The Best Family Cars of 2025: Parents.com Awards Winners Offer Some Surprises—and Some Delights
Which are the best cars for families? Which ones accommodate kids, car seats, gear, pets, and of course, are comfortable for parents? Which fits the budget and leaves room for all the other things that we love to delight our kids with—music lessons, sports leagues, bonus classes at Mathnasium?
It’s a tough question, especially since most families have many of the same needs but can have widely different criteria for what matters most. So Parents.com, in partnership with A Girls Guide to Cars and a panel of expert car reviewers who are also parents, take on the challenge each year and review all the possible vehicles to award the best cars for families.
For 2025 these are the Parents Best Family Cars Awards, which were announced at the Chicago Auto Show.
This story is 100% human researched and written based on actual first-person knowledge, extensive experience and expertise on the subject of cars and trucks.
How Parents Best Family Car Awards Are Decided
There were more than 180 cars considered for this year’s awards. That’s a lot of cars to consider for any awards program, but we’re all parents; we know how to tackle unwieldy things.
Using the criteria we consider as buyers of family cars—value, space, flexibility, important features—as well as the various lifestyles families live, from city living to those who seem to never leave their cars, we evaluated the entire field, dividing it up into 24 categories and assessing all the cars in each group.
And then, our expert judges, all parents, car reviewers, and journalists, got busy considering each one and casting votes. Our panel of judges includes:
- Christina Branman, Mobile Mama Reviews
- Teia Collier, owner of Modern Family Driver
- Omar Rana, founder of Omar Drives
- Kelly Stumpe, The Car Mom
- Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis, Auto Pacific
- Scotty Reiss, founder, A Girls Guide to Cars
These are the 2025 Parents Best Family Car Awards winners.
Best 3-Rows SUVs and Minivans
The winner of Best Overall Minivan, the pinnacle for many families and for family cars, is the Toyota Sienna. We love this family staple for its all-wheel drive option, full-time hybrid performance, and for 2025, the addition of a vacuum cleaner and coolbox. But those things are just the icing. Toyota designed this car as if it’s what they drive, too.
Other winners in this category include: Kia Carnival, winner of Best Hybrid Minivan for its redesign that includes hybrid fuel economy; Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban for Best Full Size 3-Row SUV for the redesigned and better than ever full size SUV from Chevy.
The Chevrolet Traverse won for Best Mid Size 3-Row SUV for its fully redesigned and re-thought 2024 model, which now has more truck-like vibes and standard features. And the Ford Expedition won for Best SUV for Car Seat Configuration for its incredible moving seats in all 3 rows. No one ever has to touch each other. Ever.
Best Mid-Size SUVs
Not all families want or need a 3-row SUV or minivan; for many a mid-size SUV is a perfect fit. For 2025, the Chevrolet Equinox, which was just redesigned with more spoiling features, a larger frame and more passenger space was named Best Mid Size 5-Passenger SUV.
A surprise to many of us when it was introduced, the Hyundai Kona went from a cute compact to a better looking, better functioning car for families (and you can choose, gas or electric!) and was named Best Compact SUV. The perennial family favorite, the Subaru Forester, was named Best Crossover.
Best Luxury SUVs
Just because you’re toting kids and the dog doesn’t mean you don’t want or need luxury, right? And the Parents panel didn’t overlook all the luxury entries. Winning for Best Luxury Full-Size 3-Row SUV is the ever-popular Cadillac Escalade, which pampers passengers with a salon-like interior and the driver with hands-free highway driving and a luscious curved glass display.
Winning for Best Luxury Mid-Size 3-Row SUV is the redesigned Buick Enclave which might be described as a mini-Escalade for its own glass display, floating center console, and leather seating for 6.
In the Best Luxury 5-Passenger SUV category, the Genesis GV80/GV80 Coupe takes home the prize for its renewed SUV and the introduction of the coupe design making it tough for buyers to choose between them; they are both so beautiful.
Best Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
This might be the hottest category for all the new cars and all the cool features; anyone who wants the best new tech is looking at electric cars. And, it was no surprise, that the Best Electric 3-Row SUV/Van award went to the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, a universal favorite its incredible interior space, seating, and clever features (massaging front seats in the entry-level model!).
But families who don’t want a van are not left out. The award for Best Electric 5-Passenger SUV went to the Honda Prologue, a spacious and fun electric crossover that has won the praise of critics across the industry.
The award for Best Hybrid SUV went to the redesigned and newly-iconic Hyundai Santa Fe, and the perennial favorite Volvo XC90 took home the prize for Best Plug-in Hybrid SUV for its T8 plug-in hybrid model that offers all-electric driving when you want and gas power for those longer trips.
Best For Adventures and Off-Roading
Adventure has been a big topic for families in the last decade as so many quest to put down our electronics, get off the pavement and off the grid. The award for Best Adventure SUV went to the Toyota Land Cruiser, redesigned with adventure in its DNA, from its heritage looks to its endless accessory offerings.
For those who need the comfort and capability of a pickup truck, the award for Best Family Pickup Truck went to the Ford F-150. With options from rugged to luxury to monster truck jam dreams, the F-150 does it all IRL.
And when adventure is all about the pavement, the award for Best Family Sports Sedan went to the redesigned Porsche Panamera, which is essentially a four-door version of the Porsche 911: Agile, fast, and fun, with seating for four.
Best Value Vehicles
For some buyers the value is everything, and car makers compete to deliver. The award for Best Value SUV went to the Chevrolet Equinox, which notched a second win this year. The Best Family Sedan is the Toyota Camry both for its value—sedans are known for delivering better value than SUVs—and its style. With a new hybrid engine, a roomy rear seat and a solid set of standard features, the Camry remains a family favorite.
Toyota notched a second win with the Best Car for a Teen Driver award for the Toyota Corolla. We love this compact best as a hatchback perfect for making that home-to-dorm move, as well as Corolla’s top-notch safety features, comfy cabin and skater style that feels fresh and hip.
Parents Best Family Cars Awards for Technology
With so many tech innovations and new systems, we had to look at this separately. And there is a lot to consider. For some tech will be the goal, for others, it will be a deciding factor. Our judges were won over by Kia’s advancement in its in-car multimedia system, awarding it with the Best In-Car Multimedia/Entertainment System award.
Not only is the system redesigned and better than ever (it was good before) but now “Hey Kia” voice-activated assistance is rolling out in Kia’s cars and SUVs, and it’s particularly great in the Carnival. Even passengers speaking softly in the 3rd row can ask the system to adjust the cabin temperature or radio station.
Overall though, General Motors wins for Best In-Car Family Technology for the overall approach to technology: every car and SUV has a new multimedia system with “Hey Google” voice activation, customizable multimedia screens and multiple apps that can be added to the system.
Adding to the multimedia systems up front are the screens in the back, for which the Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban won for Best Rear Seat Entertainment. In a time when many car makers are eliminating rear seat screens, Chevy doubled down with well-equipped screens that have both pre-installed streaming systems, Google, and HDMI that allows you to bring your own.
Phew. There’s a lot to consider, but so many great options. See the full report and more details at Parents.com. And happy family car shopping!
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