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10 Most Family Friendly Cars

Aaron Gold
by Aaron Gold
January 9, 2017
5 min. Reading Time
2016 Chevrolet Volt family ・  Photo by General Motors

2016 Chevrolet Volt family ・ Photo by General Motors

What's the best set of wheels to buy for your family? A minivan? An SUV? A sedan? A sexy 2-seat Italian sports coupe? We combed the market to find 10 solid family-friendly vehicles that we recommend.

What were our criteria? Of course, we considered room—what good is a family car if it doesn't have space for a family? (Darn, there goes the sexy Italian 2-seater.) But we gave equal weight to other factors as well. Safety was important—every car on this list is an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick or Top Safey Pick+—and we also looked for cars that are affordable to buy and run. Here are the 10 family-friendly vehicles we picked.

Chevrolet Volt

The Chevrolet Volt is a great car for eco-minded families. At its heart, the Chevrolet Volt is an electric car; it runs up to 53 miles on a full charge. Once the battery runs low, the Volt has a gasoline engine that fires up and powers the car. That means the Volt is the best of both worlds—an eco-friendly electric car that you can take on long-distance trips. Now, we have to be honest: The Volt is not exactly a large car. The first generation seats only four, and the second generation seats five rather snugly, and luggage space is smaller than the other vehicles on this list. But it is very budget-friendly—with a Level 2 charger installed in your garage, you can juice up your Volt on the cheap and be ready to go with a full (electric) tank each morning.

 Photo by Chevrolet

Photo by Chevrolet

Chrysler Pacifica

They may not be cool, they may not be sexy, but there's no better way to transport a big family than a minivan, as they offer passenger and luggage space that even the biggest 7-seat SUVs have trouble matching. The Pacifica is just one of many minivans on the market, so why did we pick it for this list? We love the way the new Pacifica soothes and coddles its occupants with its lovely interior and smooth, quiet ride. It's got loads of convenience features, and while ideally, we'd all love our kids to stare out the windows and enjoy the scenery, it has a whiz-bang entertainment system that will keep them occupied when they get bored of amber waves of grain. And while minivans are statistically among the safest vehicles on the road (drivers no doubt mindful of their precious cargo), the Chrysler Pacifica is the only one with an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award.

 Photo by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Photo by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Fiat 500X

Launching a new brand is never easy, but we like what Italian automaker has brought to the table, primarily color and personality. The 500X is arguably the most conventional of Fiat's cars, with a shape and profile similar to other SUVs in this class; we prefer the models that have a body-color dash, which (literally) adds some much-needed color to the interior. But we love the ease of use of the interior—less distraction means a safer drive—and in terms of passenger room, cargo space, power, ride and handling, the 500X clicks all the family-friendly buttons.

 Photo by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Photo by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Honda Civic

family cars don't have to be SUVs or minivans, and they don't have to be particularly big: Witness the new Honda Civic, which has as much room for passengers and cargo as midsize sedans from a few years ago. (When it comes to designing space-efficient interiors, no one does it better than Honda.) Why buy a small car to transport your family? They're easier to park and maneuver, and they use less fuel. They're also cheaper to buy—for the price of a mid-level midsize sedan, you can get a high-end Honda Civic. And what about safety? Aren't big cars safer than small cars? Statistically that's true, but safety engineering keeps improving by leaps and bounds, and the freshly-redesigned Civic has a Top Safety Pick award. We love its mix of efficiency and family-friendliness.

 Photo by Honda

Photo by Honda

Hyundai Elantra

We've extolled the virtues of the small family car in our entry about the Honda Civic, and the new-for-2017 Hyundai Elantra has those same advantages (especially lower price; its base model undercuts the Civic by a nice margin). We like the Elantra because it offers such a diverse range of models. The volume-selling SE model has everything we expect in a modern-day family car, while the Limited model adds a dollop of luxury and the Sport model, with its energetic turbocharged engine, does its best to add some fun to family motoring. And for families on a budget, the Eco model gets a unique powertrain that can be coached into some seriously good fuel economy numbers. And yes, it's safe: The Elantra scored top marks in all of the IIHS' crash tests, and models with optional collision-avoidance features get a Top Safety Pick+ award.

 Photo by Hyundai

Photo by Hyundai

Subaru Legacy

Legions of folks in snowy and rainy regions swear by Subaru family cars thanks to their standard-fit all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. AWD not only makes the car more sure-footed in rain and snow, but it improves dry-road handling as well. AWD is offered as an extra-cost option in some cars—most commonly rear-drive vehicles that would otherwise be tricky to drive in slick weather—but Subaru sells the Legacy for about the same price as other midsize sedans, which means they are essentially giving away the all-wheel drive system for free. AWD increases the car's ability to help the driver avoid an accident—a definite plus in a family car, to put it mildly—but should things go pear-shaped, the Legacy has a Top Safety Pick+ rating from IIHS.

 Photo by Subaru

Photo by Subaru

Toyota Prius

The Prius has earned a reputation as the tree-hugger's car of choice, something that may or may not appeal to you, but the fact is that the Prius, perhaps more than any other car on the market, works as advertised: Drive it as you would any other car, and chances are you'll get somewhere between 45 and 50 miles out of every gallon of gas. (Your author once nursed one up to 65 MPG with relative ease.) That means it can literally halve your fuel budget compared to a 5-seat SUV—and what family wouldn't want to cut at least one budget line-item in half? All that, and it's a Top Safety Pick+ winner. The newest Prius (redesigned just last year) has just as much passenger and luggage space as many 5-seat SUVs, and while the new styling may be a bit, er, funky, you should have no trouble finding it in a crowded parking lot... at least until other families figure out how much they can save (money and the environment!) by driving a Prius.

 Photo by Toyota

Photo by Toyota

Volkswagen Golf Alltrack

Time was when station wagons were the family cars of choice, but now wagons are few and far between, replaced by SUVs (which, let's face it, are basically tall wagons). We like the Volkswagen Golf Alltrack, which follows the Subaru-inspired path of fitting SUV-like body trim to a station wagon body. (And if that's not your thing, VW also sells this car as the Golf SportWagen; it’s the same car without the macho body bits.) The Alltrak has plenty of room and a lovely interior with simple controls, and it's great to drive, with a responsive turbocharged engine and the sort of ride-and-handling balance that the Germans do so well. And, of course, it has a Top Safety Pick rating from IIHS. Volkswagen is still in damage-control mode in the wake of the diesel scandal, and we hear that there are great deals to be had as Volkswagen works to rebuild its destination. If you've ever considered a VW, now is the time.

 Photo by Volkswagen

Photo by Volkswagen

Volvo S60/V60

No list of family cars would be complete without Volvo, a Swedish brand that is obsessed with safety. (Their vision: Starting in 2020, no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo.) Volvo pioneered many of the safety features we now take for granted, from blind spot warning systems (2004) to 3-point seat belts (1959). No surprise, then, that the 60-series Volvos have a Top Safety Pick+ rating from IIHS. What the S60 sedan and V60 wagon lack is back-seat space, so they are better suited for families with small kids, though the V60 wagon is great for baby gear.

 Photo by Volvo

Photo by Volvo

Volvo XC90

We mentioned that the one problem with the Volvo S60 and V60 is space, so you want Volvo safety and need more room, you'll want to check out the XC90. This is the first of the “new” Volvos following an infusion of cash from its new Chinese owners, and the results are pretty spectacular: When it was introduced, the 2016 XC90 won the North American Truck of the Year award, thanks largely to the way it integrates and embraces technology from small-but-powerful engines to a tablet-like infotainment system. Space and luxury are also abundant, and the XC90 features the latest-and-greatest in Volvo safety features. No surprise, then, that it has a Top Safety Pick+ award from IIHS.

 Photo by Volvo

Photo by Volvo


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