6 Must Haves When Buying a Family Car

By Bonnie Owens on November 16th, 2009

MiniVan-LG

My husband and I just recently had our third baby. Once you have three kids it requires a little more of a lifestyle change. For instance, to make room for the nursery, we had to give up our guest room. And since our family could no longer fit comfortably in my cute little SUV we had to upgrade to something bigger. When we bought my last car we had one child and he was about a year old. I only had grown-up options on my mind–leather seats, seat warmers, power controls, moon roof. I didn’t even consider that there might be some models that would make it easier to deal with my kids. Mostly because it was still pretty easy to handle my single one-year-old. Well, I learned a lot of lessons in that car. Like a two-year-old likes to kick car doors open with no regard of how close they are to other cars. And credit cards and coins slide easily into the CD player slot. With my new found wisdom I was determined to get a family car that fit not only our family’s new size, but our lifestyle as well. Here are some options that I found to make our backseat passengers a little more comfortable.

DVD player- This is kind of a duh! one. But for good reason, it works. You may be against inundating your child with television, but that little screen is still going to come in handy when you are stuck in traffic or taking long road trips. If you make it a rule from the start that the DVD system is for special trips only, your kids will respect the boundary.
Backseat controls- Climate controls allow your kids to set their air at a different temperature than what is in the front; A useful feature in our car since I am always much colder than everyone else. Radio controls allow your older kids to plug in their headphones and listen to another station. A useful feature when you don’t want to hear about how lame your listening choices are.
Sliding doors- As much as I hope and pray that they would put these on an SUV, for now they are only available on minivans. Sliding doors are a lifesaver for anyone with small kids. Not only do they keep your kids from banging into other cars, but they also give you a little extra space. And as anyone who has tried to squeeze their baby out of a carseat while parked in an LA parking lot (i.e.: crowded with very small car spaces) can attest every little bit or space counts. Sliding doors was the only pro on my list for buying a minivan, and we still almost bought one because I wanted this feature so badly.
Stowaway storage- When you are dealing with cars that have 7+ seats, there is a constant struggle between seating area and storage space. The answer to this problem is stowaway storage. Vehicles equipped with this option have large, covered storage bins underneath the feet of the middle row passengers. This is a must have for big families who like to take road trips.
Leather seats- Most consumers want leather seats for the luxury. Moms like leather seats for their wipeable surface. With cloth seats and kids you have two options–wrap all of your seats with a protective cover or invest in a steam cleaner. Even if you don’t allow food in the car, things happen.
Safety issues- Last, but certainly not least is safety features. Check out crash test ratings. Feel to see how flimsy the body is when you push on it. One feature I wanted to be certain to get was OnStar. In addition to all of its convenience (ie: directions, dinner reservations), OnStar can remotely unlock your car if you lock your keys in and they can call for help if you get in an accident.