Both true. The OP could always get something like a Subaru Forester, Volvo XC or Audi Allroad - a jacked up station wagon, in other words.
My folks have an older Forester and love it. The doors are a bit tight to get in and out of (minivans have giant sliders; big SUVs have bigger doors), but the drive/ride is great.
Oh–in lots of the “I’m about to get a new car” threads people chime in with direction as to information sources – Edmunds? Consumers? Carfax? Strategy?
In your situation, the only factor that would tip me in favour of an actual SUV is if you often enough (say more than 5 times / year) have to drive through snow that is more than 6 inches deep, or if you drive off road on not so nice dirt roads that have bumps and rocks, and need the added ground clearance. Be careful if this is the case, because some of the biggest SUVs have absolutely lousy off-road performance (Hummer, Tahoe)
I find a minivan has way more carrying capacity for both people and cargo. One of the things I find deplorable about mid-size and compact SUVs is how *little *cargo room they have behind the rear seat.
Regarding AWD, living up here in Calagary, and having lived 5 years in Ottawa, I can’t say enough about how well AWD works with 4 good snow tires. Our snow removal sucks here, and I have avoided getting stuck, and even pulled out other cars who were stuck, with an AWD station wagon more times than I can count. Yes it’s more fuel. Yes it’s more maintenance. How many times are you willing to get stuck to make the savings from not getting AWD worthwhile? Think about it for a while…
Regarding station wagons, we got the VW AWD Passat wagon as a compromise because my dear wife, who is even shorter when she sits down, couldn’t see well enough out the back of a bigger vehicle to park it. We’re extremely pleased with it’s practicality, cargo capacity. and sure footedness.
One hugely valuable piece of advice we received was to bring a baby car seat and a 20 lb sack of potatoes when test driving models we were considering. Use the bag of spuds to practice the motion of putting the baby in the seat. Doing this stopped us from buying the otherwise very satisfactory Volvo wagon because I couldn’t get my head under the roof when facing rearward to put the “baby” in the seat.
We looked closely at the Subarus, but found the cabin interior to feel incredibly cheaply made. I kept expecting flimsy bits of plastic to break off in the first few months. The other big no-no was that the rear center tethers for the car seats attach to the roof, eliminating a good bit of cargo volume and being in the middle of the rearview mirror sightline.
Good luck with your research.
Well, no, if it’s car based, then it’s not an SUV; it’s a crossover. Maybe sometimes marketers call them SUV’s, but it’s like saying a Honda Ridgeline is a truck (it looks like one, but it’s not). Tahoes, Expeditions, etc., are most certainly not “car-based.”
Body-in-white engineer hat on: Structurally, they’re worlds apart. Consider the Fusion versus the Edge. One is obviously a car, and the other a crossover (I don’t think they’re marketed as SUV’s). They’re both built from the same CD3 platform, and yet the sheet metal differences are worlds and worlds apart (and not just the superficial stuff, but the structural components). As final products, the Edge isn’t just a raised-up Fusion; it has a lot of the characteristics (such as space) that are found in SUV’s.
It’s not just marketing fluff. An SUV has a full chassis. A crossover is unibody. Most cars are unibody (the Town Car still has a chassis). If some companies choose to market unibody products as “SUV’s,” well, then, they’re liars (expected in marketing, right?). To be fair, I think Ford’s going to market the new unibody Explorer as an SUV – ugh! That’s offensive in a world where things have precise meanings.
That’s my preference as well (2 kids, Subaru Legacy wagon, no problem) but the OP has dogs, so that might rule out a wagon. It’s important to note, however, that cargo space in wagons can be comparable to cargo space in small SUVs.
Subaru Outbacks and Foresters are nearly indistinguishable(?) from one another these days. And they don’t make the Legacy wagon anymore. 
If I had the bucks I’d look seriously at an AWD Toyota Sienna. I think to get that kind of space in an SUV you’d have to go huge (Expedition, Suburban).
If you can afford it, get AWD. It’s worth it anywhere there’s a reasonable amount of snow.
Is your driveway paved or gravel? Flat or hilly? Do you have any problems getting in and out with your current fleet of hoopties?
In my experience, most minivans will handle snow well. Minivans with traction control handle ice and mud reasonably well – better than sedans.
I have a 10-year old Ford Windstar. Before that, I had a Mercury Villager. Both of them were more comfortable, more gas efficient and better on the highway than any SUV I’ve ever experienced. The only advantage to an SUV I’ve seen is that the bigger ones let you ride higher off the ground. But the smaller ones are about the same height as the minivans.
Sure, your basic minivan is a big bathtub on wheels. But you’ve got a little kid, so it’s not like you’re spending your nights clubbing. Get the minivan. It’s part of the rite of parenthood.
After dating someone with 3 children I saw the appeal of the minivan. It is much more kid friendly then a SUV. It’s hard to say why, but it did seem to give the kids more space, so less conflicts, room for toys. It’s more of a playroom then a living room, which makes the kids more comfortable and the trip more enjoyable for everyone.
[quote=“kunilou, post:27, topic:555354”]
And this makes them more apt to rollover. If you look at safety ratings, look at the rollover ratings, too. In that regard, a wagon would be safer. I vote you get a AWD wagon. How big are the dogs?
Minivan, all the way. SUVs are supposed to be for offroading and other farm-like conditions. I’ve driven both, and although I miss the 4WD from an SUV, minivan’s aren’t as high profile so they aren’t as prone to tipping over. Front Wheel Drive and chains work well for me in thick snow. I think the biggest downside to a minivan they are all automatics; Good luck finding one that’s a stickshift, you won’t find one. My next vehicle is going to be a stick.
Its way easier to do it in the back of a minivan than an SUV as well, especially with stow-n-go seating.
[quote=“Hanna, post:29, topic:555354”]
Unless you buy new, of course, since most SUV’s are sold with electronic stability systems. In fact, it’s a federal requirement in (IIRC) MY2011+.
Or, you know, pulling stuff.
Not sure what “stow-n-go” seating is, but if you mean power fold flat seating, my own SUV has that, and my current loaner SUV is the extended version with it, too. It’s like a queen sized bed. 
[quote=“Hanna, post:29, topic:555354”]
Just for the record, I never said anything about safety. Somewhere in the quoting process, Hannah’s comment got grafted on to mine.
Balthisar, I beleive stow-n-go seating is a feature on Chysler’s line of minivans, and the seats fold all the way down into little cubbies so that they are flush with the floor.
My bad. Formatting got screwed up somewhere! :smack:
Edit: and it almost happened again.
Snow tires on a FWD vehicle will out perform all season tires on an AWD vehicle.
Well, In Your Humble Opinion. Needs and experience are certainly different for everyone. From what the OP stated, I (an SUV driver) also think that a new family that doesn’t deal with snow much would be better suited to a Mini-Van (IMHO).
I’ve been driving over the continental divide twice every day for 18 years. My experience is that AWD or 4x4 is the only way to go. THEN pick your tires. Some ‘All Seasons’ are complete crap.
A FWD car with snows will get stuck before an AWD or 4x4 with All-Seasons (IMHO, from my experience). As far as performance goes for stopping and cornering, a FWD car with 4 snow tires on it will outperform an AWD with all seasons for stopping and cornering provided that the FWD cars has snows on all 4.
But then, we would have to define performance. For myself, it means getting through deep snow 6 months out of the year. I’ve been driving 4x4’s in Colorado since 1978. And I have had some two wheel drive cars. Four studded snow tires on a 2 wheel drive are no comparison to AWD or 4x4 with any good tire.
Uh, yeah, a mighty helping of IMHO there. I’ve seen many people stuck through the course of a snowpocalypse in Pittsburgh this past year, all in FWD cars. I saw exactly one AWD car stuck - and then found out it was actually a rear wheel drive (pick-up truck) purchased by the University :smack:.
ETA: And studded snow tires on an AWD…is just bliss.
Not my experience, but it’s close. Yet the AWD Outback always got up the snow filled driveway, the FWD w/ snows had to be left at the bottom a number of times. Then again ground clearance may have had something to do with this too.
This seems to be either a distinction you’ve made entirely by yourself or a far from widely accepted distinction. I spent months researching which compact SUV I wanted to buy and read dozens of reviews and articles all of which agreed that a car based SUV was an SUV. It wasn’t even a question. Whether an SUV was car based or truck based is frequently mentioned in reviews, but as an important distinction to consider when choosing an SUV. Nobody ever indicated in any way that it wasn’t an SUV, it was just an SUV that wouldn’t tow as well and drove smoother, which might be good or bad depending on your needs.
In fact, the vast majority, if not all, vehicles in the compact SUV class are car based. It’s not like a few marketing people at play here. All the trade press is in agreement. I’m sure there are a few other people who would like to make the same distinction you have but nobody else seems to.
What about snow tires on an AWD? Is that done? The Sienna’s brochure says that it takes P235/55RF18 run-flat tires. Are we looking at adding another $1,000 to the overall price for a second set of tires? Since it’s got pressure monitoring, will we need to buy extra wheels as well?
Keep in mind that though we’re in NY, there are only (generally) five to seven snows a year, mostly lasting a day or two before the roads are clear (though some of the thought behind AWD is to be there for parking lots, road shoulders, etc.). Do they go on December through March? How many years/miles do they typically last?
Also, given that there are two drive-ins in the area, fold-flat, queen-sized bed areas are very important. Er, assuming we get a babysitter.