We have a 2013 Fit with low mileage. Baby 2 might be coming and I am wondering if we should look at a small van like a Mazda 5.
Bigger vans don't fit well in our garage as I have an MDX. With the van and sliding door it would be easier to pack the little ones from inside the garage and my doors won't get dinged as easily.


Opinions? Do you haul multiple kids in your Fit?

 

We have two kids that we regularly haul around in our 2013 Fit. One is in a forward facing and one is still in a rear facing car seat. We have done a lot of around town trips, and several 1000+ mile trips.

A few issues that we have come across.
1. I am tall and so do not fit if I am sitting in front of the rear facing carseat. This makes it difficult to switch drivers on a long trip, without also switching carseat positions.
2. Power around town is fine, but it can be lacking on long trips. Once you load it up with 4 bodies and 2 weeks of luggage, it can have a harder time averaging 80 MPH. Especially if you hit any kind of incline. MPG drops to 31 to 33 also. Normally I can get close to 40 MPG.

Items that ended up not being a problem.
1. There is a surprising amount of space. You can fit two full size suitecases in the trunk, with enough room for other small items. Unlike almost every other car out there, you have storage space underneath the rear seats which adds even more.
2. Around town and on short trips we don't really have any complaints. The smaller size can actually be an advantage. I can reach back and hand the baby a dropped toy, or give the toddler a water bottle. In a larger vehicle that wouldn't be as easy.

We have looked briefly at the mazda 5. Two main downsides to it is that the engine is fairly weak compared to the full size vans, and it doesn't do so well in recent crash tests. I haven't actually sat in it to see if the car seats fit any better though. The price is much better than the full size minivans though.

Personally I would say give it a shot. If it doesn't work out you can use your MDX for a bit while you shop for something bigger. The MDX might work better on longer car rides which would fix a few of my issues.

 

I've had the Mazda 5 as a rental, did not like the car much, buzzy noisy low powered..
A focus Hatch might be a upgrade but you still have the swinging door..

I highly recommend renting before buying, hundred bucks or so is cheap to figure out if you like a $20K-$30K car..

You have to call the rental lot usually to see if they have what you want...

 

I think only you can ascertain the value or necessity in sizing up.
If budget or cost isn't an issue, my opinion would be, with a growing family a bigger vehicle might be nicer.

Have you considered a Honda CRV or even the HRV?

There are a LOT of options that might fit your needs.
If you aren't tied to a particular manufacturer or make, then there are a lot of vehicles designed around the 4 member family demographic.

If there is no rush, I'd just casually start investigating all of them. The Internet is your friend here.

 

It works. I was also thinking of a mazda 3 or 5 after baby no2 but in the end i bought a small pram (world smallest). Costed around $300. Today i put toddler car seat in the middle and baby car set next to it. Managed to fit a full size adult who said it was comfortable enough. Now if i got x2 small stealthy car seats = Gold. But i cant be bothered buying new ones. I dont do long stay travels though but a roof rack + 300L Thule carrier would have worked. Thats a trunk of a mazda 3 on top of the jazz.
As for speed i dont usually do much of this. When comes the hill i lock it on D3 and stick to 80km/h. If i need a fast start also i use the D3 and had worked well. Takes a bit of fuel at times but i kept my 15" rims on there to minimize weight.

 

Hey something I can chime in on, though a month after the fact. We own a 2008 Mazda 5 and a 2012 Fit and haul around one rear facing and one forward facing car seat. When shopping around for the wife's car, we looked at older and newer escapes, CRV's, Rav 4's, and foci. Nothing really came close to touching the 5. I will admit that a big thing that made us lean toward it was the sliding doors... which are awesome with small kids. It doesn't hurt that the thing is actually fun to drive (we thought it would be a penalty box).

The Latch system in the 5 is also the best that I have used so far, but that is largely because I can 'pinch' the car seat in place by working with the recliner mechanism on the bucket seats in the middle row. While yes, at a whopping 190 hp, it's not going to blow you away with massive power, but it is more than adequate to get it up to highway speeds, and as already mentioned, the handling is pretty spot on as well.

Mileage wise could be better, but we routinely pull down upper 20s and have had more than a few low 30's tanks. The middle row has more than enough room for kids seats without eating into the drivers area (I.E., you don't have to move the seats up for the car seats to fit). Two tired kids in the 5:



The same seats in the back of the fit don't quite fit as well (Though they do fit much better in the back of my friends 2015 fit). For the rear facing seat, you'll need to move the seat up a tick, but there's still plenty of room. Here they are in the back of my 2012 fit:



Both cars together just for fun:


While belated, I hope this helps someone.