I drastically changed my mind after reading up about the cars we were interested in on the www dot ancap dot com dot au when we recently upgraded. For us, safety comes first. We bought a demo and saved thousands in doing so.

As for a car to fit three - I could not go without my VZ calais wagon - much more space than the current sports wagon and until I can find anything remotely on par space wise, I can't bear to part with it. I personally wouldn't go with a 4wd for space due to extra running costs (larger tyres = more $$ to replace etc).