I looked at the Pilot... it drives great, and nice interior feature... but the I just can't have the exterior design grow on me . Also it still has the honda ancient 5 speed tranny

I have never had a family car although I live with my wife and daughter. When my daughter was a toddler, we had a Camaro Z-28 with a stick and a car seat in back. After that, when my daughter was a tween, then teen, we had a Mustang Bullitt. As she started to go out with her boyfriend in his car and then go to college, we sold the Mustang and got a new Corvette, which we still have and will continue to own. I am about to buy a new TL SH-AWD so that my wife and daughter who just graduated from the University of Wisconsin, can drive and all 3 of us can go somewhere together. While we didn't have to drive much since we live in Manhattan, the non traditional family cars I have owned have done just fine. I think a TL would be a fantastic family car.

Thanks,
Ken

ha !!! I live 10 min away from UW !!!! thanks for the advise :)

My daughter had a fantastic 4 years in Madison. When she was applying to colleges as a high school senior, she got into 11 schools ultimately, however University of Wisconsin was the first acceptance she got. I was walking home from work one evening and she called me on my cell screaming that she got into Wisconsin and she was no longer going to watch the mailbox for acceptances. That was a heartbreaker of a loss last week to Michigan State.

Thanks,

Ken

haha yeah.. most people are in grieve over here for that lost !!

Living in Manhattan is different. Having been born in the city and raised in Manhattan and living there most of my life, though, I did give it up, you barely needed a car. (although I had one). I rented a bigger car when needed.

When we moved to the burbs and had to worry about shuttling the soccer team and their equipment, it became a completely different story.

A Bugatti can be a family car under the right circumstances, the term means different things to different people.

What does any of that have to do with the TL being a family car or not? The OP is talking about a newborn.. you know, tiny baby.. years from soccer practice and all. :tongue:

Nothing wrong with a stiffer ride. train that baby early to know what's a good stock suspension setup! lol

i can fit a full sized wheelchair (foldable of course) into the trunk. with some room to spare for some bags. im sure a stroller would fit as long as it's not super long when folded.

Did you read Ken's post?

The OP asked if the TL is a fmaily worthy car.. not if an Infiniti or "x" would be better.. plus g37guy doesn't even know if the 4G TL would fit or not.

Who's Ken?

Here in Canada it comes with a 75 Litre tank and I was averaging about 15 L/100 KMs...not very good at all. Even though the CX-9 takes regular fuel I was spending about $650/month on gas. If you KNOW you are going to have more kids, then consider the CX-9 as it is good value for the price/size/features. However, know the following:

- Mazda really doesn't know how to service it as (at least where I am) they sell more RX-8's then CX-9's.
- It is BIG and so are the doors (even with a good effort I still dinged a few cars getting out of the car)
- If you get one, I suggest the GT (power liftgate, nav, leather, blind spot monitoring). It has HUGE blind spots and it is essential to have it
- Even though it can seat 7 the rear row is extremely tight (even my sister-in-law who is 5'2" is a little snug in there)

Let me know if you have any other questions....good luck with the decision

P.S. Still lovin' my 2012 TL! (and so is my daugther!)

We currently own a CX-9 and a 2012 TL. We have a Peg Perego car seat in which both cars are equiped with the same base. Taking the car seat in and out of the TL with the PP car seat is a bit of a pain for two reasons. First off, you are bending down and the PP car seat is not the lightest one on the block. Secondly, the handle for the PP car seat does a massive loop, so when you have the handle in the upright position to take the car seat out, there is very litte room to lift the car seat off the base and lift it out of the car without hitting the top of the door opening. Our baby is only 6 weeks old and so far we've used the TL once. IMO, it is much easier to take the car seat in and out of the CX-9. Perhaps a different car seat would work better, but at this point I'm not about to shell out another $200-$300 when they can only be in the rear facing seat until they are 22lbs.

I will certainly agree with the earlier comment about the doors on the CX-9. My wife and I have quickly realized the benefits of minivans and their sliding doors. The doors on the CX-9 are quite large and there have been two instances all ready in which I need to move the vehicle out of the parking spot to get the door open because the car parked beside us was too close. I am actually very careful where I park, especially now with the TL as I don't want any door dings on my new baby (the car, that is). Unfortunately, some of the parking lots in the city pack the cars in like sardines.

As for gas mileage, I get around 12-14L/100km with the CX-9. It's AWD and in the winter it's like driving a bulldozer.

My 2 cents.

We have a 16 month old and definitely use the MDX as the 'family' car. However, if we had to, I think we could use the TL fairly easily. We'd certain lose some of the creature comforts, like the rear storage area and power lift gate, but we could pull it off.

The ride is a bit rough in my opinion and if we could only have one car as a family car, I would not have the TL.

I'm not quite sure how much front seat space we would have if we used the TL while our daughter was rear facing. (Rear facing seat was first the Chicco keyfit 30 then the Britax Advocate CS) I'm pretty sure the CS would not have worked.

Be frugal and get a minivan that can be cleaned out with a garden hose. You are going to need $$$ for many more things than a luxury car. in 18 years college will cost at least $500,000 for a public school.

I use my TL as the family car, I think it's plenty big (even with the AWD hump) my son LOVES the car (he's now two). Kids don't care about hard/soft suspension, that's an old people problem :D

Granted, our other car is a Subaru Outback, which, I think if you have to have one family car is the best money/value/reliability/utility you can buy without getting into the supersized SUVs.



My ONLY issue with the TL is the rear headroom can make getting kids into the rear facing seats a bit of a challenge, especially if you have a well bolstered seat such as a Brittax or Recaro.


I've owned a Murano, lasted 6 months, the AWD system was horrible, other then that it was fine, but was gone after the first winter with it.


In short, Just do it

I have a 09 TL SH-AWD and space, car seat, stroller room are fine. My girl has a Murano which is handy for box's bikes and road trips, but I've had 2 TL's and the space is always adequate. Ride is great with any TL, and car seat front facing and rear will leave u good room.

:thumbsup: Winner! Winner! Sheen Dinner!

My kids loved the Toyota Celica we had as a family car. Yep, I had two car seats in the Celica. They actually cried when I sold the car for Taurus Wagon.

Kids at a very young age don't know luxury the way us grown ups do. They only know what is familiar to them.

Fast forward quite a few years later, the kids were pissed at me when I got rid of the BMW two days before they were scheduled to get their learners permit.

Infiniti FX50... best of both worlds

The TL as a family car is fine especially since the 4G is actually classified as a large car I believe.

I have 2 kids (5+ and a 2+) and we started with a '06 CR-V and a lowered '99 Prelude. Had the rear facing Britax in the Prelude...wife wasn't too happy... :-)

Since then, we have moved onto a '08 RDX and a '08 TL-S. The RDX will fit 3 car seats in the back (it's a squeeze but doable) and I have 2 car seats in the TL-S including the gigantic Britax Frontier. Previously, we had the RDX with one rear facing seat in the center and one forward facing on the side. Never tried that in the TL-S as I just got it last year and the kids were forward facing already.

To help with your decision, some kid accessory recommendations for those with "smaller" cars. For car seats, I think the best ones available (in Canada at least) are the Sunshine Kids Radian. It is a very narrow seat. If you like large strollers, get a Peg Perego Pliko P3. It is large and folds like an umbrella stroller. It fits in my Prelude trunk so a TL is definitely not a problem.

Need more room for family trips, get a roof rack and a cargo box. I know, a lot of accessories but then you have your cake and eat it too. You have a fun car 95% of the time when you don't need the room and for the 5% of the time you do, slap on the roof rack and cargo box. When you're at Ikea, the roof rack will also come in handy for those Billy bookcases... ;-)

As for rough rides for the little ones, the kids still slept fine in the RDX and if I recall correctly, the last time I drove a 4G TL SH-AWD, the RDX has a firmer ride.

Hope this helps!