The Best Family SUVs

Here at Car and Driver, we celebrate vehicles that best fulfill their mission. Hence our annual lists of the 10Best Cars and 10Best Trucks and SUVs, which identify the models we think epitomize user interaction, driver satisfaction, and value. While our holistic evaluations include consumer-minded criteria, families have even more diverse wants and needs when shopping for a new crossover or SUV. It's a classic example of different strokes for different folks. We understand that most moms and dads prioritize cargo volume, contemporary features, fuel economy, safety ratings, interior space, and—of course—value pricing.

How We Chose the Vehicles on This List

With those family values in mind, we've compiled a list of some of the best family SUVs, based on each vehicle's basic specifications and our own real-world testing. All of the vehicles on this list of best family SUVs are mid-sizers (which is still plenty large), have three rows of seats for max people-hauling ability, and start at less than $33,500, making them accessible to as wide a range of families as possible. The Car and Driver technical staff measured lift-over heights—how high you have to lift to load luggage—and we counted how many carry-on bags fit behind the third row, as a measurement of cargo capacity. Likewise, we measured the driver's seat height (also called H-point) and used lasers to determine outward visibility. We also compared their EPA highway ratings with real-world fuel economy by driving our own 200-mile fuel-economy route, where we maintain a GPS-verified 75 mph. Here are the top family SUVs, the ones we think will do the best for growing broods and all their gear.