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Cars.com

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The bolstered front seats keep you planted in hard corners, but my  5-foot-11 frame could have used another couple inches' rearward  adjustment range. Legroom and headroom in our moonroof-free test cars was good, with  more room for your knees to spread than the CX-5's wraparound confines  suggest. The center console can't swallow handbags like some do, and the  cupholders sit between your hand and the shifter. Throw a water bottle  or Big Gulp in there and it gets in your way.
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There's just 10.3 cubic feet of cargo space when the third row is up. With the third row down, cargo room expands to 42.3 cubic feet, and for my use that was plenty large enough. I stuffed a 32-gallon trash can in the back -- actually two stacked into each other -- and those fit lengthwise with the second-row seats just slightly forward.
The front seats of my test vehicle were comfortable on a long-haul road trip from Chicago to Wisconsin. The second-row seat has plenty of support, too, and all seats have ample thigh support. The second row can slide forward and back, which is most beneficial for third-row passengers.
Modest wheel upgrades add to a car's value, but more personal choices are a likely turnoff.
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Cars.com priced the typical family hauler at $37,000, then asked automakers to provide models at that price that best serve a family of four. Ford would not lend an Explorer during the model-year changeover but Cars.com secured a 2012 model from a broker. The cars went through 230 miles of highway travel, a day of round-robin driving and a day of family driving.  Judges were Kristin Varela, Joe Wiesenfelder and David Thomas of Cars.com, James R. Healey with USA Today, Ben Davis of the PBS "MotorWeek" broadcast and the Koch family of Hoffman Estates: Tarek, Heather (both 38), McKenna, 8, and Bryson, 5.