Personal picks: 3-row SUVs

This month's test group, 3-row SUVs, covered a segment often cited as the family vehicle of choice for many suburban families. The reason? Three-row SUVs have near-minivan practicality but with an adventurous, truck-like appearance. Several staffers here at the track praise minivans as the single, best family vehicle of all time. Yet, at least in my kid-filled neighborhood, I hear parents say over and over, "I know minivans are practical, but I just can't see myself as a minivan driver."

Along with 3-row SUVs, we also tested the redesigned Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. Neither impressed us very much and didn't come close to unseating the perennial top-scoring Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey.

Here are our picks for this month:

Rick Small: My choice here is the Honda Pilot. Being the tallest auto tester (I'm 6' 4"), I appreciate the roomy, comfortable driving position with ample leg and head room. The Pilot is reliable and has a responsive drivetrain. It also has more car-like in handling and ride than many SUVs in this class. It excels in utility by having three rows of seats and being able to carry 4x8 building materials. Finally, it has a decent towing capacity. I would also consider the new Mazda CX-9, since it also has three rows of seats and feels sporty for its size. Its driving position is also roomy. The new Saturn Outlook/GMC Acadia is also worth a look, but the drivetrain tends to shift gears more often than I like.

Gabe Shenhar: After our July '07 group of upscale SUVs, my choice was the Acura MDX. But in this category of mid-priced $30,000-$40,000 models, it's not so clear-cut anymore. Now I would probably choose the Honda Pilot, since it feels very similar to the MDX but costs a whole lot less. Plus, this way I would be putting my money where my mouth is—I've recommended the Pilot to several of my friends and neighbors. (They're still my friends, by the way.) But the Pilot's redesign is right around the corner —the 2009 redesign arrives in early summer 2008—and I'm hoping Honda does away with the column shifter, which was the only thing that bugged me about the Pilot.

Tom Mutchler: My family has owned Buicks in the past—my first car was a hand-me-down 1981 Buick Electra. I also drove my dad's ‘86 Park Avenue to my prom. So driving our Buick Enclave creates something of a disconnect for me, as it is a clear sign of how so-very-far Buick (and GM) has come. This big SUV looks great, inside and out, and handles quite well. I took our Enclave to Pennsylvania with our kayaks in the minivan-like cargo area and found it to be a wonderfully quiet and relaxing way to travel.

Well, mostly. I also drove our Enclave to Lime Rock Park race track for a Skip Barber driving class. There's nothing relaxing about how the 3.6-liter V6 has to struggle to keep the 5100-lb Enclave at speed on hills. Despite having the transmission reprogrammed, it still has to frequently shift two or three gears to keep up, creating big jumps in engine rpm that break the calm and frustrate the driver. Several of my fellow staff members consider this a deal-breaker. A bit of advice: if you're considering one of GM's excellent Lambda SUVs (Enclave/Saturn Outlook/GMC Acadia) and you live where there are hills, make sure your test drive ventures from the straight and flat. Rumor has it that GM will add the more powerful direct-injection version of this engine at some point—it needs it STAT.

So what would I pick? The Toyota Highlander is very, very competent, but I find it downright boring. Same goes for the Ford Taurus X. Sure, the cramped Subaru Tribeca is enjoyable to drive. But the stylish Mazda CX-9 has more room and an earlier trip on the back roads to Lime Rock showed that it's ready for the hills and curves. (Pity about the below average reliability, though.)

Mike Quincy: Since all these models make fairly decent family vehicles, I spent a lot of time in all of them. My young sons loved the rear-seat DVD player in the Ford Taurus X that we drove to Maine. I appreciated the Subaru Tribeca's handling on some of CT's beautiful back roads en route to the Fall Vintage Festival at Lime Rock Park. And the Buick Enclave's cavernous cargo area has made holiday shopping a snap. All of them are remarkably adequate, but none (especially the top-scoring Toyota Highlander) are engaging. However, I like the approach GM is taking with the Enclave/Saturn Outlook/GMC Acadia. With a bit more horsepower under the hood and better transmission performance, these, to me, are the ones to beat. And if GM could put a torquey turbo-diesel engine in them, the bummer of the standard V6's 15 mpg overall might be solved.