1 Kid and 1 due shortly. Looking to buy my wife a little bigger vehicle than the one she's in (Currently a Kia Sportage).

Wants three rows of seats for the kids and our nieces/nephews that are often with us.

So far the best we've found was a Highlander XLE (She likes the bucket seats for the second row, not required though) however this is getting to the top end of the budget. I do love Toyotas though

We test drove a Ford Explorer and she wasn't a huge fan (too big/boxy).

Pilots appear to be an option, we just haven't gone to see one yet.

Any other options I'm missing here? Thoughts from anyone who may have looked at similar?

J.D. c/o 05 said:

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1 Kid and 1 due shortly. Looking to buy my wife a little bigger vehicle than the one she's in (Currently a Kia Sportage).

Wants three rows of seats for the kids and our nieces/nephews that are often with us.

So far the best we've found was a Highlander XLE (She likes the bucket seats for the second row, not required though) however this is getting to the top end of the budget. I do love Toyotas though

We test drove a Ford Explorer and she wasn't a huge fan (too big/boxy).

Pilots appear to be an option, we just haven't gone to see one yet.

Any other options I'm missing here? Thoughts from anyone who may have looked at similar?

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Budget?

30k (+/- a couple).

Should have mentioned as well we would certainly consider used, but this will be a vehicle we try and hang onto for awhile, so not ancient.

Sorento? Third row is small though.

Have certainly considered the Sorento. That's on our list to go take a look at.

3rd row can be pretty small. All young kids will be using it for the foreseeable future.

Appreciate the suggestion.

J.D. c/o 05 said:

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30k (+/- a couple).

Should have mentioned as well we would certainly consider used, but this will be a vehicle we try and hang onto for awhile, so not ancient.

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The 2018 traverse is pretty nice, and you'll start finding some used ones pretty soon. My wife likes them.

Have you looked at an expedition?

We have an 18 Sorento SX and love it. Good luck!

Impressed we made it this far without a minivan suggestion.

I don't love the explorer either. You could look at the nissan pathfinder. My gf loves her rogue and it has run as it should to 120k. Highlander is probably the direction i'd consider the most though.

Expedition is going to be too big for my wife. She hates driving my F150.

I do think we need to add the Traverse to our list of possibilities.

Bought an end of model year 2017 Pilot in May after my wife's 10 yo Sienna was totaled. She loves the Pilot. We could not justify the price difference with the Highlander. We also like the room in the back 2 seats and cargo area. It is great to drive.

Wes '87

Boost Flex

Have her drive the highlander and pilot back to back and compare visibility and 2nd and 3rd row space. Then you will drive the Pilot home.

We just bought a Pilot about 2 months ago. Looked at the highlander, and liked it, but the Pilot was bigger, faster and better to drive. Plus, we got a pretty big discount on the 18, since the 19's were about to come out.

^^^^^ this.

Going to take a look at the Pilot later this afternoon.

Subaru Ascent and Mazda CX-9 (small 3rd row) may be decent options to consider as well.

We like the 17 Explorer (XLT with the sport appearance package). Got a decent deal on it this past January

Edit to say disregard the Explorer comment as y'all didn't like it. We did prefer it over the new Traverse (mainly due to interior). You could throw flames in a Durango.

The wife likes her Pathfinder's 3rd row..."real people can sit back there" is how she describes it to people

We've enjoyed our Atlas so far. With the options we got it ended up being just under $40 so maybe a little out of your budget, but I think they can be had for around $30 well.

You should definitely check out the Mazda CX-9 (and drive one).

Thanks for some of the other suggestions listed last night. Making notes for all of them for consideration.

We did go and drive the Pilot last night and then immediately did a quick refresher in the highlander. Wife said they both felt similar to drive and superficially enjoyed both equally. Said the only thing she noticed was it seems a little easier to u-turn in the Highlander (better turning radius). We did not notice a major difference in the price on the 2018's.

Some current financial perks with Toyota (rebates / 0% financing) may push us that way. Still have a few options to check out based on some of your recommendations.

Cx9 gets my vote. The entire second row can be slid forward if more space is needed in the 3rd row. Not to mention it's pretty fun to drive with the boost in it

My wife and I talked about this last night. Definitely added to the list.

Thanks!

When looking at slightly used small 3rd row SUVs last year I noticed that Highlanders were the same price as the luxury brands. So of course we got a giant 4x4 Infiniti.

Which is funny because now, in my very limited research, they don't seem to be that much higher than any of the other similar sized SUVs. All the 2018 pilots we saw we right on par with the highlanders.

Has anybody driven the Subura Ascent?

I've seen mixed reviews on the horsepower and curious what it actually felt like?

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Impressed we made it this far without a minivan suggestion.

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Look at a Durango.. they have never been on my radar but I got one back in 2015 and LOVED it.. 3rd row would fit adults, just as much room as a older tahoe or my armada.

OregonAg has one

AgLiving06 said:

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Has anybody driven the Subura Ascent?

I've seen mixed reviews on the horsepower and curious what it actually felt like?

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Just go drive one for yourself. There were lots of mixed reviews about power when my wife was looking at Outbacks too. And we ended up with the small engine which drives perfectly fine.

It's a midsize SUV. It's not supposed to drive like a Porsche.

Any one have experience with Ford Escape 2018?

Last year I bought a used boosted Flex with 17k miles on it for $29k. It has buckets and has been very reliable so far.

We got a new Acadia two months ago. it's awesome and fits the bill.

GAP76 said:

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Any one have experience with Ford Escape 2018?

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For a Sport 'cute', they're fairly engaging to drive. The 1.5L feels faster than it really is. The 2.0L would be my choice though.

But smaller than what OP was really looking for.

Correct. In our search we took a look at several of the fords and the Explorer felt just a bit too big for my wife, and all the rest were just a little smaller than what we were looking for.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. We actually made an offer on a highlander but couldn't come to an agreement on the money with the dealer. Plan to continue looking at several of the vehicles recommended here.

The search continues!

J.D. c/o 05 said:

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Correct. In our search we took a look at several of the fords and the Explorer felt just a bit too big for my wife, and all the rest were just a little smaller than what we were looking for.

Thanks again for all the suggestions. We actually made an offer on a highlander but couldn't come to an agreement on the money with the dealer. Plan to continue looking at several of the vehicles recommended here.

The search continues!

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The 2020 Explorer is all new and RWD Based. Should be pretty sweet.