Looking for suggestions on a car for wife

[NoMansLand2020 298]

Greetings, 

 

We are currently in the market for an additional car for our family. Looking for a used vehicle that will be mostly used by my wife. Currently we have two young children, one who is still in a carseat and a baby due in December. 

 

My wife has no driving experience and will soon be starting an adult driving class so she can earn a permit. Being a Filipino, she's short in stature, 4'10 and around 90lbs.  As we are soon to be a family of 5, we mostly likely need either a minivan, or smaller seater... Something that would seat at least 7. 

 

I am looking for suggestions as to what others might have done. 

[Mike E 11,739]

Toyota Sienna of course.  

[SteveInBostonI130 3,432]

I am partial to older Kia Sedona's.  Before the 2015 update.

[LexieJ 44]

My 2006 Honda Odyssey is still going strong with 230k plus miles on it! We bought it in November 2005 before I gave birth to my daughter, so it will be 17 years old in November!

[Palawan 131]

13 hours ago, NoMansLand2020 said:

Greetings, 

 

We are currently in the market for an additional car for our family. Looking for a used vehicle that will be mostly used by my wife. Currently we have two young children, one who is still in a carseat and a baby due in December. 

 

My wife has no driving experience and will soon be starting an adult driving class so she can earn a permit. Being a Filipino, she's short in stature, 4'10 and around 90lbs.  As we are soon to be a family of 5, we mostly likely need either a minivan, or smaller seater... Something that would seat at least 7. 

 

I am looking for suggestions as to what others might have done. 

I got my wife a beater for the first year, just in case.  But I didn't have kids to tote around.

 

Used cars are sky high in my area, maybe cheaper to order new from the factory

[B_J 2,752]

Agree with Toyota Sienna.

 

Also, check to see if it really makes sense to buy used. We recently bought my wife's first vehicle and it was cheaper to buy new at MSRP than buy used.  The difference was the used was on the lot and we had to wait a couple of weeks for the new one.

[Talako 781]

I bought my wife a new 2019 Honda Civic in January 2019.  We sold it in January 2022 for $5,000 more than we paid for it new.  

[dnavinnie 132]

I got my wife a Chevy Trax...small and easy to drive. She loves it and will be taking her driver's test in two weeks.

[Commish10 427]

20 hours ago, NoMansLand2020 said:

Greetings, 

 

We are currently in the market for an additional car for our family. Looking for a used vehicle that will be mostly used by my wife. Currently we have two young children, one who is still in a carseat and a baby due in December. 

 

My wife has no driving experience and will soon be starting an adult driving class so she can earn a permit. Being a Filipino, she's short in stature, 4'10 and around 90lbs.  As we are soon to be a family of 5, we mostly likely need either a minivan, or smaller seater... Something that would seat at least 7. 

 

I am looking for suggestions as to what others might have done. 

Got my wife a Toyota Tacoma Crew Cab. She wanted a PU. Definitely can fit 5. 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Commish10
.

[MarryMe987654 244]

I agree with the price of used car vs new. We were going to buy a used car because we thought it's going to be more economical. We ended up looking at new ones because the price difference is not much, plus the mileage on the used ones are too high. We settled with a 2021 Honda CRV with pretty sweet deal--1.9% interest and no down payment. Monthly is about $700 but it's ok because I opted to only get 48 months. We don't have any other monthly payment (no mortgage, no loans, no cc debt) so we know we can afford it. The value of the car remains even after a year of buying it.

 

I am 4'11 and not usually concern about a car being too high. I can always put a booster seat and also, most of the car in the US now has a really good driver adjustment features (you can go forward, up... and adjust the steering wheel to match) so it's ok. I drove a Toyota Camry, a Saturn Ion, and the new CRV without having to use a booster seat and I can see fine.

 

Hope this helps

[LexieJ 44]

On 8/31/2022 at 5:02 PM, NoMansLand2020 said:

Greetings, 

 

We are currently in the market for an additional car for our family. Looking for a used vehicle that will be mostly used by my wife. Currently we have two young children, one who is still in a carseat and a baby due in December. 

 

My wife has no driving experience and will soon be starting an adult driving class so she can earn a permit. Being a Filipino, she's short in stature, 4'10 and around 90lbs.  As we are soon to be a family of 5, we mostly likely need either a minivan, or smaller seater... Something that would seat at least 7. 

 

I am looking for suggestions as to what others might have done. 

You definitely need a mini van, our kids are 18 months apart and with 2 car seats it will be hard to fit them in a regular sedan or even an SUV, before we bought the Honda Odyssey we had a Nissan Murano which was really nice but had to sell it coz with 2 car seats and my mom helping out it was very tight in the back row, I'm 5'3" so a little taller than a "typical Filipina" and did not have any problems driving my mini van, it also had a back up camera so that made things easier, the clearance is also better with the mini van, I hated driving a small car now, I will drive my Odyssey until it's last breath! LOL! 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

My wife had a Nissan Murano and it fit 5 people just fine. That was 3 kids and 2 adults

[Palawan 131]

On 9/1/2022 at 10:07 PM, MarryMe987654 said:

I agree with the price of used car vs new. We were going to buy a used car because we thought it's going to be more economical. We ended up looking at new ones because the price difference is not much, plus the mileage on the used ones are too high. We settled with a 2021 Honda CRV with pretty sweet deal--1.9% interest and no down payment. Monthly is about $700 but it's ok because I opted to only get 48 months. We don't have any other monthly payment (no mortgage, no loans, no cc debt) so we know we can afford it. The value of the car remains even after a year of buying it.

 

I am 4'11 and not usually concern about a car being too high. I can always put a booster seat and also, most of the car in the US now has a really good driver adjustment features (you can go forward, up... and adjust the steering wheel to match) so it's ok. I drove a Toyota Camry, a Saturn Ion, and the new CRV without having to use a booster seat and I can see fine.

 

Hope this helps

I got my wife a 2021 Honda CRX as well. She 5 foot and she loves to drive it, cuz she sits up high. What I like it came with Lane Keeper Assist,  Cruise Control that speed up and slow down, and the automatic open tailgate.  It has a turbo in it and it actually pretty quick and fun to drive.  I am getting 29 mph in the city, Highway is like 37.  

[RUJEN 140]

I got a sweet deal on a Ford escape a while back. I figured it would make her a nice starter car.

One thing to think about is insurance.

My wife does not have her permit or license yet so the escape and my 5 other vehicles are on one policy in just my name.

My insurance is just over $1,100.00 a year for all 6 vehicles. ( on paper, I am a good driver LOL )

Once she gets her license, I was told by my insurance guy to put the escape on it's own policy with both our names on it and expect her policy to be around $1,000.00 every 6 months for 2 years.

At least that is what it is like in NC.....

[Palawan 131]

11 hours ago, RUJEN said:

I got a sweet deal on a Ford escape a while back. I figured it would make her a nice starter car.

One thing to think about is insurance.

My wife does not have her permit or license yet so the escape and my 5 other vehicles are on one policy in just my name.

My insurance is just over $1,100.00 a year for all 6 vehicles. ( on paper, I am a good driver LOL )

Once she gets her license, I was told by my insurance guy to put the escape on it's own policy with both our names on it and expect her policy to be around $1,000.00 every 6 months for 2 years.

At least that is what it is like in NC.....

If you have that option why even list her as driver?  Car insurance follows the car not the driver, as long as she has permission to drive the vehicle and she has a valid current DL you should be good and not worry about insurance charging 1000 bucks every 6 months which sound very high for a new car insurance.