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Three kids. Take a look at the Ford Taurus. It's a large four door sedan that is based upon a Volvo S80 platform. On the lower end of the price, it's a front wheel drive sedan. With extra cash, you can get it with a turbo V6 and all wheel drive. It has about the highest crash safety rating. The Ford Flex is a tall wagon version of the Ford Taurus. It has a love it or hate it look.
For 5 people, yes a Taurus or similar sized vehicle is what to look at.
There are five things to consider when calculating the cost to drive; Fuel , repairs, depreciation, safety, and the cost to insure the vehicle if you are required to have full coverage. You might consider going long on some and short on others For instance when I needed to get my daughter a vehicle to share with me, My dealer steered me toward a used Chevy Silverado. It can seat two or three small kids in the back. I don't worry about the gas mileage as much because the insurance and up keep is not much. Also if you buy used look for a popular car. The best advice is find a good dealer preferably some one with his name on the building and stick with him for all your cars.
I actually just went through this. I have 3 young kids. I have a 60 mile roundtrip commute for work. I have a budget. One of my kids is in a forward facing car seat, one in an infant carrier and one in a booster. Finding a car to fit everyone is a challenge. My wife has a Chevy Avalanche and that works great, but we routinely are driving 20 miles one way for non-food shopping and filling the Avalanche requires a 2nd mortgage, lol. So, we needed something that was better on gas and can fit everyone. That requirement axed my plans of a bare bones commuter.
There are a ton of options out there new and used. Again, fuel economy was very important do to my commute so here is my list that included cars (again car=MPG) that had available 4 bangers and seating for 5:
Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Subaru Legacy, Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata and Mazda 6.
Out of those I realized real quick that only four of them will let you get more than spartan options and keep the 4 banger: Subaru Legacy, Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion and Hyundai Sonata. All of the rest require a step up to the V6 in order to get the better option packages and then the MPG takes a dive.
The Legacy is the only one with AWD, but gets the worst MPG. The Sonata gets the best MPG and the most equipment per dollar, but the back seat room is a little tight. The Fusion is the sportiest, but the back seat is an issue for car seats (the Fusion comes in AWD too, but that requires you to get the V6). The Malibu is the largest, but rides the softest and isn't as fresh as the other's.
If you are concerned about "Assembled in the USA"; the Hyundai is assembled in Alabama, the Legacy in Louisianna and the Malibu in Kansas City. The Fusion is assembled in Mexico. As far as U.S. parts content, the Malibu has the most by far.
For me it came down to the Fusion or the Malibu. The Malibu won for me as it was the roomiest and had the best MPG (33) of those two. I thought the SYNC system was fantastic, but OnStar did more and gave me a big discount on my car insurance. The car seats and price were really my deciding factor. The Malibu has three sets of LATCH anchors and that gives me a ton of versatility that the other cars didn't have. The Malibu was also the cheapest when we factored in the current incentives.
So, I would personally say the Malibu is the best "American" family car you can buy and seat 5 people. Also, if we were grading on a scale of 1 to 100, all of these cars were in the 90's, so the Malibu as the oldest and one of the cheapest isn't giving up much to any of the other options. If I didn't need the car seats, I may have leaned towards the Fusion as I did think that was one of the best overall.
The only two cars I didn't consider were the VW Passat and Suzuki Kizashi. The VW is a road I've been down and while I like them, the long term reliability is questionable and they are more expensive than the others. If the Fusion and Malibu weren't as good as they are, I would have considered the Passat in my group. The Suzuki is getting rave reviews, but it is small (barely a mid-size) and seating space is tight. Add to that all the question marks with Suzuki cars, namely deprectiation and it is a non-contender.
So, there you have it, every family car that costs ~$25k or less new with common options. When it comes to value used they can all be picked up certified for under $20k. I think as a used buy the Malibu has more options as it has been the same car since 2008 (re-design is do for 2012) and you can easily pick up a 2009 certified LTZ for under $20k and not miss anything versus the new car. If the Malibu is your choice and you care about MPG, shop for ones that have the 4 cylinder paired with the 6 speed automatic. For 2008 only the top range LTZ had it. For 2009 2LT and LTZ did. For 2010 1LT, 2LT and LTZ all do. Starting 2011, all models will have it.
Wow thanks everyone for such great input. At least when we get to the US I won't get totally confused by car dealers. Interesting the Toyota Camry and Mazda 6 are considered highly here as well.
Appreciate your help
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