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Heated seats, and CarPlay. That’s about it. Although for my next new car a must-have is going to be that it’s electric.

We are looking at a minivan. We are TTC #3.

DH: Able to pull a small trailer, all the safety features

Me: Auto lift gate and doors, how are the car seats able to be positioned

Subarus are difficult to install car seats in. I like the Forester, but preferred the Honda CRV and am glad we chose it because later we discovered we couldn’t install our Diono in a Forester.

Must haves:
Automatic lift
Easy to install car seats
Can fit 3 across in the back seat
Leather seats (or pleather,whatever you call it)

We’re pretty low tech so the base model of everything that’s a 2013 or later meets our needs.

Cold weather package (heated seats and heated mirrors)
Moonroof

Rear view camera and built in navigation. Ability to install car seats easily enough. I do love have keyless entry and push button start, though I can’t say it’s a must have. I never take my key out of my purse.

I bought my Traverse before I was pregnant, and now that I have a kid the main things I feel like I'm missing is the auto lift gate. I have leather, remote start, dvd system, backup cam, I might someday regret the second row captains chairs if we have more than 2. Heated seats would be nice, and the memory for seat & mirrors for 2 different drivers.

@NCSUchick27: We just bought the 2018 Forester 2.5i Limited in the green color like, two weeks ago--WE LOVE IT. I'm due with #2 tomorrow (!!) and we needed it in time for her arrival, so we weren't really even thinking about the 2019--plus I kind of wanted the blind spot and backup alerts which ours has, but did not really want the other additional safety features that come standard on the 2019. I had a couple threads that I started here asking about which car and how to buy a new car and everyone encouraged me to get leather for kid-compatibility, which the Limited comes with--so far it feels really nice. All the Forester models have the backup camera, so no worries there. The Limited version also has the remote trunk thing, which I could live without but it's nice I guess. The push button remote start thing that your husband wants I actually really wanted too, because we live in the north and in the winter (6 months out of the year) it would be great to be able to warm it up in the driveway without going out there--but that doesn't come standard on any model, even the $$$ Touring model, you have to order it--and we just didn't have time. If you live in the south or in California or something I would categorize that under an expensive don't-bother
ETA my favorite thing about the Forester vs all the other cars we looked at that fall under that sport SUV category--the visibility is awesome--no big blind spots like the CRV and it's much better than the Outback's visibility.

Oh, agreed, keyless entry is great, I never misplace my keys.

@Corduroy: my husband can remotely open all
the car windows with the engine off by holding down a button on his key fob - now a must have for my next car because it’s a great way to precool the hot car in SoCal. And less conspicuous than opening the lift gate remotely (like when we are walking to our car in a parking lot).

@avivoca: I love the feature where you can unlock a door by just having the key fob within a certain range of the door, so handy with kids or groceries

My only must haves with kids are power liftgate, leather seats, and all weather floor mats.

I'm curious about all the people who love their keyless entry. Jury is still out for me on that one. If I keep the fob in my purse then it's not handy to open the liftgate as I'm approaching the car, and I hardly ever use the remote start. But if I keep my keys out and handy to use those two features then the whole keylessness isn't really that cool.

@BadgerMom: One of the benefits of my particular fob is that it pops out the door handles when it senses I am near it. It also unlocks the trunk, so I can open it, but I still need a hand to do it. It also knows when I get in the car, starts it and it changes my presets. I can also walk away and the car locks without me doing anything.

I can also manage the car via an app on my phone.

I love keyless entry, back up camera, automatic doors (van), memory seat for 2 drivers, and lots of USB ports to charge phones etc.

My husband loves the automatic start function.

@looch: wow. Your car is the future.

@BadgerMom: that happens sometimes when my 5 year old wants to lock it but not to me. I think her fingers are too small or something?

@Foodnerd81: Yep, it is. It also drives itself.

Following....

@LCTBQE: Not to threadjack, but So excited for you and baby girl!!!!

we love our sienna, but when the time comes to replace it there are a few things I will try to get that we are missing.
1. lift gate. I think I'd really like this feature!
2. the middle seat in our van is kind of useless. We pop it in so that someone has somewhere to sit if the kids need help during long car rides, or if we have a lot of passengers. When it is out, the base it still there. Its kind of difficult to get to the third row.
But I'm interested in looking at other options in terms of seat arrangements (I think the honda allows for the middle captains chairs to slide next to each other, which would make getting to the third row easier. We will have to see what our family needs are/car seat needs are when we are ready to replace.

3. We will need to get something with a trailer hitch for bringing all our stuff on vacation.

4. We don't need AWD where we will now, but when we replace this car we will be living at the end of a private road and doing our own road maintenance. I'm going to have to look into benefits/function of AWD versus getting studded tires in the winter. I generally resist AWD because of the gas mileage hit, but it will need to be a part of our discussion when we move up there.

I wish I had remote start, but have never felt like spending the cash on it and when we replace our car we will have a garage.

oh- back up cam is a must. i would have wrecked so many things and would never be able to park my minivan without it. my mom has it on her prius and i appreciate it even in a small car.

We just got a Subaru Ascent which we love love. My favourite features are : power tailgate, back up and front camera, 2nd row captains chairs (makes getting to the third row super easy), automatic headlights and wipers, Apple CarPlay, adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and push start. Heated and ventilated seats. AWD is a must in our area and Subaru’s system is second to none. Leather with kids is super helpful.

Features it came with that I could have lived without are lane assist and sunroof.

I did not read all the responses but:

Heated seats
Power lift gate
Remote start - I use this both in cold and hot weather to get the car ready for the kids and will not go without it again
Leather
Back up camera
AWD or 4WD is necessary where we live

Now that I have had a backup camera I think I would want (need?) one on any future cars. Same with Bluetooth for syncing phones.

Things we definitely prefer to have:
Built in navigation
Keyless entry
Driver window with one touch up and down
Very adjustable driver and passenger seats. DH and I had a hard time finding cars we were both comfortable in. And in some he could adjust the drivers seat but if he sat in the passenger seat his head hit the ceiling. We share our cars regularly so we want to both enjoy driving them.

We try to avoid having a sunroof but as you move up trim levels to get other features it becomes harder to avoid.

A hybrid! I'd love a hybrid Pacifica.