Me and my wife are having a second child later this month and we need a car that can fit two car seats.

I was wanting to get a Honda CRV or Toyota RAV4 but they are just so expensive so i have been exploring other options.

I was thinking potentially getting a Nissan Xterra or Pathfinder because they seem to be more reasonably priced and I remember scotty saying that they are actually decent for reliability because it uses the rear wheel drive transmission and Nissan is alright at those transmissions. 

However the Pathfinder comes with multiple engine options of v6 and v8. Is one of those engines bad and I should avoid it?

I also thought about possibly a Mazda 5 minivan, but I'm not excited about buying a minivan obviously. But I'm not completely closed off to the idea.

I'm looking to spend between $5,000 - $9,000 so I am probably looking for a 10 or 12 year old car I would guess. I have the cash to buy outright and I am looking at buying private party.

Any suggestions on cars I should look at? Should I avoid the V8 Nissan pathfinders and focus on the V6 ones only?