Mini vans are perfect for 3 kids.
Kids Are A Little Like Eggs. They Travel Better When You Can Keep Them Separated.
Our Caravan has always done this better than our cars. It still does, even though the kids are now 21 and 14. When the big one is home from college they still have their grabassing moments and are big enough to actually do property damage and inflict great bodily harm, now. Trust me, space is what you need.
Also, I popped out the seats once and some big gorilla kind of a guy with a big wide black extra-heavy-duty looking belt, who I was trying help at the Sears loading dock, told me to stand back as put my new refrigerator in back for the trip home. Also, our piano came home in there, too, but not on the same trip. Without dual sliding doors, it would have never happened, except in my dreams.
We always keep several cars, but I think one will always be a Dodge Caravan or Chrysler T&C as long as they’re available.
CSA
With all of the seats down/removed, some of the minivans can even fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood flat in the back.
The Odyssey I recently inherited was originally purchased for this reason. I drove my uncle around, with a piece of plywood in my truck, to the dealers just so he could check this.
Even though we have only two kids (now in college), our three minivans over the past 20 years were frequently filled with our kids friends and/or their families. This was for soccer, tball, basketball, scouts, movies, birthday parties, skiing, camping, beach, etc.
Traveling with carloads of kids creates memories that will last a lifetime. If I had it to over again, I wouldn’t do it with anything less than a full size minivan. And even though my wife is very glad to finally get back to non-minivan cars, she too would get minivans if she had to do it all over again.
I think anything 4 door will do. Why? I have never had to do it but cannot try to imagine getting to the middle kid in the back seat. If I had 3 to deal with I would have a 4 door something, 2 kids in back and one in the front, and no kid in the middle. We did the minvan thing for 1 kid, and if you are going to do a minivan we found quad seating wonderful. I could not imagine trying to get a child into the bench seat the back. I am jumping to the conclusion you need 3 car seats and that you need to help getting the children into them.
We bought a new 93 Grand Caravan and liked everything about it. It would haul seven people pretty comfortly I don’t remember why we sold it to our daughter but up to 77k miles there was no trouble. They sold it to someone else and I don’t know anything about it after that. We now have a full-sized van and like it very much. It isn’t as economical as the Caravan was tho.
We have 5 in our family and have never needed the roof rack, except for Christmas trees. We have gone to my BILs house (4.5 hours) with luggage for a week and enough presents at Christmas for his family of 6. And one kid sprawled across the back bench while the other 2 lounge in the captain’s chairs. Leather, too - sounds like a limo, don’t it?
A co-worker bought a new Grand Caravan the same year that we bought the new Volvo. He spent $2k less than we did. Six years later when he sold it, he had spent that $2k in repairs and tow bills, times two.
I still have the Volvo. Runs and looks great, 275k miles and counting. Never been towed.
My next door neighbor had similar experience with a Caravan.
I found a lot of value in the 2000 Caravan we have. Purchased used 3 years ago with 60KM and very cheap. So far it has been good to us. Only problem has been a power window switch failure last weekend. It has close to 90KM now. I changed the ATF with recommended fluid twice so far for regular maintenance. The car gets "ab"used on a daily basis for 50+ miles combined city and hwy.Had I wanted a Sienna or Odyssey I would had paid twice for it. I bought a newer Camry for myself and paid a lot more and the kids still don’t like traveling in it. I feel I should have bought another minivan.
Even with the higher chance of repairs if you look at the overall cost of owning a slightly used Dodge/Chrysler for 4-5 years you can end up a winner in the end. They depreciate heavily. My sister in law buys a 2-3 year old one. Drives it to about 80k-100k and resells it basically changing the oil, I believe tranny oil once, tires and a few repairs. She basically avoids the cost of preventative maintenance and has really good luck in her ownership period.
I see her view on the vehicles. She is the definition of soceer mum. She has 4 kids who have games at the same time and some how does it. Her kids trash the interiors making ownership after 4-5 years a non-option as the vehicles are yucky.
Of course! Are you serious? Heck, Americans need a minivan when they just THINK they may be pregant with their FIRST child! Or at least a honkin’ big SUV to drive that one kid around. What are you thinking: that you could put three carseats in any average economial gas-saving compact? It’s the truth, but banish the thought!
As I said in an ealier post, I drive a minivan. However, there is a downside. When you travel, you are tempted to take more things than you really need because you can fit it into the minivan. My son has only one child, now almost 7, and when they travel as a family, the minivan is completely filled, even for a week-end trip. When I went off to college in the late 1950’s, my dad opened the trunk of the old Buick and told me that I could take anything to college that I could squeeze into the trunk. This forced me to take just the essentials: my books, my records, my horn. The non-essentials–towels, wash cloths, change of socks and underwear, etc. stayed home.
This Is America Where People Are Still Free To Choose.
“Heck, Americans need a minivan when they just THINK they may be pregant with their FIRST child!” You bash “Americans”.
I’m just curious. Where is your native country?
Take away freedom and you take away America. You do what you want to do. I’ll do what I want to do. I don’t have a problem with what you do as long as you don’t try and tell me how to live my life. This country is based on this philosophy and is guarenteed by our Constitution.
"What are you thinking: that you could put three carseats in any average economial gas-saving compact? It’s the truth, but banish the thought! "
You can drive one if you want to. I’ll drive what I want. For me I prefer not taking the risk of having members of my family maimed or pureed in some little “clown car”. I absolutely won’t allow anyone in my family to drive or ride in one. The mpg is OK, they just aren’t practicable.
I watch out for my family. That’s my responsibility. Maybe some day when you acquire wisdom and become a parent you will understand. Go ahead, drive whatever you’d like!
America, What A Country!
P.S. We recently heard from the new buyer of one of these little clown cars on this site. Turns out this person absolutely hated the way the thing drove and/or rode and generally felt he had made a mistake buying it. That’s without even considering the safety aspect. What good does it do to save on a little gas if you get creamed in a collision? I’m not sure what you drive, but I hope for your sake you never collide with my van or any of my six other large American cars.
TSM
Maybe this is what she has in mind. (:
Whitey, That’s It!
I think the top photo is a “sub-compact” and the bottom one is a “minivan”. This must be what it looks like in her/his native country.
Thanks. That was great!
CSA
There is NO WAY you can get 3 car seats in the back of a compact, and in many places it’s illegal to have one in the front seat. So, no, she can’t just get by with an “average economial gas-saving compact.”
Minivans are ubiquitous for a reason. They are practical and useful. They aren’t popular for their sex appeal or tough-guy looks.
To be fair, let’s ask the question: otterhere, how do you suggest someone put three car seats in an econobox? They won’t fit three across in the back seat and you can’t put one in the front seat because of the passenger air bag, right? How would you make it work? This says nothing about the poor mother who will have to strap in all three kids while bending over the car seats and hitting her head on the ceiling. Who is going to pay for her physical therapy to correct her back problems? …just curious.
Otterhere has that very narrow minded thought process that the higher the mpg, the more efficient the vehicle is.
On a recent trip I was on, I had an individual comment on how horrible the university I was with was because they were driving Ford E350 vans and not something more fuel efficient. Now this was one person driving a hybrid, we had 14 people plus gear in our van.
He gets say 40 mpg, we got about 16. By my calculations he vehicle would have to get at least 224 mpg to equal the fuel efficiently we had (his 401=40, our 1614=224).
I see your point. A minivan that gets 17 MPG and carries four people at a time uses 147 gallons of fuel per person to go 10,000 miles. An econobox that gets 30 MPG and carries two people at a time uses 167 gallons of fuel per person to go 10,000 miles. Per person, the minivan is even more efficient than my motorcycle, which uses 222 gallons to take me 10,000 miles (I don’t let passengers ride on my bike).
My university gave up its 15 passenger E-350 vans due to safety considerations. We had a student killed when one flipped over and I guess the increase in insurance rates also factored into the decision. Of course, nobody took into account that students were driving the E-350 and that the students decided to change drivers while cruising on the interstate. My institution now has some hybrid cars in the fleet–Honda Civics and now several Toyota Prius. I don’t know that these cars make a lot of sense on the highway where most of the use takes place and one isn’t using the regenerative braking factor. My son, as a college sophomore, drove 15 passenger vans on narrow mountain roads with children in the vans. He claims that these vans are as safe as any other vehicle if the driver uses common sense, and if the driver doesn’t have common sense, then he/she is not safe driving any vehicle. I agree with your mileage analysis based on miles per passenger. A passenger train does even better on fuel mileage per passenger.