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I have the Acura RDX and love it!

I’ll message @jape14 to come comment, though. She has a station wagon (I want to say Volvo) and she seems to love it. I remember you mentioning you might want a dog in the future? The only real issue with my RDX is 2 kids + 2 adults + 1 dog = little room for suitcases or stroller. Other than that, it’s a great, reliable car. I was choosing between the Santa Fe and believe it our now in the end the pricing was almost exactly the same with the Acura having higher resale value.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard that 9 out of every 10 Subarus every made are still on the road. That’s pretty incredible.

If I were doing it over again I might take a closer look at the RAV4.

I love Subaru Outbacks. That was what I wanted but once I started shopping I realized that they are so loved/last so long that it's really hard to find them come up preowned and I was not prepared to drive one off the lot, especially since I wanted all the upgrade packages. But I loved my test drive and the Subarus my family has owned over the years have always aged so well. If it's on your radar, definitely try it out!

I ended up with a Jeep Cherokee that I do love. We only have one carseat right now (1 kiddo!) but two will fit fine. There is plenty of room for cargo, too, but you would have to choose between the dog or a stroller.

Edit to add pic for reference. It's a Britax B Agile, and once you slide it to the side there is more space to put stuff flat. I usually just stack stuff on top of it. But as you can see, it would not fit both the stroller and a dog in the cargo area.

@LCTBQE: Mazda CX 5? We just got a CX 9 and LOVE it. My husband is a car guy and pretty much an encyclopedia when it comes to what’s out there, so we did a ton of research. Subaru is coming out with an SUV later this year, I believe, so that’s a consideration. Volvos are gorgeous but are having huge reliability issues in their recent models. I was just burned by VW’s “Dieselgate” with my old Touareg so cannot in good faith recommend the Tiguan. My husband would also want me to point out the reliability of a Toyota or Lexus (like I said, we are seeking reliability these days!).

My friend has an Outback and loves it, but says with one kid and a dog/luggage in the back it’s getting full. With two kids and a dog you might want to look for a touch bigger.

I got a Santa Fe about a month ago and LOVE It! It might be a bit bigger than you want but you could also check out the Santa Fe Sport which is more compact. I was also used to driving a crap Honda civic and I love the way this thing handles. We were between a sorento, pathfinder, and this and it won out.

We have a mazda5 (which is a pretty budget option) and I’m obsessed with the sliding doors. It’s like a micro van basically - 2 buckets in middle row and a smallish third row. If you fold flat lots of space back there, as seats it works best for kids or small adults. We are going to attempt 3 kids in there which ought to be interesting ... will put my booster kid in 3rd row I think. I can fit an umbrella stroller with the 3rd row up, or groceries, but my city mini is tight. It doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles (no auto sliding doors for example) but the price was right for us and I’ve had zero maintenance issues in 3 years.

I LOVED my outback! Tons of room when we had a family of 4, even with my tall husband driving. With 3 kids it was like a clown car though and we upgraded to a bigger vehicle.

@LCTBQE: I got mine barely used and I’ve had it for almost 5 years - no super major issues so far (knock on wood!). I started out going to the dealership but found a local place that only does Volvos and their prices are pretty fair/not totally insane. Some things on Volvos are very different (I think when I got my state inspection the person commented that they take longer) so it’s worth going to a place that specializes in them if you can. Most yuppie suburban areas should have one I think they may have discontinued the XC70 and the new version is v90?

@LCTBQE: yes! dying over the service on the way home from whole foods scenario

@jape14: Oh I wouldn't be worried about at 2012! My parents leased a 2013 XC70 and loved it. I think it's the most recent ones (2017 and 2018) that are having the issues, apparently. I loved test-driving the 90, but after my husband researched the reliability he said it was a no-go . Hopefully by the time you're ready to buy there will be more data available and you can assess!
@LCTBQE: LOVE how the CX9 handles. LOVE. It's why I picked it. I like a responsive steering wheel (a lot of cars have "light" steering wheels and that drives me nuts), but I feel completely connected to the car as I drive (if that makes sense). As for Volvos-they are GORGEOUS inside and drive well. If you're leasing, my husband says go for it, because if it has a bunch of warranty issues it's not your problem. If you're buying it might be a different story.

I have an Acura MDX (which is a little bigger) and would agree with @LBee: check out an RDX. Love love my Acura; I wish they made a bigger vehicle for my 3-kid family.

We are a family of 4 (Boys are 4.5 and 20 months) and we jUst bought a Subaru Forester last week. I was deciding between the Forester and the Outback. I love how well you can see in the Forester and the huge moonroof. Outback had terrible visibility and felt claustrophobic to me. I’m happy so far. (I had a CRV previously, but hated the redesign).

We have a Hyundai Tucson with 2 little ones and I think it's the perfect size (although disclaimer, we do have to parallel park every day, so I'm fine with it being a little bit on the smaller end.) Plenty of space for a stroller and grocery bags. Our boys are both rear-facing still, and there's enough space in the backseat that I can sit between them if we're going on a long road-trip.

@LCTBQE: it sounds like you already got a lot of good advice but I love my car and wanted to throw another option at you—we got a 2017 Toyota Prius V last summer and love it. We have two kids and a small dog. It handles well, is easy to drive, the hybrid is great for gas mileage, and the trunk is huge.

We don’t do a lot of driving with the dog but he will usually sit in the back seat with the kids. He could go in the back with a couple days of luggage in theory. If I forget to take our bob stroller out of the trunk you can still fit a eeekly grocery run around it.

No experience on snow driving though—we live in a place where that doesn’t happen. good luck!

We just got a car (my first car as an adult!) a Volvo XC60, but from 2012. We haven’t driven it yet since the import/registration process is still going on, and I actually won’t ever drive it, but we basically bought a car based on trunk size. The trunk is massive, if we still had our Bugaboo, we could easily fit it folded with 2 suitcases. A large dog would be comfortable back there. Even though it’s a used car, the interior looks new. It has leather seats and everything is in like new condition.

@LCTBQE: I found the CRV to feel the ‘biggest’ of all that we drove. At the time we compared the cargo space measurements and the RAV4 had the largest I think because of the interior angles. We have fit so much in it. We went to our parents cabin a few weeks ago and I can fit 3 duffles plus the dog in the back, or our biggest suitcase plus the dog. The Thule was very useful when our son was younger and one of us had to sit in the back with him. I can fit a lot on the seat and in the foot well too. Also we live in Canada and have horrific winters and we do not have AWD. It’s been no problem. If you can afford leather I would do it for the dog hair! We have fabric and will need to have it detailed when/if we sell or trade.

ETA: we went from a Mazda protege hatchback and Nissan Versa to our Rav and it wasn’t bad to get used to the larger size. It has a great turning radius so I never felt I was driving this massive thing but I still feel secure in it.

We had a wagon until recently. It was my favorite of all the cars we’ve owned. A big plus is that our large dog could jump into the back by herself. Now that we only have SUVs, we have to lift her. She’s 85 pounds, and I can’t do it by myself. It’s a huge downside for me. We got a ramp, but so far the dog refuses to step on it.