Top 5 Family SUVs

Published on 25 August, 2026

Looking at the best movers for your brood in the affordable price zone

Overview

SUVs have, for a good long while now, been the most popular type of vehicle for car buyers – and that means there’s a simply baffling amount of choice out there, at all price levels, body sizes and levels of badge prestige.

So if you’re looking for a good-value SUV as your main form of family transportation, we’ve cut through all the market noise and have picked out five of our favourites, available for between €25,000 and €40,000.

BMW X3

The outright prestige choice. It used to be the case that only BMW’s larger X5 was good for families, but over the decades it has been in service, the more compact X3 has evolved to the point that it is now all the SUV most families could reasonably need. Not only that, but for the lucky parent installed behind the steering wheel, the X3 is one of the sharpest SUVs to drive, so it’s good fun on the right roads. For the money specified, an excellent example of the Mk3 version with a smooth and torquey 2.0-litre turbodiesel will be the most likely find, although you could happen upon the ‘30e’ badged plug-in hybrid if you’re lucky.

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Cupra Formentor

What we’ve offered you here is the most overtly stylish, handsome and sporty SUV of the lot in this group, so it’s ideal for those families who perhaps view a more traditional, upright machine as a little too blocky and staid. The brilliant Cupra Formentor is superb to drive and has a lovely interior, especially if you can get one with the funky petrol-blue leather upholstery. Yet it doesn’t sacrifice all interior practicality for its rakish looks and car-like stance, as the Formentor has a decent boot and plenty of rear-passenger space. Your cash is going to secure one of the 150hp 2.0-litre diesel models, which is a proven and reliable drivetrain. Whether you’re going for the pre- or post-facelifted car, you’re getting one eye-catching family chariot.

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Hyundai Tucson

Korea’s showroom superstar is the Hyundai Tucson. It has been the country’s top-selling vehicle of them all, year-on-year, for pretty much all of the 2020s so far and with good reason: it looks fantastic, it has a gigantic and bounteously equipped interior, it drives in a wonderfully refined and charming manner, and there’s a range of efficient powertrains offered with a strong emphasis on hybridisation. There are simply hundreds of examples of the Tucson available on the market these days, so whether you want a diesel, a petrol, a petrol-hybrid or a petrol plug-in hybrid, in this price bracket the Hyundai has you comfortably covered.

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Kia Sorento

If you’ve got a bigger family and need to carry more than five people onboard, then some sort of three-row, seven-seat SUV is going to be the choice. And they don’t come much finer than Kia’s Sorento. The best thing about the Korean machine is that the sixth and seventh chairs in the very back of the cabin are usable for adults as much as they are for kids, so the passenger compartment is properly versatile and spacious – as well as being, naturally for a Kia, well-equipped. The bottom end of the budget will get a good Mk3 with the lusty 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine, making it a great tow-car to boot, but push further towards €40,000 and early examples of the current Mk4 come into play, complete with an advanced plug-in-hybrid drivetrain.

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Toyota RAV4

The RAV4 has been around since 1994, but over the years has morphed into a bigger, more capable SUV. The budget allows for an example of the Mk5, which has a handsome and angular exterior, a spacious cabin and surprisingly spry driving manners. Buying a RAV4 is also a straightforward business: all versions sold here were either hybrids or plug-in hybrids, so you simply choose whether you want to plug the car into the mains overnight or not and go from there. Every version came with an automatic transmission, so there’s no worry about selecting a manual gearbox, and if you want it, you can even find the Toyota with four-wheel drive, making an adept vehicle for families that need a car that can cope with a variety of conditions all year round.

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About the author

Shane O'Donoghue

Shane grew up in his dad’s garage in Cork, sparking a lifelong love of cars. After studying engineering in the UK, he turned to motoring journalism in the late 1990s. He now runs CompleteCar.ie and a motoring editorial agency, writing for top outlets like CarsIreland and Carzone.