Car for 4 Kids

Te Honda is not a non-American made car. Did you know that more parts of the Honda are American made than ford? Go visit a dealer.

I love my Dodge Grand Caravan. I have room for my kids, and they can each bring a friend. There is tons of room in back, plus all the room in the stow and go seat compartments and it drives like a car.

Check out the VIN on the vehicle you're interested in - if the first number is a 1, it is American made; a 2 is Canadian made! He might be surprised - unless he is actually meaning where some of the profits end up?

I have an older minivan, and understand the need to carpool. My mother recently bought the dodge caravan 2013 with stow and go seating. I have minivan envy. When all seats are up you can stow all the soccer, baseball, beach gear. The stow and go is awesome. It doesn't have the minivan look. It has an Eco gas option that the dealer told her to use as much as possible and hers sucks way less gas than mine. The dealer told her that this is the last year dodge is making a mini van. Guess people don't care for them. I do-with four kids I share rides often to save my running around to practices that other parents are going to anyway.
Good luck and congrats on the new addition!

Hondas are actually made in America.

We have the Toyota Sienna mini-van. We absolutely love it!! Ours is a 2004 with just over 100K on it and it's still driving wonderfully. We have been able to comfortably fit 8 people, 5 adults and 3 kids, one still in a car seat and one in a high back booster, plus all of our gear for the day. We drove from San Diego to Downtown LA with sightseeing all day and we were all comfortable and had plenty of room.
We get great gas mileage, it doesn't need special gas or tires. It's been low maintenance. We take it in for regular oil changes and such. When we have to finally replace this one we will be getting another Toyota Sienna because we love this one so much!
I can offer an argument you can make for "foreign cars". Ours was built in I believe it's Illinois! The sticker right there says it was built right here in the US. While the company may very well be of foreign origination, the cars aren't built overseas and shipped over here.
ETA: We've had the minivan since it was brand new. It had at best 40 miles on it, most of those being ones from it being driven from a dealer a little ways away to the one near us because we wanted specifics.

We are a Honda family. We have had all kinds of problems with American made cars, but not so much with our Japanese made Hondas.
YMMV
LBC

FYI: my Honda is old! My Honda was made in Japan with Japanese parts. It was imported and I paid the $800 import fee.

We just bought a Honda Odyssey this weekend and I absolutely love it. We have 6 kids (his, mine and ours) and needed a van that seats 8 (we previously had an obnoxious plain vanilla 12 seater van). I spent a LONG time researching 8 seat vehicles including vans and SUV's. I researched the dimensions of the 2nd and 3rd row seats, storage capacity, and mpg. I even took a tape measure to the dealerships to help me decide. You can't go wrong with the Honda Odysseys's over all space, seat design, gas savings, and resale value. Oh, the Toyota Sienna doesn't compare with their 8th middle seat in the 2nd row.

Congrats on #4

I would take the following into consideration:
Maintenence Costs, Frequency and Warranty and other Protections
Size, comfort and ability to host your family safely
Affoardability, Solid Financing Plan, Trustworthy Dealer
Maker and Model

I have a foriegn car and one of my beefs with it is some parts have to be shipped because they are not always just available here, they are not parts that a mechanic would have on hand - that makes for longer periods of time in the shop - BOO!

I however have cars that run better and longer that are foriegn vs Amerian made. Not to say that I would not buy American made, it is just not my first priority when buying a car.

The research seems to indicate that Toyota's and Honda's are the most reliable, especially in the long term. The Dodge Caravan seems to be the one I see more often than any other. I believe it's less expense than the Toyota's and Honda's, but I did not research Dodge.

Toyota's and Honda's cost a bit more than we wanted to spend, so we opted for the Pontiac Montana. GM has improved in the past 5 or 10 years, but I do still hear better things about the Toyota's and Honda's.

As far as I know, Dodge is the only one with "stow and go," which is a very cool feature.

If it helps, you can tell your husband that most foreign cars are actually made in the US. Also, welcome to the 21st century. We have a global economy, and I'm really not sure "American Made" means much anymore.

Congrats! We just had our fourth 3 weeks ago! While I was still pregnant I test drove just about every single van out there. We ended up going with the Dodge Grand Caravan and I have no regrets. It is perfect for our family of four. We really love it! Good luck!

We purposely bought two Toyota's in the last 15 months. We bought a 2012 Camry and a 2013 Highlander. We went for them because of the safety features. You need to look at those on your choices and decide from there.

I saw another poster can't live without a DVD player, we also did NOT want one. Sometimes it was good, but we don't want them watching movies all the time. So they have their electronic devices for long trips, but we are SO glad to not have a DVD player in the newer cars we have.

Give up the thought of carpooling. Certainly do not base what you buy on others. Are you really willing to install n take outcar seats to carpool.
A Pilot, Chevy Traverse, any car like that works. I have a Pilot and schlepp around four grand kids. For me personally, I would never drive a minivan.

All vans' have sliding doors on both sides. Some have integrated car seats and that is really nice since I often have friends in the vehicle instead of the kiddo's and I don't have to take out a bunch of seats and then clean the leather underneath where those elusive crackers and other snacks have hidden for a while....lol.

With the integrated car seat I see everything in the seat each time the kids get out. I really liked my van that has two integrated car seats in the middle row.

I do suggest you consider a van with 3 seats in the middle and 3 in the back. I had one of those and it was really convenient, especially when a couple of the kids got older. They could just climb in the back and the little ones were all in the middle.

I like the Dodge that has the blue running lights along the ceiling. It makes it nice for the kids when it's dark so they can see a bit. The blue didn't bother the driver at all. They were also set where you could make them dimmer.

I won't have a vehicle that does not have a built in DVD player ever again. I do not have fighting/arguing kids any more. It's wonderful!

There are a lot of extra's I like. I like a lot of room behind the back seat so I can haul bikes, sports stuff, etc...I do NOT like the vans that have the back seat nearly against the back window.

I do like having storage places in the floor, that makes all that stuff that we tend to carry all the time, like jumper cables, easy to hide away.

Dodges have always seemed to have the best heater and best air conditioners out of every brand of vehicle we have had.

We love our Toyota Sienna. I know Toyota is not American, but I have been told that the Sienna is actually built in American and more "American" than some other cars under the Ford and Chevy names.

I would recommend a mini van. They are just so easy for families with multiple children. They are easier to get kids in and out of, you still have cargo space when you travel, and there is a lot of flexibility. And make sure that you get one with power sliding doors. They really do make a difference!

Unfortunately, the American minivans are just not as reliable as the Toyota and the Honda. But you are talking about your kids and their safety.

I have a Dogde journey, it was the closest to a van I would go! It's got 3 rows of seats and plenty of space in the rear.

I will also only buy American. We have the Chevy Traverse. It seats 8 very comfortably. We got it when my 3 were 1,3 &5. They're now 4,6&8. We also looked at the Ford Flex. We loved it , but it only seats 7. Good luck & congratulations.

I have 5 kids. Love my Suburban and loved my Yukon before that. As I've gotten older, it has become more important to me to buy American when we purchase vehicles and that is what we will continue to do.

When we had 3 kids, we had a Pilot and before that, I had 2 Civics and a Corolla. I loved them all. They got great gas mileage, but the best thing about foreign cars (especially Hondas) is that they hold their value for resale. That would probably be the best argument for buying foreign.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Honda Odyssey. I am on my second one (my first was totaled in 2008, and I didn't even LOOK at anything else). And yes, Honda is NOT an American brand, but a considerable percentage of the vehicle is assembled in the US of US parts.

I know plenty of people who are happy with the Chrysler Town & Country, or a Dodge Caravan.

I have a VW Routan, and I love it, but it is basically a Dodge Caravan with a VW logo stamped on the grill. We'll have the same kid situation this fall, and the maximum we can fit is 7 passengers.

I believe the Odyssey gives you the option to seat 8, but it is probably still pretty tight with 4 carseats in there. Not much room for carpooling, if your carpoolers also need booster seats.

An Escalade or Suburban might be better for your needs, but they're more expensive and are gas guzzlers.

We love our Town & Country by Chrysler ! And it has a DVD player.