 UPDATE: My husband now uses this car as his company car and we put a ton of miles on it in the last year. We travelled to Disney last week and discovered a dead battery one morning when trying to start up the car. We realized this was the original battery at well over 100k miles! Jumped it to get home and got a new battery, even though the mechanic said we could possibly clean it up from the corrosion and keep it going for awhile. Other than that, which is better than expected wear, we have had no issues with this car.If you want the space of a minivan without the stigma and are not into a gas guzzling SUV, this is the vehicle for you! We have three large dogs and two kids, so when we need to take the entire family, fuzzy butts and all, on a long trip, we don't have much of an option. The quote, "We are either a minivan family or a Flex family", was the seller for my husband who hates the idea of driving a minivan but also happens to be 6'7". He can sit in the second row and still have leg room. He was sold on that alone, but the retro look of the boxy wagon, while widely appealing to me, was not on his short list of replacements for the minivan. Now, don't get me wrong, you will lose space in this option over a minivan with sto and go seating, but it is the best option we have found that doesn't make my husband feel like a total domestic loser. I loved both, the minivan with it's sliding doors and massive interior, and the flex with the appealing exterior (IMHO). I liked the minivan better from the capacity, but for an everyday car, the Flex is a much better option. The ride is comfortable and getting 7 people in the car when the in-laws come to visit keeps us from having to spill into two cars to get anywhere. As for the missing interior space, well, the roof rack and tow hitch were a must after trying to take the kids and the dogs on a 10 hour drive. We were going to trade in our current Flex and purchase another one with those options, but opted to add on a hitch from U-Haul, which was much cheaper, although the hitch placement is too low and we routinely scrape bottom with a load on it over humps. I would opt for a dealer-installed version which cuts out part of the plastic bumper and sits higher on the frame.