New car features every parent needs to know about

When you are having a baby, the products and various other items you’re told you’ll need – and will work miracles for you and your baby – is never-ending!

Shopping for a new car can be similarly overwhelming, not just because there are so many new functions on board these days, but your priorities naturally change with a new addition to the family – be it your first baby or your fifth.

Even simple items such as built-in window blinds are worth considering, so you’re not driving along worrying your child is getting cooked by the harsh Australian sun.

Or rear air-conditioning vents so you can keep bubs in the back at the right temperature in all seasons.

Whatever your budget, there are features in new cars that will make parenting life more enjoyable and easier for all families – and some are more important than others.

I’ve tested many of them with my family over the past seven years as a mum of two, family car journalist and founder of BabyDrive.com.au, so here’s my list of the top new car features for parents and some great cars that have them…

When you have finally got your baby to sleep on the 40th lap of your suburb, there is nothing worse than the fuel light coming on and having to stop the engine to get fuel (waking them up in the process).

Or having finally loaded the kids in the car and all their belongings, then set off only to find you have to go to the fuel station and unload them all in and out of the car again.

Most new cars have the ‘distance to empty’ clearly displayed on the driver’s display so you can plan your fuel stops for when the kids are not in the car. Or pop out once the kids are asleep at night and refuel ready for the next day!

Some electric cars go a step further as when you set your destination in the navigation system it will tell you how much battery you will use to get there, how much you will have remaining for the trip back and where you can make charging stops along the way if necessary.

A great feature within the media screen of the five-seat, fully-electric Hyundai IONIQ 6 is the ability to see how much battery you have left and the distance you can go with the air-conditioning on or off so you can plan your family’s journeys accordingly.

The IONIQ 6 will fit three Infasecure child seats across and a twin pram in the generously sized boot. Legroom is very good and a 186cm-tall driver can sit in front of rear-facing child seats or infant capsules.

The next thing to worry about with your little ones is whether they are too hot or too cold and with our hot Australian summers, the temperature in the car can get dangerous – especially for little ones.

More and more brands have their own smartphone app and internal modem so you can adjust the climate control of your car remotely and cool or heat your car before getting in.

This can alleviate a lot of anxiety for parents and eliminates those awful few minutes of every car journey in the summer when you get in and the seats are too hot to sit on, making everyone hot and distressed.

The Polestar 2 is a fantastic five-seater fully-electric car for families with an easy-to-use app. You can use the Polestar app to start the climate control remotely so that you get a comfortable temperature in the car before taking the kids anywhere near it.

Once you start the climate control remotely, it will give you an estimate of how long it will take to cool or heat to the set temperature.

You can also set a timer for the climate control and set it to repeat daily or weekly, so families can know their car will be the right temperature every morning for daycare and school drop-off, and again for pick-up in the afternoon!

Being electric, the Polestar 2 can do all of this while plugged in to save on battery usage and does so without the pollution and safety issues around idling a petrol or diesel engine.

Good storage throughout all rows of seats in your family car will be essential as your kids need somewhere for their water bottle, snacks, tablet, book and whatever else they bring in the car.

In the front, you will also need somewhere for your caffeine and somewhere for the endless snacks and distractions you’ll be passing back to your kids! All cars have basic storage but some storage solutions in new cars are game-changing for families.

The seven- or eight-seat Nissan Patrol currently has the best central console box, which in the top-spec Ti-L has a cooling function so you can keep lunches and drinks cold.

In all variants, the Patrol has an ingenious double-hinged lid so it can be opened by second-row passengers if need be. It’s really helpful as kids can help themselves to snacks and drinks, meaning you’re not constantly passing things back and forth.

The popular Hyundai Palisade seven- and eight-seater family SUV has dual cup holders in each of the rear doors, so little passengers can easily reach their drinks and snacks while driving along – saving you the arm-breaking job of passing them backwards and forwards!

The Nissan Pathfinder also has this great feature, and the Kia Sorento and much smaller Toyota Corolla Cross also have single door-mounted cup holders.

A practical family SUV, the five-seater Kia Sportage has a lot of good storage for families. The standout feature is the iPad holders in the back of the front head restraints, so your kids can watch on tablets while driving along.

There are even USB-C sockets on the side of the front seats for charging these devices too. It’s a game-changer on long journeys to be able to pop a movie on!

Safety is of utmost importance when buying a car for your family. One of the technologies making its way into new family cars is an exit warning system, which alerts (or even prevents) you when trying to open the car’s doors if a cyclist or vehicle is approaching from behind.

This is great feature for families, making it much less likely for kids (or frazzled parents) to throw the doors open and hop out into the path of unseen hazards.

The new Kia EV9, a fully-electric seven-seat SUV, has a child lock button on the driver’s door control panel which locks both the rear windows and doors automatically. The car won’t let you unlock the child lock no matter how many times you press the button if it senses anything coming up alongside the vehicle.

The five-seater Volkswagen Tiguan and seven-seater Tiguan Allspace have a safe-exist assist feature as standard. There is an audible alert to warn passengers there is a bike or vehicle approaching from behind too.

Music, podcasts and audio books are a constant for our family, whether it’s feelgood tunes on the way to daycare or school drop-off, festive sing-a-longs at holiday time, or stories for the kids on longer journeys. Of course, there also those rare occasions when you get to listen to something for yourself!

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are fantastic for parents because they connect your phone automatically to the media system of the car so you don’t have to fish around in your bag for your device and plug it in while the kids impatiently make DJ requests.

You also don’t have wires hanging in the footwells of the car and you get seamless access to your phone’s navigation and messaging apps on the move too.

The Audi Q5 is a great five-seater SUV for families. It fits three Infasecure child seats across the second row and a twin pram fits in the boot for families with two young children.

The Audi Q5 supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and, even if you don’t use either of those features, it has a lovely modern media system that makes it easy to access podcasts, audio books, music and navigation!

One of the biggest anxiety producers for parents when driving is seeing the sun glaring in on their little child’s face.

Having strung sarongs, towels, jumpers and anything at hand across the car door or trapped in the windows to block the sun over my parenting years so far, I can tell you that cars that come with built-in window blinds are a godsend!

I am relaxed from the get-go and often wish there was some safe and legal way to have them in the front too!

There are aftermarket options available but they’re sometimes ill-fitting, can fall down or you forget to install them only to find yourself on the motorway wondering when you can stop safely and do so.

The Nissan X-TRAIL is very practical for families with lots of great features, and it stands out as one of very few mid-size family SUVs available with built-in rear window blinds.

You can manually raise them at the start of the journey knowing your kids are shaded from the sun and you can still open the rear windows and leave the shades up.

Although it is not in every family’s budget, the Genesis GV80 is a fantastic luxury seven-seater packed full of amazing features to make family travel effortless.

The window blinds are my favourite of them all as they are electronically controlled, so you can raise and lower them – separately from the windows – from the driver’s seat using the window controls in the driver’s door control panel.

Media system entertainment may sound like a marketing gimmick, but when moving kids around constantly it can be these things that make difficult drop-offs and tired pick-ups more lighthearted and fun, so it’s not an everyday grind.

Getting to school pick-up 20 minutes early so you don’t have to park three blocks away, then waiting with a tired younger sibling in the car to entertain means having access to YouTube, drawing and games apps in the car’s media screen is a sanity saver!

The fully-electric five-seater Tesla Model Y mid-size SUV has a whoopee cushion mode, which I guarantee will stop any toddler tantrum and make any grumpy grade 2er laugh on a hot school pick-up!

The Tesla Model Y’s media screen also has Netflix, YouTube, built-in games and a drawing app. All are very popular with my kids and Solitaire is a favourite of mine too (just quietly)!

The Ford Everest media system is nice and modern, has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as a drawing app which is handy for keeping kids entertained when waiting at pick-ups.

A spacious five-seat family SUV, the Volvo XC60’s media system is great for families, it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with Google Maps and entertainment apps including YouTube and Spotify.

You spend most of your early parenting life watching your baby like a hawk to ensure they are okay, and it often feels difficult to have them facing away from you in the back of the car for at least the first six months of their life (and ideally up to four years for maximum safety).

Not being able to easily see what your little ones are doing or being able to check they are okay can be a source of driver distraction for parents.

You can get mirrors that attach to the rear head restraints so you can see bub’s reflection in them from your rear-view mirror while driving. Getting one that is a good fit is essential otherwise they fall off all the time!

Some cars have conversation mirrors that give you a wide-angle view of the rear seats, which can help, but even better are rear-view cameras! These are a game-changer and allow you to see all your kids (forward- and rear-facing) in the media screen while driving along.

The Hyundai Staria eight-seater people-mover is a very spacious option for large families and has a fantastic in-built camera so you can see your rear passengers easily while driving.

Having eyes in the back of your head means you can relax more and concentrate on driving.

The large seven-seat Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV is a popular car with families and has a great rear-seat camera aptly named ‘Fam Cam’.

You can see into the second- and third-row seats and you can press on a seat on the media screen and get a zoomed-in view of that passenger. This zoom function is fantastic when you have little bubs rear-facing so you can easily check they are okay from the front seat.

Just when I thought conversation mirrors were on their way out, here comes Honda with its latest CR-V and a conversation mirror which, even better, is cleverly integrated with the ceiling-mounted sunglasses holder (another feature that is becoming increasingly rare)!