So tell me about mini vans...

[Erin]

My SUV has like 90,000 miles on it and it seriously has never worked right. I've been stranded too many times to count and my back hatch has never worked properly - I put groceries in my back seat. Stupid GM car. Anyway, my husband mentioned getting a mini van, specifically a Toyota Sienna

Reasons why it might be OK:
-My husband is very tall, and he doesn't fit in many SUV's. We like Toyota but they are too narrow for him or still lack head room. The only sedan he fits in is the Camry Solara Convertible with the top down. Even the Avalon was uncomfortable for him.
-I think we need the 3rd row and it's difficult to get to the 3rd row in most SUV's. I have 2 dog carseats and potentially a baby seat one of these days. My SUV has only 1 back seat and lots of cargo space and it works well with the dogs and their stuff, but I can't see reaching over dog seats to get to a baby seat.
-When we travel (which isn't often) we drive.
-Those automatic doors are kinda cool

Reasons I'm not OK with it:
-It's a mini van!!!
-It's a mini van!!!
-I do love having an SUV.

I would like a Rav-4 but my husband says he would need "one for each foot". His other idea is a Tundra (truck)... that would not be fun with car seats since I would need a ladder!

So people with kids+dogs, I would love your opinion! We are probably a year away from making a decision but I like to plan ahead. We have no idea when our SUV will break for good (and we only have the one SUV, we share a car!) so that's why I'm asking now

[Erin]

I guess that sounded weird - we share the SUV as our only vehicle. We will eventually have to get a 2nd car but for now we just have the one. If it breaks, we always are forced to get it fixed (last time for $3000! again stupid GM) because it's our only car. It's not even worth that any more so as much as I am dreading a car payment, it's probably a better choice to get something newer that doesn't constantly break!

[chattiesmom]

I drove Chrylser Mini Vans for years. In fact I smack dab wore out 3 of them while I was in "driving the kids all of the the place" mode. The last one was a Town-N-Country LE. It was a spectatular minivan. I used it for hauling kids, dogs, groceries, the wrestling team, the tennis team, Quincy the Miniature horse, hay, you name it, if it fit in the van it went with us

When it needed a new engine at just under 200,000 miles, we sold it and I purchased my Mini Cooper.

[chattiesmom]

I would like to add that the T&C Mini Van is VERY comfortable for long trips. We drove from Michigan to Maine, from New Mexico to Michigan, and from New Mexico to Georgia several times.

[carmengamble]

I am only 20 and we recently purchased this 1993 Toyota Previa mini van to take on long road trips and save the mileage from our new car! (It's the old Sienna)! I think the Sienna's are great! Let me just tell you about our van!

We purchased it in October, it has absolutely no problems, it runs wonderful..automatic transmission, great engine sound, rear diff is great. Everything is wonderful on it!

We took it to Chicago at the end of October for one weekend. If only you knew how far it is to Gurnee, Chicago from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Well if you don't, it's 21 hours! We drove straight there, slept, went to fright fest at the six flags there and drove straight home! In one weekend. The van is a work of art I tell you, it's amazing! Not a problem still.. soo..

In December, we drove it to Los Angeles, 27 hour drive. We drove straight there, stayed for 10 days, and drove straight home. Still, no problems at all. Get this - It has 400,000KM FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND. I hope this convinces you to stick with a Toyota because they are truly amazing! If you don't like Toyota, try Honda, they are great as well. Japanese made cars are supposed to be A LOT better than domestic vehicles.

I have attached a photo of our beautiful van. It is definitely not the prettiest vehicle (the sienna is a HUGE improvement), but it's amazing! I couldn't be happier with it. Sometimes I would rather drive it than my new Lancer! By the way, our next new vehicle will, without a doubt, be a Toyota!

PS - If you like SUVs, how about the Toyota Highlander? I love it, it's gorgeous, and still big! The new ones seat 7!

[carmengamble]

Oops!!

[Ivy Lucille]

We have a mini van and have had it for 12 years. Personally, I have gotten to where I hate to drive it because it feels to big. lol I know, I'm weird. You are use to an SUV so I doubt that would be an issue. But honestly, a mini van is the most practical vehicle that you can have. Especially with kids and carseats--and dogs with carseats I could never understand people's adversion to driving one but to each his own.

We still have our mini van and now my kids are almost 13 and 16. We don't have carseats to deal with anymore but we do have friends and aging inlaws. Very practical. The automatic doors are cool-----we don't have them

My husband has a pickup truck and I finally convinced him almost 2 years ago that I needed a smaller car. We still have the van too. He likes driving it and we use it when we all 4 go anywhere.

[tsurc]

We bought a mini-van in December 05 (Dodge Grand Caravan)...never thought I would be a mini-van mom but once I saw how much room it had and how good it drove, I couldn't think of a reason not to get it...especially since we were taking frequent 13 hour trips to New Orleans to see my hubby's family. Our sons are 12 and 8 and we have plenty of room for them, a couple of friends and all of our stuff when we go on trips. About a year ago hubby's car died so he is now driving our fun-times van and I, my Trooper.

[DvlshAngel985]

Originally Posted by Erin

Reasons I'm not OK with it:
-It's a mini van!!!
-It's a mini van!!!
-I do love having an SUV.

I TOTALLY feel you on this one. I know everyone here is a minivan fan, I would only drive one out of necessity.
I personally like fast cars, and any cars that discourage passangers (less weight more speed). Please consider I am only 23 and have no attachments to hubby's or kids or anyone.
Have fun car shopping! Don't settle and pre-negotiate online, you usually get a better deal that way. HAVE FUN!!!

[TatumsMom]

Originally Posted by Erin

Reasons I'm not OK with it:
-It's a mini van!!!
-It's a mini van!!!
-I do love having an SUV!

I hear ya!! I've driven a Tahoe for the last 10 years (3 different ones) and I don't think I would EVER drive a mini-van. I just can't help thinking of the "mini-van mom" stigma. But I know that's silly and I know several people who have them and love them.

On the other hand, when gas was getting so ridiculously priced, I was thinking of downsizing to a car (mostly because I drive at least 100 miles a day commuting to work) but I was having SUCH a hard time thinking about giving up my SUV. Then I found a car that I really loved and finally convinced myself that it would be okay until I realized how upside down we would be on the loan and that the car payment would be about $700 (yeah, right!!) with the remainder of my Tahoe tacked on. So I guess I'll live with my Tahoe a while longer..... it's got over 100,000 miles now on it and that's usually about when I trade them in. We're gonna try to hold on to this one a little longer though.

Have you tried a Suburban? You could do the bucket seats for the 2nd row - that makes it easier to get to the 3rd row back seats. Just a thought.

[Cares4Dogs]

I had a mazda tribute....I wouldnt buy another. I did get trapped in high water and flooded it. I almost got trapped in the vehicle and had trouble getting the drivers side window down because the vehicle just died and the drivers side got wetter first and the window wouldnt budge. I crawled out a passenger window.

Things got wet that shouldnt have and I only got about 60k miles before I decided to trade it in. Everything was making noise.

I have a toyota now-After owning one for a few years now, I will always put my $ into a toyota. Toyotas run forever!

[romeos mommy]

i have a ford mini van w/200,000+ miles. it is not my only car , but it is great for shopping. i just bought 9 x 12 area rugs and popped them in the back. i can transport anything. especially dirty garden stuff like flowers and mulch bags. plus.. if you are an outdoors girl you can camp with a mini van and an inflatable mattress fits right inside.

i used to have the "mini van fear". i don't have kids , but the darn thing is so practical and handy!

plus .. you don't have to pay extra for suv/truck insurance.

[kcook323]

We just recently got a Toyota Sienna. My dh was DEFINITELY not a mini van person. He rode in a friends van and he was so impressed with it, we went and looked at them together and ended up going on home with one. I personally had been lusting after the GMC Acadia. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Sienna. Now, keep in mind, I was coming out of a Nissan Altima that had many miles on it, riding around three growing kids and a grandma. We always had to take two vehicles to church. Now we can all ride together and carry Maximus with us!

[hugz4all4]

I have a had a mini van since my 4th child was born and we had outgrown the traditional car. lol. I was not happy. . But I do have to say I Love them now and wouldnt own another kind of vehicle. My first one was a dogde and it was old when we bought it and it lasted us another 5 years. It had well over 200,000 miles on it. We travel to PA, canada, and Va frequenlty and it never let us down. Had tons of room, built in car seats and it was comfortable.
2 years ago we bought a new one, a brand new ford and it's even nicer than the first one. The options that they all have now are amazing. We have a dvd player for the kids, set up to play games systems on, awesome stero system etc. Has enough room for all 6 of us and my 2 little dogs that we take with us everywhere, it hauls my pop camper, the back seat folds down compelety flat (like the bed of a truck) so you can haul just about everything. I couldnt ask for a better vehicle.
Good luck!!

[Erin]

Originally Posted by kcook323

We just recently got a Toyota Sienna. My dh was DEFINITELY not a mini van person. He rode in a friends van and he was so impressed with it, we went and looked at them together and ended up going on home with one. I personally had been lusting after the GMC Acadia. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Sienna. Now, keep in mind, I was coming out of a Nissan Altima that had many miles on it, riding around three growing kids and a grandma. We always had to take two vehicles to church. Now we can all ride together and carry Maximus with us!

That's what happened - we rode in a friend's Sienna a while back and my husband really liked it. (Of course, I think he liked all of the TECH toys - nav, dvd, ipod jack) I just thought it was OK, but I'm comfortable in many cars. But my husband is a big guy and part of the reason we only have 1 car right now is because he truly does not feel comfortable in most cars. He's tall and if he feels like his knees hit the new wrap around consoles or the center console he will immediately get out and say no way. Every time my car breaks we typically go car shopping while it's being fixed and we never find what we want. We checked out a used lot that had 13 different makes/models of SUV's, everything from the BMW to Hyundai and nothing really worked.

Originally Posted by TatumsMom

Have you tried a Suburban? You could do the bucket seats for the 2nd row - that makes it easier to get to the 3rd row back seats. Just a thought.

Yeah his dad had a Suburban and it is comfortable, but GM is going to have to do an awful lot of "restructuring" before I will ever consider buying another GM car. I have had nothing but problems with my Pontiac. GM put bad/underpowered hydrolics on my back hatch so it doesn't open if the weather is below 40 degrees. I've called all the way up to the top and they refuse to do anything or even acknowledge a problem. Everything from my seat heater, sun roof, etc. broke in the first year. It wasn't so much that it happened but their attitude about it. Last summer I had it towed 3 times and it has likes 80,000 miles on it. Apparently, GM used an inferior seal on the 2003 models (and some others). The seals are incompatible with the coolant, failing at about 75,000 miles and costing $3000 in repairs. Sadly, when this happened the first time I asked them to make sure they got ALL of the seals since it's the labor you pay for because they have to take the engine out but the seals are like $5. Anyway, they didn't, so 2 weeks later I was back with a 2nd repair. The dealer acted like they would help us out (with the cost, since it was in NO WAY our fault and a common known issue and should be a recall) but they were jerks when we picked up the car. After months on the phone for GM they reimbursed us for a VERY small portion of it. I'm still paying for the repairs. Oh and then I had a random issue where my ignition just broke. No warning, it just wouldn't allow me to put the key in one day and I had to pay for a tow to a locksmith and a $200 new ignition tumbler whatever. So yeah, GM is not an option for me and it has nothing to do with gas milage!

My mom had a Pontiac mini van that she took great care of, and it lasted 10 years and nearly 200,000 miles but nothing worked on it and it barely made it to the dealer's lot to trade for something new. It looked new but it was falling apart. I know of people (like carmengamble) who get double that with Toyotas. I can't afford to spend another $30,000 on a crappy car to be patriotic. I already did that and look what I got! 5 years later my car is worth $4000. Talk about disposable So yeah, we really want to make the right decision this time! Plus I think we will look for one about 2 years old so I don't want it to break the second it gets out of a 3 year warranty

I looked at the Highlander and all of the Toyota SUVs but my husband doesn't like them (too narrow) and the back seats are inaccessible IMO. Fine for small kids in a car pool situation, but I wouldn't want to climb back there to put dogs in car seats.

I love the idea of the fold flat back seat. My Aztek is actually on a mini van chassis but it has SUV doors and no 3rd seat, so I have a HUGE cargo space. (when I can open the hatch!) I can fit 6 of those HUGE plastic bins back there and 3 more in the back seat. I can fit my dog stroller, big crate, and multiple suitcases back there and a cooler. I might need the cargo space more than I need the 3rd seat, but it would also be nice to leave the dog seats in the way back so that I don't have to remove then when people ride with us. We do have the camping option too but we've only ever used it at the Drive-in Movie Theater to avoid mosquitoes (The Aztek has a tent that attaches to the back of it - yes I bought a car for a $200 tent package. And I don't camp. It was also the car in Dark Angel! Yes I'm doing my research first this time! )