Minivan or SUV? We Find the Ultimate Family Car

• You might have heard that a minivan is the best family vehicle you can buy
• We put that to the test, pitting one (the Honda Odyssey) against not one, but two SUVs
• Our demonstrations covered how each vehicle works for people, cargo, and even parking

Instead of one of our usual comparisons, we did something a little different. We decided to examine these vehicles in three areas, based on how families would use them, to see where there were (or weren't) differences. Would the winner be the loaf-shaped people mover of my dreams? Or would the SUVs drive right over them? Only one way to find out.

Interior

When it comes to outright spaciousness, the minivan takes the cake, even over the giant Expedition. The room spread across the first two rows of each is similar. Adults will have plenty of room to be comfortable, and I thought initially that the minivan might be taller inside, but after measuring, they're all about 4 feet from floor to ceiling if you measure right behind the center console.

But there are two other aspects we checked out that gave the minivan an advantage: third-row space and access and second-row flexibility. 

Members of our staff with young children stressed the importance of being able to reach back and hand their children snacks, drinks, or whatever else they need while on the road. Both the Grand Highlander Hybrid and Expedition come with captain's chairs that can slide forward, and if you need to reach one child, it's doable if they're on the passenger side. 

But the Odyssey comes with a removable second-row center seat and captain's chairs that can not only slide forward but also inward so you can reach two kids in car seats. And moving the seats inward creates an alley through which you can still access the third row, even with a rear-facing seat installed. 

And once you get to the way back, the minivan's got almost 5 extra inches of legroom over the Toyota (38.1 inches to 33.5 inches) and more than even the gigantic Ford. 

Winner: For fitting people in a myriad of ways, the minivan can't be beat.

Cargo

A quick glance at the raw cargo numbers shows that this isn't really a fair fight from the start:

The minivan has about 50% more cargo room across the board than the SUVs, except for the max cargo measurement against the Expedition, where it's only a 30% advantage. This is where the removable second row of the minivan really comes into play (though we should note that it's not removable in all minivans, like the Toyota Sienna). It allows you to open up a giant, mostly flat cargo area — you could move a sheet of plywood lying flat in the back of the Odyssey if you wanted, something the SUVs can't match.

We measured the cargo openings of each vehicle, and they're about the same width, but the minivan is much taller at 39.5 inches (versus 32 inches for the Toyota and 33.5 inches for the Ford). And behind the Odyssey's third row, there's a deep bin where the seats fold down into, but if they're up, you just get extra cargo room — enough to stand up four golf bags side by side if you wanted.

We also conducted what we call a "people and things" test, because sometimes you have to fill all the rows with passengers and fit all their stuff so nobody has to wear the same outfit three days in a row. Both the Grand Highlander Hybrid and the Odyssey fit all six pieces of luggage in their cargo areas, but the Expedition could not despite having more cargo room on paper than the Toyota. That's because its cargo area wasn't deep enough to lay some of the bags down.

And there's one more important measurement worth considering: load-in height, or how high you'll have to lift something up to get it into the cargo area. The minivan was just 24.5 inches, with the Grand Highlander Hybrid in the middle at 32 inches, and the Expedition way up high at 37 inches, over a foot more than the minivan.

Winner: The "mini" part of minivan is a misnomer; there's nothing small about its cargo space.

Parking

We got perhaps a little bit too ambitious with this test because none of these vehicles is what you'd call small. But we tried to fit them into a compact parking space anyway to see if it was possible to get out without dinging the door of the vehicle next to you.

The Expedition is about 3 inches wider than both of the other vehicles, so the fact that I couldn't get out of the driver's door wasn't a surprise. However, after repeating the exercise in the other two vehicles … I also couldn't get out. Maybe I should have skipped those donuts at breakfast.

The only doors that we could get to open, so you wouldn't resort to having to climb out of the liftgate in the back, were, of course, the doors in the minivan. There wasn't enough room to walk out without closing the doors again first, but still, it beats clambering. And there's the added bonus of them being powered and opening automatically for kids, so they aren't flinging them open into whoever is parked next to you.

Winner: Need I say more?

Results

There are still compelling reasons to buy an SUV: If you plan on going off-road or towing, an SUV is going to be a much better vehicle for those activities. Or if you simply refuse to buy a minivan, that's OK too. My first rule of car buying is to buy what you like.

But it's clear from these exercises that if you want to maximize the amount of family-friendly utility you can get in a vehicle, the answer is the minivan, and it's not particularly close. For fitting people or cargo, it doesn't get any better.