When you have children, your whole world changes, and so do your responsibilities. You want what’s best for your children, and sometimes that’s changing the vehicle you drive. You have enough on your plate without having to worry about whether your car is safe for your family. Below are some features to look for in a car and five vehicles to choose from to keep your children safe.
What to Look For
Collision Warning
Collision warnings will warn you if you’re too close to a vehicle in front of you or if you’re moving toward another vehicle too quickly. In some cases, the collision warning system will even apply the brakes for you. Not only does a collision warning system alert you to vehicles, but it also alerts you to pedestrians walking in front or behind you.
Blind Spot Monitoring
When drivers change lanes or back out of a parking spot, they check all their mirrors, but checking a blind spot is sometimes hard to do. Modern vehicles come with mirrors that have warning lights that alert you if there’s a vehicle, a person, or an object in your blind spot.
Back-Seat Reminder
It’s easy for people to get distracted due to how busy they are. Sometimes, people forget their phones, food, or money in the car. It’s one thing to forget something as important as a phone, but it’s quite another to leave a child in the back seat accidentally.
The back-seat reminder monitors the vehicle’s rear doors and activates if either of the rear doors opens and closes within 10 minutes before someone starts the vehicle. It also activates if the doors open and close while the vehicle is running. Once the vehicle turns off, the reminder sounds five chimes and displays a visual message on the instrument cluster for the driver to read.
Car Seat Support
When your children are small, the best place for them is in a car seat to keep them secure. Sometimes, you may have more than one small child who needs a car seat. In that instance, you need to know how many car seats can fit in your car. All vehicles manufactured after 2002 have the LATCH system, which makes it easier to install car seats.
Rear Vision Cameras
When you’re reversing your car, it can get a little tricky. With a rear vision camera, you have a live image of what’s behind your car. Not only that, but there are grid lines that show you how close you are to another vehicle or an object, letting you keep a safe distance.
Here are five vehicles to choose from that will keep your children safe.
Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
The Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan has car-seat compatibility that allows you to install a seat in the captain’s chairs and two in the third row.
The MSRP for the 2019 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid is between $40,000 and $45,500. The electric battery has a range of 33 miles, and the minivan gets a combined 32 miles per gallon with gasoline. The Touring Plus trim has automatic headlights, fog lights, power sliding doors, and keyless entry and ignition. Standard features include a rearview camera, rear parking sensors, and rear cross-traffic alerts.
The Chrysler Pacifica hybrid has the room you need to get your children where they need to be, the affordability that families need, and the high gas mileage to save money when filling up at the pump.
Ford Edge
The 2018 Ford Edge doesn’t have contoured seats in the back row, making it perfect for installing car seats. Not only that, but you can fit more than one car seat in the vehicle. You can put a booster in the middle seat, a forward-facing seat behind the driver’s side, and an infant seat on the passenger’s side.
The Ford Edge has an automatic eight-speed transmission, a voice-activated touch-screen navigation system, and a remote start system, making it easy to start your car while attending to your little ones who would rather do anything but sit still. Behind the seats, the Ford Edge has 73.4 cubic feet with the back seats folded. The 2018 Ford Edge offers 245 horsepower on the base engine model and a towing capacity of up to 3,500 pounds when equipped properly. As for gas mileage, the Ford Edge 2.0-liter front-wheel drive model gets 20 mpg for city driving and 29 mpg for highway driving.
A strong, capable SUV, this vehicle gives you the breathing room, the cargo space, and the power you need to get where you’re going.
Honda Accord Hybrid
The Honda Accord hybrid is another excellent choice for those who have a child or multiple children to drive around. Full-size car seats might not fit well, but three narrow seats will. With the seats in the Honda Accord hybrid, it’s easy to fit a car seat or a booster seat on the sides rather than in the middle.
The 2017 Honda Accord hybrid also has stability control, traction control, a vigilant collision warning system, and hill start assist. This vehicle has 13.5 cubic feet of cargo space. As a hybrid, the Honda Accord gets great mileage, with 49 mpg for city driving and 47 mpg for highway driving.
The Accord hybrid is a fast, yet stable vehicle that offers the safety that you and your family deserve as well as the trunk space to make any activity a breeze and the gas mileage that keeps you on the road longer.
Honda Pilot
If you need more room in your vehicle than a sedan can provide, then a midsize SUV might be the right choice for your family. The space the 2019 Honda Pilot provides not only gives everyone room to breathe, but the size of the vehicle better protects passengers in the event of an accident. The base model of the Honda Pilot features rear-door child safety locks, stability control, traction control, and both a pre-collision and post-collision safety system.
The MSRP of the Honda Pilot starts at just above $31,000, which is well below the price for some SUVs. The 2019 Honda Pilot has a maximum towing capacity of 5,000 pounds for the all-wheel drive model and has a six-speed automatic transmission that means you never have to worry about shifting gears. With a fuel tank holding 19.5 gallons, the Honda Pilot achieves 18 mpg for city driving and 26 mpg for highway driving.
The 2019 Honda Pilot has a smooth, comfortable ride with space to fit your entire family.
Nissan Maxima
Sometimes, a good family car isn’t even a minivan, an SUV, or large car. Sometimes, surprisingly, a sports car can be a good choice to keep your children safe. Not every sports car is created equal, but the 2018 Nissan Maxima is a good choice for those after-school pickups or shuttling kids to their activities. While you may only be able to fit two kids in the back of the car, there’s plenty of legroom.
Some safety features that come with the Nissan Maxima include stability control, emergency braking, and forward collision warning. The MSRP of the 2018 Nissan Maxima is around $20,000. This four-door sports car is a midsize car boasting 300 horsepower and a 3.5-liter V-6 engine. The car holds 18 gallons of gas and provides the driver with 21 mpg for city driving and 30 mpg for highway driving.
J.D. Power offers high marks for the 2018 Nissan Maxima with an overall score of 86 out of 100 but a 91 out of 100 for quality and reliability and 88 out of 100 for the driving experience.
Fun yet practical, this car will turn heads for all the right reasons. With power under the hood and the ability to grip the road during rain or snow, the 2018 Nissan Maxima isn’t your average sports car.
Buying the right vehicle that suits your needs is one of the best things you can do. When your family remains safe and secure within the confines of the vehicle, it’s one less thing you have to worry about.
