I was listening to the show via podcast recently (so I’m not sure of the date) when the mom of a toddler who has twins on the way was calling for advice on what kind of car to buy. They needed to accommodate three car seats but didn’t want an SUV (environment) and would not be caught dead driving a mini-van. She thought a VW bus would be cool.
Click and Clack tried to gently tell her that she needed to think more about the needs of her family over being cool and recommended the Honda Odyssey. She wasn’t very enthusiastic.
I was very impressed with the brothers’ diplomacy. I wanted to (figuratively) reach across the airwaves and smack her for being so sanctimoniously clueless.
Signed,
Still driving my large, uncool vehicle that I bought to accommodate my twins+1 and their car seats that is not nearly as nice as a Honda Odyssey but at least it’s not a VW bus.
*disclaimer: VW bus lovers, please don’t flame me. I have nothing against VW busses. Click and Clack just said on the show that they are a “death trap.”
VW buses are vans. They were eventually folded into the minivan genre as the Vanagon, Eurovan, and now the Routan. What is the difference between the of bus and the newer models? The newer ones are not underpowered, they handle reasonably well, they are safe to ride in, and their engines are not prone to overheating.
Why is it that the people who NEED a minivan won’t even consider them? Is she expecting a Fiesta or Focus to hold 3 car seats in the back? And she wants an underpowered tin can like the Bus? Does she think her knees will be excellent crumple zones?
I was reading this car question (not really a question), and I wanted to (figuratively) reach across the internet and smack Leajmom for thinking what is best for her is best for the caller.
Really, Leajmom, if something like this is all it takes to upset you, you need to learn how to relax.
bscar, Ford used to make a nice Taurus wagon with a folding third row seat. Since children in the third rear-facing row (sitting over the rear axle) always seemed to vomit, it would be the perfect car for the caller.
Not much of a GM fan, but I’d own one and put some performance mods on it. Just to see the look on their face knowing they got beat by a grocery getter.
Whitey, are you just a troll? So I really should be ignoring you, right? Do you even listen to the show? I never said my gigantic heap of vehicle was right for her. My vehicle is not that great, but it is the best I could do under the the circumstances to have a reliable vehicle that would accommodate the twins and their sister safely without spending too much money.
I would be thrilled to drive the vehicle that Click and Clack suggested, even though she turned her nose up at it because it wasn’t COOL. The brothers tried to explain to her that perhaps she should be more concerned about the needs of her family than being cool, but I don’t think it sunk in. How to look cool driving a mini-van will soon be the least of her worries.
I had twins, it isn’t something you plan. But it was pretty cool somedays and just nuts other days. Since twins are the same age you need two car seats, a big double stroller (or 2 regular ones) and at least half again as much gear as one child.
This means you do need a bigger vehicle. I managed with a full size station wagon and when gas prices zoomed (Jimmy Carter was president) a '71 VW camper bus. This wasn’t about “cool” it was about gas prices going from about $.30 per gallon to $1.50 a gallon and the specture of gas rationing too. At the time the VW wasn’t that much less safe than anything else, all those old cars were death traps by modern standards. The VW bus was certainly was less safe then, and by todays standards completely unsafe now.
So, forget the romance and coolness of a VW bus. If I had infant twins right now the 1st vehicle I’d look at would be a Toyota Venza. Similar crossovers are available from other manufacturers, but you need something pretty big. Finding “coolness” in a vehicle is totally subjective so she is on her own on that score.
The Ford Flex is the perfect vehicle for her if her budget can handle it. It is more like the classic station wagon and has tons of interior room, while handling more like a car.
A hiker friend of my wife had a VW camper van and she vividly remembers 10 years of being stuck by the roadside with all sorts of problems. Many Americans were CONCEIVED in those VW vans (complete with “Peace” symbols), and listen to their parents’ nostalgic hippy ramblings, and then want to own one of these themselves!
Leajmom, yes, I listened to the show, and although I disagreed with the caller, I didn’t feel a need to “reach across the airwaves and smack her.” That, I think, speaks volumes about you, and I was mocking you for your unchecked emotional response.
Big deal. The caller thinks cars you would love to own are uncool. Why does that bother you so much? Why make such a big deal, unless you’ve got the emotional intelligence of a 5th grader?
I've always been trying to figure out what kinds of cars would be "cool" to drive. When I was in high school, my parents had two cars: 1) a 1954 Buick with a V-8 engine and a standard shift. 2) a 1952 Dodge coupe with a 6 cylinder engine and the old "lift and clunk" semi-automatic transmission.
Most of the time, I had to drive the Dodge, even though I thought the Buick was more "cool". The Dodge was green and one time I made fun of the car in front of my dad and called it "The Green Turtle". He responded, "Well, you are lucky. How many of your classmates get to drive a "Green Turtle". Many of my classmates came from wealthy homes and had really expensive cars to drive.
Well, the "Green Turtle" name stuck and that Dodge became "cool". I found that I would rather drive the Dodge than the higher performance Buick. The Dodge became an in-car. Besides, I thought the "lift and clunk" transmission was better on a date than the the manual transmission Buick (we had bench seats in those days). I guess a car is as "cool" as you want it to be.
I went through the same thing in 1989 when my father bought a pea green 1969 Dodge Dart for my brother and me to drive. We named the car Sherma, after the Sherman Tank, because it was, by 1989 standards, a tank of a car. It too had a bench seat, and I eventually came to appreciate the “coolness” of that car. I even came to appreciate the one classic rock-n-roll station I could find on the AM radio, especially when they played soul music on weekend mornings.
I never tried. We lived in Dallas at the time, and although I might have been able to pick up stations from that far away on particular nights, once we found that one station, thats where the dial stayed.
This reminds me of the story about ZZ Top’s song, Jesus Just Left Chicago, which, if I remember correctly, was written on a night when the guys were in New Orleans and listened to a Chicago AM blues radio station.