Suddenly I need a minivan

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
That sounds like looking into

I need something that gets pretty decent fuel economy. I live 10 miles from a store in the woods

we go to church 30ish miles away three times per week as well. Fuel economy is of the utmost importance right after safety of course!

Wow, I had no idea so many SUV's had that much seating! One child will still be in a booster seat as well and those are bulky. The other two are good with belts thankfully.

I am NOT looking forward to shopping though. I always have good luck finding what I need, but UGH I just hate it with a passion!

Thanks for all the advice thus far everyone

bluesub, what's the gas mileage like with the Odyssey?

 

[goobhen]

I do not have one, but the Hyundai (hope that is how to spell it) minivan/suv is supposed to be one of the highest safety ratings, and fairly decent gas milage. Chrysler Caravan, supposed to be minivan/svu, seats a bunch, not sure about the MPG though... Good luck with the three new kids and shopping for a new vehicle!
Actually God bless your family!

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

We need a 15 passenger van really, but I hate them. We have 2 Toyota Highlanders and those are GREAT for us. 4 carseats, 3 are rearfacing and 2 booster seats.

 

[LiLRedCV]

Congrats on your new additions! And what timing for looking to buy! End of year sales are coming (if they haven't already started) and you can find some great incentives out there. (Although, if you can wait until the middle of Dec, they sales incentives will get even better!)

I'm not a mini-van kind of person either (prefer LiLRed convertibles!), but I've owned two of them. Both were Dodge Grand Caravans.

First one, was 1999 more of a base model with 300 miles on it when we took possession of it. We bought it 'cuz we had to lemon law our 1999 Isuzu Rodeo (fully-loaded with heated leather seats). Timing wasn't so great tho' as there weren't really any incentives. They had to bring this van up from another city and drove it up since it was cheaper than shipping it and one of their employees needed to pick up another vehicle in our area. We had issues with the wiring harness where the dashboard kept flashing at us like a disco-tech. Took the mechanics awhile to figure out what the problem was tho' and they only did when I managed to catch it all on video and played it for them. Made more sense to them that way as opposed to our trying to explain it ('cuz it didn't always happen). Had to have 2 replacements, but they were done for "free" 'cuz it was under warranty and a factory issue. Not so bad for daytime driving as you really didn't notice it so much, but at night? Holy smokes!

In the 1999 model, we had one automatic remote controlled sliding door. This was real nice for when your hands were full of something and couldn't really open the door without setting everything down! Wish we'd gotten the second sliding door back then, but we were too cheap and it was a new feature... It seated 7 (kinda tight tho', much more comfortable for 6). Also, we had to physically take out the seats (bench middle and bench back) whenever we wanted to haul something a car couldn't, but the van could. Mighty inconvenient - especially if we went down to visit family and wanted to go places with them, we still had to take a second vehicle. We also started having serious transmission issues at just 60k. We got rid of it then.

Didn't want another van, but since we were still raising Service Dogs and planning to have more kids (which neither one turned out not to happen for us due to medical reasons), we got another (2005 SXT model). Like this one far better! We've owned it since it had only 3 miles on it and we put most of those on it ourselves when we were test driving it. It has 2 automatic remote control sliding doors and the hatch is also on automatic remote control. Mighty, mighty, mighty convenient when your hands are full and it's inclement weather outside! Don't know of any SUV's that have this option.

The '05 also came with an electric sun roof, 6-disc in-dash DVD player, CD player, cassette player, etc. Essentially everything except heated leather seats (which I didn't want anyway). ALL of the rear seats fold down into the floor boards instead of having to take them out. Nice for traveling so when you get to your destination and unload, you still have your seats to accommodate people if you want to go somewhere together. Again, seats 7, but much like the previous model we had is much more comfortable for 6. And with the SXT you get more "trunk" space. We also have the luggage rack on top.

Given the timing of the buy of the '05 model (end of year clearance), we ended up paying $4k less for this van than we did for our first 1999 base-model one!

We also chose our mini-van for it's 6 cylinder, 3.8 liter motor and the potential towing capacity compared to the others. Mileage is slightly better than an SUV with a 6 cylinder motor and we've not had any issues mechanically with this one even at a shy 130k miles! (we do a lot of road trips!) If you need to tow something, you can get one with a towing package or add a U-Haul tow pkg on later.

 

[caspernc]

We have had a ford expodition since 2001. It has 190k on it and seats 8 VERY well with groceries and book bags. They used to call me the little blue bus at the middle school. Still driving it as a feed truck or a big Sam's club day. A survay just came out that more people in bad accidents survived in a SUV than an other vehicals.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

My parents have a Toyota Sienna. This is actually their second one. My sister now has their first one and it is still going strong. Both will seat 7 plus have cargo space aplenty. Both are a pretty comfortable ride. I'm not sure what gas mileage is, but it can't be too bad. Both parents and my sister are really frugal people.

Good luck!

 

[conny63malies]

My husband bought me a 2001 Ford Wind Star . It had 152k(sounds a lot i know,but it was 1st owner and ALL recipts are with the van) We took it on a 1300 miles (one way) trip to Florida in August. I love my van. It is a sports model(or so) and has all bells and whistles. best thing , it was only 3200$!!!!

 

[stoopid]

We have the Dodge Grand Caravan, highly recommend it.
But we call it "the Manly van". Feels a little better calling it that!

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

I second the Honda Odyssey. We recently bought one after my Explorer died. It is very comfortable, has a lot of get up and go for those freeway miles, is quiet, easy to clean, and excellent on gas. I took a trip to California about two months after I got it. I put 18.5 gals in and went 435 miles on that tank and could have gone more but I wanted to NOT run out of gas. The downside is I do not like the automatically opening doors. They are slowwwww...LOL

 

[debilorrah]

Cindi the Ford Flex holds 6 passengers comfortably. Probably more because it is REALLY roomy inside. The seats come out to for hauling stuff.