes.

So you will survive without it, sure. But I love that I can pick up my friend and BOTH her kids, and all go to the pool or the playground together. We don't *have* to that, but it's nice.

Not a need, but you will find almost every family has at least one 7+ passenger car. It is a “nice to have.”

We have an suv because we always drive to go on vacation. 4 people, 1 dog, and camping/skiing/biking gear etc is near impossible to fit in a smaller car.

Around town it’s been nice to have for the 5% of the time we actually need it for plywood or furniture or extra passengers. But not a necessity

We have three kids and often have a friend or two in tow. If we didn't have a third row, we would end up having to take two cars on various excursions. So, we find it useful.

Having the extra space of a big SUV or minivan is pretty nice. Even when not carpooling and such we like to load bikes, scooters, camping gear, etc in the back and the extra room comes in handy. It is also nice when family comes into town to be able to comfortably drive everyone around in one car. My mom is local and she doesn't really like to drive much, so having extra space is useful for that too.