2024 Best Cars for Families

The 2024 Best Cars for Families awards honor the cars, SUVs and minivans that offer the best combination of safety, reliability, space, convenience and connectivity in their class. The awards cover nine different automotive segments, from sedans and compact SUVs to electric vehicles and large SUVs. That means there's a winner for families of all sizes and at all stages of life. Whether your household includes toddlers, teenagers or grandparents, we've found the cars that will work best for you.

How We Determined the Best Cars for Families

To choose our award winners, we looked at 90 new cars, SUVs and minivans from the 2024 model year. Our award methodology combines professional automotive reviews, safety and reliability ratings, seating and cargo volume and the availability of family-friendly features. Within each of the nine automotive classes covered by our awards, the vehicle with the highest composite score is named the Best Car for Families in that category.

See the photo gallery of the winners »

The winners: SUVs and Minivans

The winners: Cars

2024 Toyota Camry Hybrid

Best Hybrid Car

Finalists: Hyundai Elantra Hybrid

2024 Toyota Camry

Best Midsize Car

Finalists: Subaru Legacy

New Car Tech for Families

Many new safety features have been built with families in mind. Rear-seat alert prompts the driver to look in the back seats before exiting the car, helping to make sure a sleeping baby isn’t left behind. Front and rear automatic braking help when maneuvering in spaces where small kids might be tough to see. Teen driver controls help parents keep tabs on new drivers, even when they’re on the road by themselves.

Every Best Car for Families award winner has forward automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist. All winners except the Honda Passport have reverse automatic emergency braking, and you'll find a rear-seat alert in all but the Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Chrysler Pacifica.

Every winner has some form of teen driver control available, which is perfect for families with new drivers. These systems can help new drivers develop good habits behind the wheel and allow parents to keep track of their teen's driving, and in some cases, set limits on things such as speed and audio volume. The Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid and Toyota Camry also earned the highest possible ease-of-use rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for their LATCH car-seat systems.

Connectivity and comfort are also key considerations in the family car market. In-car Wi-Fi, rear-seat USB ports and even heated and ventilated rear seats are now available. All winners feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for enhanced smartphone connectivity, and all but the Hyundai Tucson offer in-car Wi-Fi. The Honda Passport, Kia Telluride, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Chrysler Pacifica all feature rear sunshades to keep back-seat passengers cool, while the Hyundai Tucson, Chrysler Pacifica, Chevrolet Suburban, Honda Passport, Kia Telluride and Toyota Highlander Hybrid offer heated rear seats. Also, every winner but two has more than one USB port available in the second or third row.

2024 Best Cars for Families