Space, Safety, And Comfort In 2025
The best car for 4 kids is a tougher choice than one might imagine. You can’t just buy any SUV with three rows, though that would get you on the right track. Factors like reliability, safety ratings, how much space the rear seats actually have, and more are the details a buyer should pay attention to for the safety and comfort of their passengers. One should also keep in mind their kids’ ages, and how they’ll grow into the car. If you choose one with three rows of seats, but the seats themselves don’t offer much legroom, then you’ll quickly find your family outgrowing a smaller SUV. Thankfully, brands like Ford and Chevrolet offer multiple SUVs in different sizes and price points for growing families.
- Base Trim Engine
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2.3L Turbo Inline-4 Gas
- Base Trim Transmission
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10-Speed Automatic
- Base Trim Drivetrain
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Rear-Wheel Drive
For this article, we set a maximum price point below $50,000. While there are plenty of high-end SUVs above $45k, we recognize that the majority of parents with four kids most likely won’t have a huge budget for a luxury SUV. Keeping this in mind, here is the best SUV for 4 kids, and some additional options that made the podium – even if they didn’t win gold.
This article takes into account parameters such as price point, rear seat space, cargo space, safety ratings, and more in order to determine the best vehicle for 4 kids. Prices are correct at the time of writing – MSRPs exclude destination, options, taxes, and other fees. Manufacturers reserve the right to change prices at any time without notice.
What Makes A Good Family Car?
Overall Parameters And Subjectivities
We mentioned some factors like price point, rear seat space, cargo space, and safety ratings in the introduction, but what did we mean by those? A budget is generally the easiest factor to get out of the way for most people – how much are you willing to spend on a car? Think about how much cash you have to put down, whether you want to finance it through a dealership or through a third party (credit unions typically offer better rates than dealers), and how much you can afford to spend on payments every month.
What about the rest? Interior space is the next step in deciding what’s right for your family. Factor in your kids’ age and how fast they’ll grow. You might have found the perfect three-row SUV – it fits up to seven people inside with room for cargo in the back, but will your family still fit inside a few years down the road? That brings us to another point: reliability. There’s no point in making such a fuss over choosing the right car if it’s not going to last. It’s difficult to judge the reliability of new cars, since they haven’t been on the road long enough for common problems to arise, but do some research on previous model years to get an idea of what to expect. You can also use J.D. Power’s quality and reliability score, which judges a vehicle’s initial quality to estimate how well it might hold up, though it is important to remember that this is just an estimate.
Finally, we have safety. You might be the safest driver in the world, but that doesn’t mean other drivers are paying attention. We don’t mean to frighten anyone, but it only takes one ignorant driver to ruin a safe driver’s day. Utilize resources like the IIHS to review almost any model’s crashworthiness.
The Best Family Car For 4 Kids: The 2025 Ford Explorer
2025 Explorer Pricing, Specs, And More
It’s no surprise the 2025 Ford Explorer won CarBuzz’s award for being the best family car of the year, and by extension, our unofficial award in the best cars for 4 kids category, too. The current Explorer excels in essentially every topic we just discussed, and more we haven’t gotten to yet. It comes in four trims: the Active, ST-Line, Platinum, and ST. However, only the Active (base MSRP of $40,050) and the ST-Line (base MSRP of $45,020) start under the $50k limit we set in the beginning. If you want the model’s more powerful V6 engine, you’ll have to spend at least $54,770 on the ST trim. The Platinum still comes standard with the 2.3L engine, and starts at $52,525. A basic overview of the Explorer’s specs can be found in the table below.
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2025 Ford Explorer Specs Overview |
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|---|---|---|
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Engines |
2.3L Turbo Inline-four |
3.0L Twin-turbo V6 |
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Horsepower |
300 hp |
400 hp |
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Torque |
310 lb-ft |
415 lb-ft |
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Drivetrains |
RWD or 4WD |
|
|
Transmission |
10-speed Automatic |
|
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Fuel Economy (RWD) (city/highway/combined) |
20/29/24 mpg |
18/25/21 mpg |
2025 Ford Explorer Safety Ratings
According to the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), the 2025 Ford Explorer does well in terms of how well it can protect occupants in the event of a crash. The crash tests are judged on a scale with ratings labeled Good, Acceptable, Marginal, and Poor. The vehicle they tested was a 2020 Explorer, since that’s the model’s fifth and current generation with the same internal construction to protect those inside.
Here’s how the Explorer performed in every crash test the IIHS performed:
- Small overlap front: Good
- Moderate overlap front: Good
- Side (updated test): Good
- Overall driver’s side evaluation: Good
- Structure and safety cage: Good
- Driver injury measures: head/neck, chest, hip/thigh are Good, lower leg/foot is Acceptable
- Driver restraints and dummy kinematics: Good
The same metrics were evaluated for the passenger-side crash tests with every result being Good. The moderate overlap front test was rated Good on all measures except for rear passenger head and neck, which were rated Acceptable, and rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics were also rated Acceptable. The side updated test was all Good except for an Acceptable score for the driver’s pelvis. Another important note is how the Explorer’s child seat anchors were rated Acceptable.
2025 Ford Explorer Interior Measurements
The 2025 Ford Explorer is a roomy and comfortable car for most families. I speak from experience that it becomes less so in the rear seats when all the kids are grown up, but it should work out for most families with four kids. You can buy the Explorer in either a seven or eight-seat configuration, with the middle row having either two captain’s chairs or a bench. Rear-seat passengers will have the same dimensions to work with either way: the second row has 40.5 inches of legroom and 40.5 inches of headroom, while the third row has 32.2 inches of legroom and 38.9 inches of headroom. Cargo space sits at 16.3 cubic feet behind the third row, 46 cubic feet behind the second row, and up to 85.8 cubic feet of space behind the first row.
“It takes an adult to move the second row out of the way, no matter the style of the seat. With captain’s chairs, kiddos can just walk right through the middle to get back there when you have a full crew on board. If your crew is eight passengers strong, you’ll need to upgrade entirely to the Explorer’s big brother, the Ford Expedition.”
– Nicole Wakelin, Road Tester, CarBuzz
Ford Explorer Competitors
The Ford Explorer competes directly with other three-row midsize SUVs, like the Kia Telluride and the Mazda CX-90. While these are excellent cars in their own right, they didn’t quite make it in our top three choices for the best SUV for families with four kids. The Kia Telluride is powered by a naturally aspirated 3.8L V6 with far less horsepower than the Explorer’s turbocharged V6, and comparable fuel economy. The Mazda CX-90, on the other hand, has two versions of a turbo 3.3-liter inline-six with respectable horsepower from the high-output version and good fuel economy that rivals even the Explorer’s four-cylinder. The Ford Explorer still came out on top, though, since it’s a well-rounded package of comfort, quality, style, reliability, and more.
Cars For Four Kids: Runners-Up
Close, But No Cigar
We considered plenty of SUV models that might fit the bill for families with four kids, and these two models were next in line for the crown. We don’t have room to go into as much detail as the Explorer here, so here is an overview of each model.
2025 Honda Pilot
The 2025 Honda Pilot is an excellent family car with classic Honda dependability, room for up to eight occupants, respectable fuel economy, and good safety ratings. It currently comes in eight trims, with the base model Sport starting at $40,200 and the top-of-the-line Black Edition starting at $54,580. An honorable mention for some exploratory, outdoor families is the TrailSport, which starts at $49,400 and comes with some functional off-road features. Under the hood of every trim is a 3.5-liter V6 that makes 285 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque that’s capable of towing up to 5,000 pounds (the same as the Explorer) in all-wheel drive. The base model gets 19/27/22 mpg (city/highway/combined) in FWD with its standard 10-speed automatic transmission.
2025 Hyundai Palisade
The Hyundai Palisade is entering a new generation for the 2026 model year, which brings with it some increased prices along with other upgrades. We’ll focus on the 2025 model, though, since it starts at just $37,200 for the base trim – the most expensive trim is the Calligraphy Night for $54,500. It can still seat either seven or eight occupants inside with a maximum cargo capacity of 86.4 cubic feet. Under the hood of all seven trim levels is the same 3.8-liter V6 that makes 291 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque. Fuel economy for every trim is also the same at 19/26/22 mpg in front-wheel drive, or 19/24/21 mpg in all-wheel drive.
Summary: Cars For 4 Kids Are A Dime A Dozen
But Some Are Better Than Others
Cars for 4 kids are everywhere with the ever-expanding midsize and full-size SUV segments, but they’re not all the same. Some people might not care what they drive; for many, a vehicle is simply a mode of transportation to get from one point to another. If you read this far, then that means you care about your family’s well-being enough to treat a large purchase with respect. A lot goes into choosing the best SUV for families, but we think you’ll agree that the Ford Explorer is hard to beat.
Sources: Ford, Hyundai, Honda, NHTSA, IIHS, EPA
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