I know there are people here who have done the research and are way more informed re: cars than I am, so: throwing the question out there! My husband and I are looking at buying a car within about a year and a half (right around the time where we'd be looking at adding a third kid). We're currently driving a Honda Fit, which is A+ for a 4-person family, but a) it's hitting 200k km and absolutely will not fit 3 car seats and b) we are in need of a second car, and so would keep this one as second car and get a larger car for when we actually need to fit 5 people while using the smaller one as the regular commuting car.
Requirements:
1) Space for 3 cars seats. 4 is a bonus, as we are looking at maybe 4 kids, but if we can avoid a minivan until/unless absolutely necessary, that'd be great. I'm willing to spend more on expensive super-slim car seats if it means getting a cheaper car, but we will have minimum one kid rear-facing for the forseeable future.
2) Good gas mileage. I'm aware of what MMM says on the topic of long commutes, but I have equal amounts to say on the benefits of rural living in a perfect location near family... the downside of which is long commutes. I'm also married to a not-particularly-frugal man, and there are trade-offs to be made to make everyone happy... all of which is to say that the location and the commute is not negotiable, so the gas mileage is important. I live in Quebec: gas prices this morning were 1.33/litre. It matters.
3) Reliability. Ideally something not known for needing tons and tons of maintenance.
I'm assuming other people with large-ish families have run this calculation: what have you all gotten?
