My husband and I live in NYC and have decided we need something bigger than our Subaru Outback (which we love) before baby#3 makes his appearance this August.

(I think) we’ve narrowed it down to the subaru ascent or the toyota sienna. Just wanted to see if anyone is driving either of these cars and has similar needs to our family and can weigh in with their experience.

We live in NYC. We use the car almost every weekend–often to run to Trader Joe’s just outside of the city, go to the zoo or the Children’s Museum, to visit family out of state, or to go up to the mountains (we’ve been out of skiing for the last few years but have aspirations to start up again once the kids are old enough to teach–our oldest was introduced to tubing this year and can’t wait for skiing starting next year). So we feel like AWD is needed.

We currently have our (almost 4 year old) in a clek fllo carseat which we just switched forward facing this past weekend (to his great delight) and our (very very small) 2 year old in a clek fllo carseat rear facing (and I’d like to keep her rear facing for as long as is possible). We will put baby#3 in a bucket car seat. I had been thinking that by the time baby#3 outgrows the bucket we would be able to move him into our oldest’s carseat and move our oldest (who will then be 5) into a booster. I am thinking that we need a 3rd row vehicle and that we will put our oldest in the backmost row and the rear facing baby and toddler in the middle row.

My husband really liked the honda odyssey. But it doesn’t come with AWD. In fact, the only minivan that we can find is the toyota sienna.

I’m not sure if I’m being ridiculous, but I just didn’t love the sienna. I am not anti-minivan but it just felt outdated and boxy.

If we don’t go minivan and instead go with a mid-size 3 row SUV: we really liked the subaru ascent (and we admittedly have a pro-subaru bias). But I’m worried it might be too small for all the baby gear we inevitably bring on our annual two week summer roadtrip back south to visit family. And my husband is worried that the backseat is going to start to feel really small as our kids get bigger.

Does anyone drive either? Does anyone have a subaru ascent with a rooftop carrier? Do you feel like you have enough space? Do I need to just get over my sienna minivan concerns?