Choosing the Best Mom Car is a crucial decision for families. As a mom, you need a vehicle that not only fits your busy lifestyle but also prioritizes safety, comfort, and practicality for your precious cargo – your kids! For years, I’ve been test-driving and evaluating vehicles with families in mind, and the Volkswagen Atlas has consistently been a top contender thanks to its spacious cabin and car seat compatibility. However, the latest redesign has elevated it to a whole new level, especially in the technology department, making it a serious contender for the best mom car title. Volkswagen has revamped its trim levels, offering incredible value even in the base model, and packed it with tech features that rival luxury vehicles, including ambient lighting and a heads-up display. Plus, the 2024 Atlas earned the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award, solidifying its position as a safe choice for families.
But is the Atlas truly the best mom car of 2024? To find out, I put it head-to-head against some strong competitors: the Toyota Grand Highlander, Honda Pilot, and Lexus TX. Let’s dive into a detailed comparison across key categories to determine which SUV truly deserves the crown of best mom car.
Comfort: Which SUV Offers the Smoothest Ride for Moms and Kids?
Comfort is paramount when you’re spending hours shuttling kids, running errands, and embarking on family road trips. A comfortable ride minimizes stress and keeps everyone happy, making it a vital aspect of the best mom car. Let’s see how these SUVs stack up in terms of comfort.
Toyota Grand Highlander: A Smooth and Safe Ride
Alt text: Spacious interior of Toyota Grand Highlander SUV, highlighting comfortable seating and ample legroom, ideal for families looking for the best mom car.
The Toyota Grand Highlander delivers a driving experience that’s truly enjoyable. While I’m not focused solely on performance, the Grand Highlander offers a powerful and smooth ride. Merging onto highways and accelerating feels effortless, yet it’s also nimble enough for city driving, thanks to its available hybrid technology. From a mom’s perspective, the feeling of safety and security while driving with children is a huge comfort feature in itself.
The new Grand Highlander offers significantly more space compared to the older Highlander models. While passenger legroom is adequate, the interior design prioritizes functionality and comfort. Though the interior might not boast excessive luxury with numerous materials and intricate stitching, it maintains a pleasant aesthetic and a comfortable feel, crucial for long drives in the best mom car.
Honda Pilot: Class-Leading Space and Family-Friendly Comfort
Alt text: Honda Pilot SUV interior, demonstrating class-leading passenger space and family-friendly seating, making it a contender for the best mom car for carpools.
Honda boldly claims the Pilot offers “Class-leading overall passenger space,” a significant statement in the competitive mid-size 3-row SUV category. Having tested it, I can confirm it’s indeed more spacious than previous Pilot models, a welcome upgrade for families. For its price point, the interior is remarkably comfortable for both the driver and passengers. This spaciousness is a key factor for moms seeking the best mom car for growing families.
Lexus TX: Luxury Comfort Redefined for the Modern Mom
Alt text: Luxurious interior of Lexus TX SUV, highlighting premium features like heated seats and steering wheel for optimal comfort, appealing to moms seeking a high-end best mom car.
The Lexus TX truly embodies luxury comfort. One standout feature is its climate control system, which intelligently integrates the heated seats and steering wheel with the overall air temperature to create the perfect comfort level. This thoughtful feature ensures you’re never too hot or too cold, enhancing the driving experience. Ample storage in the front row and generous legroom in all rows contribute to the TX’s comfortable and luxurious feel. If you envision a comfortable luxury SUV, the Lexus TX perfectly fits that picture, making it a strong contender for the best mom car in the luxury segment.
Volkswagen Atlas: A Family Favorite Gets a Comfort Upgrade
Alt text: Updated interior of Volkswagen Atlas SUV driver’s seat, showcasing heated and ventilated seats and improved leather and stitching, enhancing comfort for the best mom car.
My biggest critique of the original Atlas was its somewhat basic interior. However, as a long-time advocate for the Atlas as a family vehicle, I’m thrilled with the interior upgrades. Even just sitting in the driver’s seat, the updated interior is immediately noticeable, from the feel of the leather to the stitching details. This upgrade significantly enhances the Atlas’s appeal as the best mom car.
Heated and ventilated seats are now standard across the Atlas lineup, a fantastic comfort feature that isn’t limited to higher trims. Volkswagen’s signature cupholders remain a highlight, easily accommodating large water bottles. The center console is exceptionally well-designed, offering abundant storage, USB-C ports, and a convenient under-bridge storage area. The front cabin of the Atlas is now a truly comfortable and functional space for moms.
Safety: Prioritizing Family Security in the Best Mom Car
Safety is non-negotiable when choosing the best mom car. We examined IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) crash test scores and standard safety features for each SUV. It’s reassuring that all finalists offer excellent standard crash prevention technologies, but crash test performance varied.
TLDR: Safety matters most, and the VW Atlas and the Honda Pilot earned the HIGHEST IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award. This is a critical factor for the best mom car!
- Volkswagen Atlas & Honda Pilot: Both received the HIGHEST IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award, demonstrating superior safety performance and making them top choices for the best mom car in terms of safety.
- Toyota Grand Highlander: Unfortunately, the Grand Highlander missed both the Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ due to average performance in the frontal crash test. This is a significant consideration for safety-conscious moms.
- Lexus TX: The Lexus TX was not yet tested by IIHS at the time of this review. Safety ratings will be an important factor to consider once available.
Car Seat Capabilities: Essential for the Best Mom Car
Car seat compatibility is a major concern for moms. We evaluated each SUV’s car seat features, starting with a perfect score and deducting points based on limitations. Practical car seat installation and flexibility are key aspects of the best mom car.
Toyota Grand Highlander: Car Seat Challenges in the Third Row
Alt text: Toyota Grand Highlander third row showing tether anchor positions that are not ideal for multiple car seats, impacting its rating as the best mom car for large families.
TLDR: No car seat tilt and inconvenient tether anchor positions.
The Grand Highlander loses points due to the absence of a car seat tilt feature and less-than-ideal tether anchor placement in the third row. Positioning tether anchors close together (passenger side/middle) makes the driver-side third row seat unusable for car seats. Placing two car seats side-by-side in the third row is also nearly impossible, limiting its car seat versatility and affecting its ranking as the best mom car for larger families needing multiple car seats in the third row.
Honda Pilot: Flexible Seating but a Narrow Third Row Middle Seat
Alt text: Honda Pilot second row with unique removable middle seat, offering flexible seating arrangements and car seat configurations, a notable feature for the best mom car.
TLDR: Love the removable second-row seat for flexibility, but the third-row middle seat is too narrow.
The Honda Pilot aims to be the “king of the carpool lane,” and its car seat features largely support this claim. The Pilot offers a unique removable middle seat in the second row, providing flexible seating options. This removable seat even has its own set of LATCH anchors! While the third row has tether anchors in all seating positions, the middle seat is extremely narrow, making it practically unusable. Despite this limitation, the Pilot’s innovative second-row seat enhances its appeal as the best mom car for families needing flexible seating arrangements.
Lexus TX: Excellent Third Row Car Seat Setup, but No Tilt
Alt text: Lexus TX third row seating, showcasing comfortable and spacious seats with full LATCH system, making it excellent for car seats but lacking car seat tilt, important for the best mom car.
TLDR: The third row is a 10/10 with two great seats, but lacks car seat tilt.
The TX impresses with its car seat setup, particularly in the third row. The second row is functional but standard, lacking a car seat tilt feature. However, the third row truly shines with two comfortable seats, both equipped with full LATCH systems. This is rare in the midsize SUV category and makes the TX a strong contender for the best mom car if third-row car seat usability is a priority. The lack of car seat tilt in the second row is a minor drawback.
Volkswagen Atlas: The Car Seat Champion for Moms
Alt text: Volkswagen Atlas wide bench seat with three sets of LATCH anchors, demonstrating excellent car seat capacity and car seat-friendly tilt, making it a top choice for the best mom car.
TLDR: We LOVE this setup! No edits needed – we’re obsessed with the Atlas car seat capabilities.
The Atlas remains a car seat champion. The 2024 model retains its impressive car seat features: a wide bench seat with three sets of LATCH anchors, car seat-friendly tilt, and two third-row seats with tether anchors. This setup scores the Atlas exceptionally high in car seat capability, reinforcing its reputation as the best mom car for families with multiple young children requiring car seats.
Technology: Modern Features for the Tech-Savvy Mom
In 2024, most cars offer a suite of standard technology features. All these SUVs are well-equipped with modern infotainment and driver assistance systems. While features like climate control and driver assistance preferences are personal, here are the technological highlights of each SUV that stand out for moms looking for the best mom car.
Toyota Grand Highlander: User-Friendly and Functional Tech
Alt text: Toyota Grand Highlander infotainment screen and user-friendly climate controls, highlighting standard modern tech features suitable for the best mom car.
The Grand Highlander features a large, user-friendly display with standard modern infotainment features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It’s a familiar Toyota system – intuitive and functional but not exceptionally innovative. The physical climate controls are well-placed, and the rear climate controls are easily accessible from the front, a convenient feature for managing kids’ comfort. Strategically placed USB ports are also a practical touch for families in the best mom car.
Honda Pilot: Advanced Honda Sensing® Safety Tech
Alt text: Honda Pilot dashboard featuring Honda Sensing driver-assistive technology, including wide-angle camera and radar for enhanced safety features in the best mom car.
The Pilot includes the updated Honda Sensing® suite of driver-assistive technologies. This system features a new camera with a wider 90-degree field of view and wide-angle radar with a 120-degree field of view. These enhancements improve collision prevention by better recognizing objects, including vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, lane markings, and road boundaries. Expanded blind spot information (BSI) with increased radar range, Traffic Jam Assist (TJA), and Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) are also standard. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Low-Speed Follow and Lane Keeping Assist (LKAS) have been refined for more natural responses. New standard Rear Seatbelt Reminder and Rear Seat Reminder systems are valuable additions, especially for families, reinforcing the Pilot as a safe best mom car choice.
Lexus TX: Luxury Tech and Driver Assistance Innovation
Alt text: Lexus TX heads-up display and sleek, modern infotainment system, showcasing luxury technology features and driver assistance innovations for the best mom car in the luxury category.
The Lexus TX boasts a wealth of technology features. Lexus’s infotainment system has been significantly updated, finally feeling like a true luxury experience. Highlights include a heads-up display, a digital dash, and a large, sleek infotainment system that is intuitive to use. The driver assistance features are particularly impressive, especially the crash prevention technology. The system alerts you if you look away from the road for too long. A rearview camera, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto are also included, rounding out the TX’s comprehensive tech package and making it a tech-forward best mom car.
Volkswagen Atlas: Heads-Up Display and User-Friendly Infotainment
Alt text: Volkswagen Atlas infotainment system with ambient lighting and easy-to-use touch screen controls, including heads-up display, enhancing the tech experience in the best mom car.
The Atlas now features a much-needed heads-up display, available in higher trim levels. Ambient lighting in the infotainment system adds a touch of sophistication, and the screen is user-friendly. However, some controls, like the volume, are integrated into the touchscreen, which may not be ideal for all drivers who prefer physical knobs. Despite this minor drawback, the Atlas’s tech upgrades significantly enhance its appeal as the best mom car.
Value: Finding the Best Bang for Your Buck in a Mom Car
All these SUVs offer excellent overall value for their features and capabilities. The Honda Pilot and VW Atlas stand out as more affordable options, providing considerable value for the price. The Toyota Grand Highlander and Lexus TX, being a larger SUV and a luxury vehicle respectively, come with higher price tags.
Ultimately, the best value aligns with your family’s budget. While higher trim levels and add-ons are appealing, the base levels of all these vehicles are more than sufficient for comfortable and safe family transportation. Choosing the best mom car also means considering what fits your financial needs.
So… Which Vehicle Is The Winner for the Best Mom Car?
Choosing the Car Mom 2024 Car of the Year is a serious decision. Each SUV on this list is an excellent choice for various families and deserves consideration when you’re car shopping.
However, the Volkswagen Atlas emerges as the winner for the Best Mom Car of 2024! What’s not to love? The redesign has truly transformed the Atlas, making it an exceptional and safe vehicle for families. With its outstanding car seat setup, generous trunk space, and enhanced technology, the Atlas embodies what moms need in a superior family vehicle. It’s a fantastic example of what manufacturers should aim for when building cars for families.
What’s your favorite family vehicle of 2024? Share your thoughts in the comments, and for more family car buying tips, explore our other car reviews!
