We went through all of this in December 2018. I don't know how much you travel or if you're planning on a second kiddo, but we outgrew our Explorer once the second kiddo hit the ground. We made it work fine for 7 months, but it just seemed to get pretty tight. We travel most weekends and even though we had the 3rd row folded down the majority of the time we drove it, it got tight with bags, stroller, diaper bag, etc. etc. and we weren't even in the age of needing to haul a kids bike yet.

We test drove all of the mid to big size SUVs and ended up in a Tahoe (wife's initial "want"). We absolutely loved the Atlas EXCEPT for the rear air vents not being in the ceiling. With two kids in car seats with Texas summers, unfortunately it was a deal breaker for us. Air vents in the ceiling was the one and only thing we wouldn't compromise on when buying a vehicle. Shortly after we got the tahoe the new expeditions came out....sure wish i would have looked into that, but we're happy with what we have.

The 2019s were out when we bought my wife's 2018 tahoe. It was still considered a "new" vehicle but was a demo. "New" meaning it still had all of the warranties and everything that a new vehicle has since it was never registered to anyone. If you can find any demo models, they'll tend to work pretty well on the price for you. We got 20k off of sticker with our demo that only had 7k miles. I'm not pushing the tahoe in the slightest, just make sure you look at the small things (airvents) and the big picture (another kiddo).

Thank you for pointing that out. Those air vents don’t seem like a big deal but that is the only gripe I have about my dads 4Runner it takes forever to cool off in the summers