My husband and I recently had our first child and we are discussing our next car purchase. Our family car is a mid-sized sedan and it is about 9 years old. Because of all the gear we now need we have decided that car travel will be our travel of choice for the next several years. From a cost/gas perspective another mid-sized car would make the most sense. But because we think we would like one more child, I have recently considered a compact SUV such as a RAV4. So has travel and family influenced your choice in car purchases recently?

Yes, travel has influenced our car purchases.

My husband decided to give the oversized SUV back to the soccer moms and bought the largest pickup truck that Dodge makes in the 1500 series. It has more bells and whistles than his luxury SUV (heated leather seats in a pickup truck? please) and only gets 12.7 miles to the gallon versus the 15 with his SUV.

Yes, and my daughter too, because we go from IL to MI so often.

She just got a Honda CR-V and I'm thinking about the RAV4 as well. Weather and traffic, we need to be higher on the expressways and extensive travel we do on the big truck avenues.

Hate to admit it, but yes, family and travel influenced our last couple of vehicle purchases. With kids, a minivan made the most sense for us. It drives like a car (not a truck as many of the SUVs do) and the gas mileage is better than a SUV. We have plenty of room for luggage and passengers.

Yes. We wanted comfort, decent gas mileage, and space for our camping/biking/ski gear. We got a Subaru Outback and it has been a great car for us so far.

Partially. When it was time to trade in my well-loved convertible in February this year, we had plans to sell our little pickup truck and needed something to haul things around in. I was also thinking about driving trips and wanted something to comfortably fit four people AND their luggage. And I wanted gas mileage that was no worse than my convertible. I was looking at the high-end compact SUVs:

-- Toyota RAV4: Great design, high quality, salespeople couldn't be bothered to find me the model I wanted (although they set on me like vultures as soon as I hit the lot). That attitude (I've gotten it before from them) has turned me off to Toyota for life.

-- Mitsubishi Outlander: Nice little car. Drove well, but a little sluggish in feel. A bit tight inside, but comfy overall. Leather would have been a dealer add-on.

-- Subaru Forester: The Consumer Reports top-rated compact SUV. Completely unimpressive in person. Simply a station wagon with a bit more head room. Too narrow for three people in back. Noisy flat engine. Handled great and was peppy, but left me utterly cold.

-- Honda CR-V: It hit all my needs perfectly. The capper was the fold-out table in the cargo floor. Perfect for picnicking! Test-drove it on a Sunday, bought it the following Friday, installed backup sensors, fog lamps and a roof rack the following Saturday. I've loved it ever since, and as the engine opens up the mileage has crept up (a solid 24 mpg combined city/highway). Not the most exciting design, not the fastest, but handles superbly, parks in small spaces and is super-roomy inside.

So yeah-- travel did influence my car purchase.

rjw, I've very interested in your post.
I'm on the fence and do understand your Toyota experience, exactly. Yes, me too.

I think the one thing that turns me off and is keeping me from going ahead before winter, is the tire mounted as it is. I just don't like that feature.

I must tell you, my daughter loves the little table, and my 6 & 3 year old grandsons will eagerly demonstrate its use at the first opportunity. Also the seats are marvelous for the two boys and their safety equipment in the back.

I hope that this isn't getting too diverted from travel, but for those who bought a compact SUV (like the CR-V) did you think a 4 cylinder has enough power? As far as Toyota, I have never owned one, but my mom's husband has had 2 Camrys and they were very positive about their dealings with the dealerships.

I didn't realize the CR-V had a fold out table. Hmmm...

We're looking (somewhat tentatively) at a bigger car. We have an old Toyota Corolla and a full size pickup. But we're considering adding another kid to the family; and thus, another carseat so we want a bigger backseat.

We've been looking at the Subaru Outback wagon because of the high clearance; good handling for snowy, icy roads; and it's easy to get skis, bikes, kayaks on top of the car.

JJ5: Do two carseats fit well in the back of your daughter's CRV?

JJ5, I think I understand your position on the spare tire. It actually doesn't impair visibility noticeably. However, let's look at where it might be otherwise:

-- Inside, under the cargo floor (and therefore under anything you have in the cargo area, meaning you'll have to move that stuff OUT before the spare tire can be used)

-- Outside, stowed on the chassis underside (and happily collecting EVERY bit of road schmutz you've driven over since the last car wash, so have gloves handy), requiring driver to get on the ground, crank down the spare, unlatch it and hoist it from underneath the car

So the spare is on the rear hatch door. Is it covered by snow (non-issue for me in CA)? Wipe it off. Zip off the cover, ease it off, undo lug nuts and free spare-- all while standing up. I kind of like that. And any impact to rear visibility is balanced by the mirrors, all the other windows and my backup sensors (oh, those are worth their cost every time I have to parallel park in Belmont Shore!).

However, if you can get past the sales experience (thank you, I can get that attitude lunching at the Ivy at the Shore!!), the RAV4 is a seriously great SUV-- whose spare tire is also on the rear hatch. It's well worth a look, and had the salesperson had the slightest interest in my business, I might be driving one. But the CR-V is a great choice, and I love mine. LOVE it.

No, because I had not really traveled much before I bought my car, and also because I was a new driver and didn't know much about cars in general.

But whenever I get my next car, I will focus on getting AC AND anti-lock breaks.

ilovetulips: The RAV4 can be ordered with a V-6, and the Subaru has a turbo option. However, the issue isn't pure horsepower with the 4-cylinder-- it's how the transmission puts the power to use.

The CR-V has a five-speed automatic, and the gearing in the low gears is short enough that the car has plenty of oomph-- 10 seconds 0-60 mph(maybe 11 seconds 0-100 kmph for Canadians out there, eh) is great for an SUV with only 160 horsepower. And the fuel efficiency is as good as it is with a manual transmission (which they offer in very small numbers in their middle-range model).

Oh, and the brakes are four-wheel discs with antilock across the whole model line. No big deal-- I think almost all the compact SUVs have that now-- but it's nice to know.

I have a Mazda3 hatchback, and travel was definitely a consideration when I picked that car. It is small and gets good gas mileage, but it also has lots of room for stuff.

Travel has influenced my purchase of a car also, but in a different way. I'm overdue to buy a new car, but thanks to all the travel I've been doing and the money I've been spending doing so -- I'm not purchasing a new car.

Yes, my daughter does have two car seats in the back of her CR-V and she still has tons of room left over. The boys have their own lights too, I think.

Thanks for all the explanations, rjw, I really appreciate them. They are exactly the factors I have been weighing. I need a better pick up from zero speed than what I presently have with our ever increasing traffic logistics here. My car is almost 10 years old (Saturn). And I just will have to get used to that wheel storage. And I know it is a factor in both. The new RAV has a slinky type of window (curves) and I don't think I like it.

I have to test drive both. But I will take your back up sensors into advisement as well. I have to parallel park in Chicago proper. A real joy.

Maybe I can get over my wheel storage hangup, if I got a custom cover with the White Sox symbol on it. It certainly wouldn't clash. But then again that would probably just be asking for trouble from Cubs fans. LOL!

Although somehow that trouble has diminished in the more recent years, and I just can't imagine why.
Double LOL!

RAV and CRV are two best re Consumers Reports in nearly everything in their categories.

Yes, and our DS's as well, after his first child was born last year. You know the paraphernalia they have to travel with when they come to visit us or the other grandparents. They are loaded to the gills in their SUV (Envoy). When they are here and we are traveling around to various places, we often use the 3rd row seat even.

And interstate travel (ie, interstate highway, but within the city) here is such that I decided my little BMW Z3 was too dangerous to drive in this area, with all the trucks. I felt like a little bug just waiting to get squashed. As much as I loved that car on the FL coast where we lived until last year, it was not a car for south central Texas and I-35. It was a '98 with only 34,000 miles on it, not a thing wrong, yet we traded it in on the mid sized model, for safety reasons only. As beautiful and zippy as the safer new car is, I sure do miss my little blue convertible.

OO, I also had a zippy little sports car and Mr.GoTravel was so scared I'd get run over by those big trucks on the interstate, talked me into trading up.

I still miss my zippy little car also!

How about buying a beater so that one doesn't need to worry about it sitting in an airport longterm lot?

Who can afford airport parking these days -- even long term if it's like here? I've turned to renting a car for the day to drop off at the airport and another when I come home.

You'll never get really over it GoT, but Mr Go loves you and wanted you around a while longer. Even in the bigger car though, with air bags in all conceivable places, if one of those big rigs strayed I'm pretty sure I'd be a goner--don't you still feel that way? At least now I think they can see me when we are side by side. Before, I was fairly certain they had no idea I existed.