These Are the 2025 Best Cars for Families

by Tim Healey

Published: March 21st, 2025

these are the 2025 best cars for families

For this week's podcast, we're talking about family cars. Maybe you've even shopped for one of these.

We're also discussing onboard diagnostics, the best cars for families, and the wheels falling off with NASCAR in Las Vegas. Also, are NASCAR races too long?

TTAC contributor Matthew Guy and I bat that idea around, and we also discuss onboard diagnostic tools for your car. Alex Kwanten from U.S. News and World Report stops by to discuss their best cars for families.

As always, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts -- or by clicking here. If you like what you hear, please leave a review!

We thank TTAC contributor Matthew Guy, Alex Kwanten from US News and World Report, and Matt Posky for editing. Most of all, we thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time!

[Image: Kia/TTAC/VerticalScope.com]

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#Podcast #TtacPodcast #FamilyCars #BestCarsforFamilies #Nascar #Racing #stuffweuse #ProductReviews #OnboardDiagnostics

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 5 comments

Bd2 on Mar 24, 2025

Shilling for more Kia Payola. Whats new.

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Joe Turnes on Jun 02, 2025

Where are the cheaper to make low feature affordable TWO doors for singles & childless couples just starting out?
There's also a podcast above - 2025 best cars for teens - what a joke also since most arent working or have a drivers license, let alone a car these days.

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Recent Comments

Lou_BC I've had my collision alert come on 2 times in 8 months. Once was when a pickup turned onto a side road with minimal notice. Another with a bus turning left and I was well clear in the outside lane but turn off was in a corner. I suspect the collision alert thought I was traveling in a straight line.I have the "emergency braking" part of the system turned off. I've had "lane keep assist" not recognize vehicles parked on the shoulder.That's the extent of my experience with "assists". I don't trust any of it.
SCE to AUX A lot has changed since I got my license in 1979, about 2 weeks after I turned 16 (on my second attempt). I would have benefited from formal driver training, and waiting another year to get my license. I was a road terror for several years - lots of accidents, near misses, speeding, showing off - the epitome of youthful indiscretion.
Lou_BC Jellybean F150 (1997-2004). People tend to prefer the more square body and blunt grill style.
SCE to AUX My first car was a 71 Pinto, 1.6 Kent engine, 4 spd. It was the original Base model with a trunk, #4332 ever built. I paid $125 for it in 1980, and had it a year. It remains the quietest idling engine I've ever had. 75HP, and I think the compression ratio was 8:1. It was riddled with rust, and I sold it to a classmate who took it to North Carolina.After a year with a 74 Fiat, I got a 76 Pinto, 2.3 engine, 4-spd. The engine was tractor rough, but I had the car 5 years with lots of rebuilding. It's the only car I parted with by driving into a junkyard.Finally, we got an 80 Bobcat for $1 from a friend in 1987. What a piece of junk. Besides the rust, it never ran right despite tons of work, fuel economy was terrible, the automatic killed the power. The hatch always leaked, and the vinyl seats were brutal in winter and summer.These cars were terrible by today's standards, but they never left me stranded. All were fitted with the poly blast shield, and I never worried about blowing up.The miserable Bobcat was traded for an 82 LTD, which was my last Ford when it was traded in 1996. Seeing how Ford is doing today, I won't be going back.
Jeff S I rented a PT Cruiser for a week and although I would not have bought one it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Pontiac Aztek was a good vehicle but ugly. Pinto for its time was not as good as the Japanese cars but it was not the worst that honor would go to the Vega. If one bought a Pinto new it was much better with a 4 speed manual with no air it didn't have the power for those. Add air and an automatic to a Pinto and you could beat it on a bicycle. The few small cars available today or in the recent past are so much better than the Pinto, Vega, and Gremlin. A Mitsubishi Mirage, Nissan Versa, and the former Chevy Spark are light years ahead of those small cars of the 70s.