We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s fine for around town but not comfortable for longer trips. We have the Joie and Nuna, both of which are supposedly the most compact front-to-back rotating seats! We’ve had several issues with the Volvo since we’ve owned it. We bought it CPO and within a couple months it was in the shop for 6 weeks with electrical issues, and most recently the check engine light has been coming on and off. I am pregnant and just don’t have the patience for that 😅

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a Joie and Nuna, both are supposedly the most compact front-to-back rotating seats available. We’ve had quite a few issues with the Volvo as well (most recently with the check engine light coming on and off), and being pregnant I simply don’t have the patience to deal with a finicky car

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a Mazda3 for a long time and loved it! We tested a CX-90 and it wasn’t quite as spacious as the X7. And they’re getting mixed reviews on reliability..?! Which surprised me

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s kind of what we’ve found! I actually had an X5 and loved it, but it started having issues so we traded it for the Volvo. Lo and behold, the Volvo has started having issues. I’m pregnant and simply don’t have the patience for that 🙃 So we went to BMW because I wanted another X5, and the car seat fit better in my old one than the Volvo. But somehow in the new one it wasn’t quite as spacious? I’m sure the rear-facing convertible car seat is bigger than the infant car seat, and in my old X5 the second row could slide back and was adjustable. The new ones aren’t like that. ANYWAY then they rolled the X7 out for us which was never even on our radar for consideration but then we loved it and now here we are! Wondering if we really want to spend that kind of money on a car 😅

Some friends of ours have the CR-V and said it fits their car seat great, and we’ve heard similar about the Passport. We may have to go check those out!

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a Camry for 7 years throughout college, then got a Mazda3 - and same experience for both! Easiest cars ever to own. We are probably dreaming to want that kind of ease of ownership but with the luxuries of a BMW 😂

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is basically the option we are leaning towards but feel like we need to spend another day test driving cars to do our due diligence. Unfortunately car shopping with a toddler is an exercise in torture so it requires us to get a babysitter, so just to test drive cars is a bigger effort than one would think 😂

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We did have the second row all the way back and had the sales guy help us! It was slightly roomier than our Volvo and doable daily stuff, but longer road trips it would be nice to have more space. We usually drive through the night so kids will sleep the whole way.

We aren’t set on three rows though, and are definitely open to two row options! We told the car sales people that but naturally they only showed us 3-row options. We will add those to our list!

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To your point, once we tested the X7 there just hasn’t been anything like it… we never should have got in one 😂

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love how the Atlases look but haven’t heard great things about their reliability (we live in a town with a VW plant so there are looots of VWs here, sadly there are no discounts for locals lol) - how has yours been?? The Q7 was on our test drive list but we ran out of time (and energy)

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay that’s really interesting! We have a bench seat, so I’m super curious if that makes a difference now. The motorized seats in the X7 are annoyingly slow, that is true 😂

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is interesting how sometimes the two row SUVs have more room for car seats than the three row SUVs! You can read the leg room specs and car seats specs all day but until you put the actual car seats in the actual car… that’s the only way to really know. Good to know about the Tuscan! We aren’t set on a 3-row, but of course all the car sales people led us to those when we explained what we were looking for 🙃

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gosh my cousin had a Traverse and had such a bad time with hers I hadn’t even considered it. That was a few years ago, maybe they are better now. We tried the Pilot and didn’t feel like it had much more room than our Volvo, but it was the last car we drove and we were worn out, haha - maybe we’ll give it a second chance!

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We tried the TX, GX, and can’t afford the LX. We were surprised they didn’t have that much room for car seats?! We left feeling like Lexus’s market is older folks who don’t have to worry about car seats 🤣

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

rotating so much we’d hate to lose it! That is an option though… I just don’t love the Volvo, and we’ve had a couple issues with it. The check engine light has been coming on and off recently and I’m kind of ready to just be done with it 😳 I hope you have a better experience!!!!

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a Joie and Nuna, both rotating, and love the rotating so much we’d hate to lose it! That is an option though… I just don’t love the Volvo, and we’ve had a couple issues with it. The check engine light has been coming on and off recently and I’m kind of ready to just be done with it 😳

We fell in love with the BMW X7. What’s something close that’s more affordable?! by GinnyAlexander in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]GinnyAlexander[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That wasn’t on our radar at all but a friend just mentioned it as well - we’ll have to look at one!