Daily drive for short trips with small kids NOT in car seats?
 

So it's new car time for me. I've been all over the place, looking first at the Ford Maverick, then some of the Subaru SUVs, then other manufacturers SUVs, but I think I want something fun!

This would be my daily driver, about 70 miles a day M-F, mostly highway, but then also my run around town and evening drives car.

Only possible problem is the kids. While there are 5 of us, at any given time I've only got 4 of us at most. That's when I'm dropping all 3 kids off at school before work. Any other time we use the wifes minivan for people transporting.

I've seen lots of stuff about babies and small kids in car seats and how they will or won't fit, but I'm not really finding anything about kids that are either in booster seats or just old enough to be out of booster seats.

The oldest is 13, so she can sit up front no problem. The boys are 8 and 7, so out of booster seats very soon. They would sit in the back. I'm 5'11 so not too tall. Even with that is it going to be an uncomfortable ride for those 10 mintues from the house to the school?

Up to this point the closest I've had to a fun vehicle was a 95 Ram 4x4 that had the Cummins built to about 400hp and a manual I swapped in to it. Right now I'm in a stock 95 Ram 2500 2wd Cummins. Talk about slow! Everything else was a 95 Ranger, 05 Cavalier, 95 LeBaron, 92 Corolla, 01 Taurus, and a 99 Caravan. Cavalier was a manual so it was at least some what entertaining.

Other car I'm considering is a base Mustang Ecoboost, but that's because my father in law works for Ford so I can get A plan pricing.

I'm 5'11" as well, and my kids are 10, 8 and 4. The 8 years old sits behind me in a booster, and when I'm driving with just the 10 years old she sits behind me as well (the passenger side rear has a child seat for the 4 years old). This works fine for up to a 20 minute drive. For longer trips we use the minivan.

I think that you would be fine for a few years, but once your boys start really growing it would be a squeeze. Still, it depends on how tolerant they are in the car - if it's a short drive that's done infrequently they should be fine. I can fit behind myself, with just a lack of foot room and head room making it less than ideal.

Hopefully in a couple years they are riding the bus instead of getting dropped off. Right now mom isn't comfortable with all 3 being home alone in the morning waiting for the bus while we head to work.

THIS^
Not too bad when they are small just don't try to drive across th country or anything.
As they get taller it get's more and more uncomfortable until you reach a point that even a few minutes is almost unbearable.
Also be prepared for the "Timmy's crushing my legs" battles to start even before it becomes awkward.

I'm really hoping by the time they don't fit I won't be transporting them daily.

Hell when I think about whether a 4 person car would work for a family of 5 I have to remind myself for YEARS my dad had that 95 Lebaron convertible, and we were a family of 9. Family hauler was a E series van, and we understood that whoever decided to ride with mom and dad in the convertible wasn't going to have a very comfortable ride in the back. On that car not only was there no leg room, but the back seats were straight up and down, no lean to them at all.

For a few years of my life my parents, two sisters and I rode around in an old beat up 641/2 Mustang with no floor. We actually rode across the country 3 summers in a row with the thing. Couldn't even put your feet down so the three of in the back seat fought for foot space on the tranny tunnel. The 86 would have been pure luxury!

I’ve driven my mother and younger sibling on 30 minute trips more times than I can count. Granted I’m 6’3 so nothing with legs is sitting behind me, but my sibling is 5’10 and my mother is 5’7. She sits up front with the seat pushed forward and has more leg room than an economy flight at Spirit (which I know isn’t saying much) and he just sits in the back with his backpack in the seat behind me. If you want to make it work you can but prepare for the atmosphere of the ride to feel very cramped. Everyone, even the ones in the back, are still like a foot or 2 away from you and that’s very different from the chauffeur-esque experience you can have in an SUV where you have to yell for the ones in the back to hear you.

Subaru has you covered!

Its actually not all that bad in the back to be honest.
You do sit low and with your knees up so there isnt a whole lot of wiggle room.
And unless your kids are taller than you there shouldnt be any issues adjusting the front seats to accomodate without being squished.

Now i dunno if they changed much of the seat design between first and second gen but the passenger front seat is very low to the floor without height adjustment so you might actually only be able to slide your toes underneath but not any further, but it depends on the size of the passenger's feet/shoes. The drivers side however has height adjustment so you actually could raise it enough for feet to slide underneath.

If it has to be a fun daily you're better off with a hot hatch-
GTI, Veloster etc.
GTI will seat 4 no problem and is fun enough as a daily.

I've told friends who immediately need a 3 row crossover once their first baby is born that my mom drove my brother and I around in a 77 LeSabre coupe year-round til I was 8 (and my brother 15) and never once had a problem with convenience, space or lack of awd.

Granted, the LeSabre was a huge, slow boat but the point remains.

But with that said, I wouldn't want to deal with anyone, any age in the back seat of the brz. It might be do-able but it would make me hate the car, for sure.

So obviously the back is smaller, but those saying they wouldn't want to deal with it because it's cramped for the rear passengers, or because them getting out is annoying because the lack of rear doors?

Because my current truck has no rear doors so have to get out currently to remove them.

i see you're in indiana, where at?

i'm up in lake county. if you're local, i don't mind meeting up somewhere for you to try the car for space in a little more relaxed environment than a dealer lot. yes, 1st gen/2nd gen differences, but the interior is pretty much the same.

i also previously had a '94 lebaron. to draw on your past experience, this car is pretty much the same in terms of space.

Cramped for rear passengers, cramped for the front passengers because they have to adjust for the rear passengers and it's very hard to get out of, even for a coupe.

I had an 05 Accord Coupe and you could simply flip the front seatback forward and get into the back. There was a usable floor. That isn't possible with the BRZ and there's no usable floor back there. The front seats are right up against the edge of the back seat.

I drive my kids almost evey day, sometimes they are both in the back seats, and sometimes both on the passenger side. The biggest issue is to have the 5yo behind me, since his legs are to short to put the feet on the floor, so it gets to tight and my driving position gets a bit tough. With the 8yo it works better.

Its just very small back there, and the front passenger seat doesnt stay in the "open" access position so you have to somehow keep it slid forward with something. (AFAIK the 2nd gen doesn't stay either).

Its kind of in this weird size spot where the backs seats arent 100% completely useless like in an Audi TT, or a Jag XR Convertible (or any luxury coupe convertible for that matteR), but its not very spacious either like say a Scion tC or any midsize 2 door.

The car being as small as it is to begin with you'd think the back seat is one of those completely useless ones.

We have 3 kids too. 12, 10, 8. I can only take 2 kids with me since none of them can fit behind me. My wife can take them all since she is much shorter.

I'm 6'1" Still, liked the car too much to stop be from buying it.

So, that is what the rear seat in our Ascent looks like. Honestly, I haven't seen it in almost four years. There was one time that the dog had to give up his second row seat to sit back there. He wasn't happy. He didn't like riding in back of my 2017 BRZ with the seat back up or down either. He liked to ride shotgun in front for trips to the dog park. The rear seat in the BRZ is not fit for man nor beast. If there was a decent kit to yard out the rear seat, I would. The same for the third row on the Ascent.

We have had the Ascent for a couple of months and used the rear seat about 6 times so far. I resisted going that big saying "we will never have 7 people in it" but was wrong.

Hmm

I am only 1" taller, but with my comfortable driving position even my 4 year old has no room where to put her feet behind me. I actually have to bring the seat forward and drive in an uncomfortable position if I need to take my kids along with me. Mind you I have done it, but only for like 10 minutes. Otherwise we also have a minivan to drive the kids on longer trips like OP. Driving them to school everyday... might get annoying.

I would suggest to take your kids to the dealership, hopefully they would have a car there all can get in and see if this is doable. Otherwise its all guesswork and even with same height people have different proportions

Absolutely right. Torso/legs proportions and preferred driving position matter a lot. No replacement to sitting in one, adjusting the seat for you and seeing how much room is left behind the driver.

For such a long daily commute, anything besides EV no longer makes sense in my opinion. You'd save so much money on gas, perhaps you could even consider buying a BRZ on the top.

If you want cheap, Chevy Bolt EVs are very affordable at the moment. You should also consider Teslas if you have the budget and not need it urgently.

And yes, EVs are very fun to drive, more fun than anything else for street use with their instant power and amzing handling due to low center of gravity..

Other than a Lighting, not many EV's would work for me. My driveway is too steep for anything that sit's remotely close to the ground, and I'm not installing a 240 charing service on the front extrior of my house to charge an EV.

But none of it matters anyway unless I find a BRZ on a lot that either a dealer ordered and hasn't some how been snatched up, or someone backs out of one coming in. Spoke to dealers around here and no new orders on BRZs, and no idea of when orders will resume.

that is not at all how i felt about test driving a nissan leaf.

You should not judge EVs by test driving a pre-Tesla era vehicle: )

Technically the first Tesla came out in 2008, Leaf came out in 2010...........

it was a 2nd gen leaf...

i also will never drive or own a tesla out of principle. i will not bow to the holy musk.

I don't know who cares about Leaf anymore besides Carlos Ghosn who had to flee Japan in a box.

Anyway, Teslas have amazing engineering. Just because its CEO has mental issues, you won't consider it? Haha : )

Fine, take a look at Ioniq5, or BMW i4, or even Bolt with its torque steering FWD; they all have amazing handling (Bolt is OK) and are so much fun to drive, thanks to physics : )

I use a '19 Corvette Z06/Z07 manual and '23 BRZ manual for road course track, but sorry, EVs are so much more fun for street use; there's no competition in my opinion.

honestly, elon musk is the least of my worries. i can't get behind the cult of teslastans. i have no interest in participating, or even being associated with that group, even at a distance.

the ioniq5 is a distant possibility. never cared for bmw's. bolt is out, i stopped agreeing with gm design decisions in 2005.

my very first rule with vehicles is that i must be able to yank the head unit out for a month and be able to operate everything except am/fm/bluetooth for that entire month. the leaf is the only vehicle that still complies with that rule. call it what you want, but newer vehicles are resorting to custom stereo eq's, and everything-in-the-touchscreen that take even longer to decode, and even more gear than ever before just to simply get a clean audio signal (toyota tacoma's 'premium' jbl system requires almost $1500 in gear just to decode and get an RCA output!). i always mod my stereo's. it's part of the enjoyment of any vehicle to me.

Almost forgot, the alpha wolf is the only ev I'm really watching. But that only exists as a render right now, so a long ways to go before it can even be judged as an actual vehicle, or even a viable automotive company..

It took some getting used to moving from a VA STI to the GR86 with two kids. My 10 year old can still fit behind me with a booster seat and short drive to school or practices/ games hasn't been bad. The older one just sits in the front seat. Haven't driven them much when it's raining. That's the only time I think that I would miss having 4 doors as I don't have to get out of the car to let anyone in the back seat out.

It's when the younger one gets bigger the next few years that seating arrangement will be interesting.

As the Twins' front seats don't return to position when folded, I only ever load the kids from the passenger side. They're not complaining about that, but even if they did there is no way I'm adjusting my seat twice a day...

I shot a YT video to demonstrate how shorter passengers (I'm 5'9") can fit ok in the back seat. The worst part for me was pressure on the tops of the feet due to the lower height clearance of the front seats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ryvo66jSRU

That looks miserable for both people involved.

Hah hah, yeah, wouldn't recommend any longer drives for sure. But in-town trips for errands, pick-ups, and drop-offs are ok for me.