I've actually sat in the third row of a RAV4 and its not a place to be if you have legs. It seems like a real afterthought and makes the third row in the 5 seem like a limo.
That's pretty sad considering the RAV4 is Corolla-based the way the Mz5 is Mz3-based. They both weight about the same. Anyway, what I am investigating is finding a bit more room in rows 1 & 2, ability to carry 6+, and as small a difference in cost to fuel as possible. The Dodge Journey is a good jump in space (based off a midsize car instead of a compact car) but the Journey 4-banger is rated 19-25, which is funny, since its the same rating as the 5MT I have but my reality is 23 city and better hwy until you hit freeway speeds.
The Flex drops to 17 city and that is about as good as it gets for anything larger since they all have V6s. Thing is, going from MT to AT will kill my city mpg, and while currently I can expect to do better than rating city, when I go AT (wife's insistance) I will be dropping 2 mpg from rating for city, since the torque converter pretty much never locks up, so it is always bleeding power and therefor using more gas.
So in reality, that 19mpg 4-banger Journey becomes a 17 mpg vehicle max in my reality, while the Flex and anything else somewhat bigger/nicer become 16 mpg vehicles.
I realize most of you live in a suburban setting or at least can hit the freeway or highway to get around, but for us, its all stoplight-to-stoplight. We live life literally 1/2-mile at a time. The only time we get out of this is when we leave town, and currently we take the Volvo for those trips, so city mpg is the prime concern. My wife is beginning to think we should just get a std 5-seater and we would just not take it anytime we all go together. I really like the idea that each vehicle we own can pack everyone, so that we never have to be limited.