SUV or MPV will have a more "squarish" rear door aperture and higher roofline. This helps a lot trying to buckle in toddlers and infants into car seats. Assuming you plan to use child seats. Saved me a lot of literal head smacks on the roof of the car strapping kids in.

Bigger windows will also help potentially car sick kids if they can sit higher and see outside.

You will need a big boot opening for kids stuff...like strollers which can be difficult to load in a sedan.

When shopping for a car. Bring your child seat along. Have it fitted and see how easy you can get your kid in and strap them in. Bring stroller and what ever baby crap you have and see how you can load them in.


BTW when your wife is 8 months pregnant, she will appreciate a seat that matches her hip point, so it is easy to just slide the legs in and out and get in/out. A sedan will have a seat lower than the hip height so you have to sit DOWN and get UP. Just get something reasonable and not an SUV that is too tall.

Btw the civic has a fairly low roofline. Do the child seat test first.

Take it from experiences of a parent to another parent. Unlike /k forever alone. My wife jokes I bought a car for the kids instead of for her. She got her own car now that the kids are older and can strap themselves in. My youngest is 9 and is still on a booster seat. The eldest is 12 and don't need one now.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: May 10 2022, 04:13 PM

A point to note if TS might entertain the idea of a compact 7 seater. If you have mounted 2 child seats in the middle seat, How to go into the 3rd row?

Not until they are older and can seat themselves into the 3rd row. I wouldn't squeeze adults in the 3rd row in most compact MPVs and SUVs....unless you really hate your in-laws

A compact 7 seater has almost 0 cargo room with all seats up. When u have kids, you have lots of crap to bring with you

This post has been edited by jaycee1: May 10 2022, 04:25 PM

I think the Cross will be the more practical compared to the new HRV. Rear door is very square at the glass section compared to the sloping HRV. Have to see it in person to judge.

But historically, the honda being honda will be the more entertaining to drive of the 2. Toyota's have very numb steering, but often better sound proofing, more comfortable suspension and the 1.8L engine is a proven reliable unit. Neither will set your pants on fire though, but you also won't go wrong with either.

The 2008 on the other hand.......... Don't. It's actually a segment smaller anyway.

Numb steering aka, uncommunicative steering is where the steering feel is so isolated and muted that it doesn't transmit any feel of what the front wheels are doing or how much grip the front has. Numb steering may also mean vague on centre feel and steering return feel after you have made a turn. This has been made worst with the move to electric assisted power steering Vs older hydraulic systems, making the steering feel vague and slightly "disconnected"

It is an antithesis of a sporty car as you need to feel the limits of grip to push the car to its limits.

Factors that contribute to this are different suspension and steering geometry, lock to lock turns, how the steering is damped for NVH and how the steering is powered.

That said, it's not a problem if you are not a sporty driver and just want ...a car.

For those people that still want to maintain practically and driving dynamics that SUVs and MPVs lack there remains options of larger hatchbacks or station wagons. Both share the large and square rear door openings and big boot opening of the SUV without suffering from the comfort orientated suspension and higher ride height of the former. Rare and expensive in our market now because we simple don't appreciate cars like that now, unlike in Europe.

Cars like the Subaru Legacy wagons and Levorg (and related outback versions), Volvo wagons and those from the Germans offer both practicality and good driving dynamics.

If one really don't want both the wagons and hatchbacks, BMW makes a range of "GT" versions of the 3 and 5 series for that. Audi has the Sportback A5 and A7, and VW has the Arteon

Sporty SUVs does exist, but that's in another price range alltogether.

Yep. Also the loading "hole" size and shape. And the load floor height.

Normal quoted boot space is usually calculated to the window line, so for SUVs and MPVs it is sometimes deceptively smaller than a sedan (even a B segment City has 500L, bigger than most SUV/MPV) but very often a SUV/MPV can easily load things past the window line. Safe or not or police kacau is another story.

A lot of things that makes sense for families don't necessarily make a lot of sense otherwise. Like sliding MPV doors for example...great for children to use and not to worry about them smashing the doors into other cars. Compared to MPVs with normal swing out doors like on the Alza that are very long and swing out very far, tough for tight parking spots (fortunately he Alza is fairly narrow).

A lot of people buy cars based on Thier emotions and not the technically and functionality and fail to test out these aspects when car shopping.

I have a T30 X trail AWD and a Hyundai matrix. Wife now drives a Yaris after trading in her Citra MPV.

All our cars are in fact hatchbacks...never owned a sedan.

For fun and adrenaline rush, I just take my bike now. Retired the "fun" car long time ago.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: May 12 2022, 11:50 AM

Actually it depends. Smaller MPVs and SUVs are better because the seat height matchers the hip point, so it is easy to get in and out. Just don't get a SUV that is too tall can already.

You should try and see.