So it's time for a new car...here are my choices, opinions?

[moelll]

ever thought of a Ford 500?

the interior is expansive, huge trunk, 5-star crash rating. and soon it would come with a 3.5L V6 so it would be the perfect reasonnot to buy a minivan or an SUV

and there's always the good ol' Aerostar...

[fordfreak300]

I hav actually seen the minivan he has posted up about run in the 14's with a cold air intake and a better exhaust. Crazy from a mini van.

Jeremy put your oldest on the other side of the jetta when you drive put teh baby behind you. Our baby car seat fits in our cavalier just fine. I can have the seat back far enough. Cavaliers are compacts too. I already have the next car seat up when they get a little older and test fit it. I should still be able to have the seat back far enough to have to sit with my knees in the dash. How big of a car seat do you have? We had our kid in a kid sized car seat and fit fine in the cavalier. The stroller we have picked out will fine in our trunk. I am not taking play pens and huge toys and everything else when we go somewhere. And if we decide to go out of town for a few days where need to take those things I will buy a roof rack for a couple of hundred bucks and bingo extra room for the trip. It's all in the thinking process. I ofcourse also told my wife no we would not get one of those portable tv's and dvd players for the kids to watch while on a trip too. I am not raisong spoiled roten kids who think they get to watch a movie just because we are on a car, and then always have to buy new movies for them to watch in the car. Society may be goign that way, but I don't have too.

[ethangsmith]

Why not stay with VW and get a Eurovan?? I mean, rear seating that can face each other? A fold-out table? A rear bench seat that folds into a bed? What else do you need in a van?! If I were to get a van, that's sure as heck what I would get.






No, I'm not kidding either.

[v8only]

i've had vw's for the last 8 years nearly (two 4 year jetta leases). to tell you the truth, they're just fine, but I don't want another. Nor do I trust them for the long run, especially the turbo model I have. I don't want to be stuck working on it.

frankly, this jetta has served as target practice for everyone. My bro in law backed into both dr side doors right off the bat, and ever since (about 3 years) both doors have been banged up. A kid crashed his bike into the other side putting a long groove down the back door. My bro in law bumped his furniture into the front, putting a dent into the fender, and....a dog ran in front of it once messing up the front bumper (and the dog too)

I'm ready to get rid of this beast.

Like I mentioned, I'm ready for this. I've been playing my finances very well. I have no car payment, the jetta was payed off with a recent finance, neither of us have any credit card payments. In fact, all we have is my student loan payment and that damn mortgage.

I'm not financing what I buy, I have a specific budget to pay cash for what I buy, and the vw is not what I want longterm. regardless of could I force myself to fit into the jetta with two kids, Well, sure, anything is possible, however, I just don't want to. frankly, I'd rather be comfortable then squeezed.

I've suggested a mid size auto a billion times, but we have a VERY large extended family, and it's important to my wife that we can take all the little ones in one ride, so that's that.

I keep my bronco, I keep my mustang, I keep my maverick, and next summer I get my 07/08 mustang gt, life is happy

however, I'm with you on those dvd players in the backseats. Family vacations are about quality time spent together, not spent with cinderella. Just about the only thing i'd do with those is to play porn when i'm driving solo to piss off the cars behind me

[eric5oh]

I hate the minivan/suv thing. We bought a Ford 500. More room than a Crown Vic. You can get it in AWD if you want. Love it. Stay away from hybrids. You have to replace the battery pack(s) every couple of years at a cost of $2k, so where are you saving money?

[Evil86lx]

I hate the minivan/suv thing. We bought a Ford 500. More room than a Crown Vic. You can get it in AWD if you want. Love it. Stay away from hybrids. You have to replace the battery pack(s) every couple of years at a cost of $2k, so where are you saving money?

Thats the problem with the hybrids. You save a little in fuel cost but spend twice as much in maintenance cost. Its not economical for the average american with a familyl etc.

It's a wash and the tree huggers can go f!@# themselves.

kyle

[Clarko]

I hate the minivan/suv thing. We bought a Ford 500. More room than a Crown Vic. You can get it in AWD if you want. Love it. Stay away from hybrids. You have to replace the battery pack(s) every couple of years at a cost of $2k, so where are you saving money?

Thats the problem with the hybrids. You save a little in fuel cost but spend twice as much in maintenance cost. Its not economical for the average american with a familyl etc.

It's a wash and the tree huggers can go f!@# themselves.

kyle

Plus those batteries do more environmental damage than a car does.

[black86capri50]

well, i personally hate anything that has the dodge name on it, just make sure the ball joint recall has been done if you buy a durango, it would suck to have the spindle fly off on the interstate, and i'm not kidding, my best friend works for dodge, and after his 20th lower control arm he sold is beloved hemi truck, and bought a ford, just a heads up, and i guess i am with fordfreak on the vw thing, but then again i have 2 vw tatoos on my body, so i guess my opinion is one sided

i just bought the a hyundai for the boy and me, we are only a 2 person family, but it works for me, i went out with cash to buy a new gt, but the carseat wouldn't fit in the back, it was 2 wide for the rear bucket thing, and my tiny 2yr olds head was hitting the roof, made me sick, i went with cash to buy it even ( a stack of 100's) well i left there, went across the street, bought a hyundai, and have been very happy with it

[Ford'sCapri]

the wife has a 91 dodge caravan. we've taken that thing to Florida 3 times and it's close to 180K miles. sure i've had to work on it, it is a Dodge after all, but it's reliable if you don't drive it like it's a mustang (i have a hard time not doing that) we have also fit all 3 kids in back of a 2 door 99 civic with no problem with leg room.(i'm 6-4) tried getting a 00 taurus but couldn't afford it at the time. fits 3 car seats has a huge trunk and isn't that bad on gas. i say if you had to pick one for the wife to drive all the time though, i'd go with the minivan. much safer than an suv.

[Eric86GT]

ever thought of a Ford 500?

the interior is expansive, huge trunk, 5-star crash rating. and soon it would come with a 3.5L V6 so it would be the perfect reasonnot to buy a minivan or an SUV

and there's always the good ol' Aerostar...

Freestyle. Everything the Five Hundred has, and 3rd row seating.

[negusm]

Trust me, the minivan is what you want. There is a reason they are so popular with young families with 2 or more kids.

We have a Honda Odyssey EX. I didn't want a minivan but the sheer comfort and how much easier it made life for us made me a convert. We were using the Toyota 4Runner for a while and it wasn't bad but in comparison SUVs simply suck when you have more than 1 child.

Minivan Pros:
1. Interior space is huge. Seriously HUGE. The kids can sit in their car seats and can't bug each other. We cart the family and have bought furniture and carried it all home with the minivan. The 4 Runner has a back section which is an average space for an SUV but it's simply nothing compared to the minivan. Stow and Go. Words to live by.

2. Sliding side doors. Park your SUV in between two cars and try getting kids in and out of the back seat without smacking the door into the car next to you. It can be done but is not easy. With 2 rugrats to juggle, you simply can't hold onto that door. The sliding doors make that problem disappear.

3. Seating. You get more seating in a minivan. This is a big help when my parents come down for a visit. 4 adults and 2 kids fit very very comfortably in three rows of seats.

4. Ride height. It has a lower height so you don't have to hoist the kids up as high to get them into their seats. This is a BIIIIG deal.

The minivan was simply designed for families. I could never see trading in my minivan for an SUV. Sure it's not great on the image side but screw it....it's so much more a life saver in other ways.

-Mike

[J. Alden]

See, they're for secure guys.

You'll want that DVD player after nine hours on the road. And headphones.

Be singing Disney songs out loud.

[v8only]

wow, did this thread turn out not how I expected it.

as a bunch of hormone raged mustang fellows, I thought everyone would say hemi hemi hemi.

This was all the convincing I needed. I knew i should have gone minivan, but WANTED the hemi.

However, i'm 98% sure to go minivan now, + it'll save me a few grand vs the hemi durango

great post mike, thanks for all those points!

[79 Road Runner]

Now that SUVs are more popular than minivans (and often less useful)... The economy, utility and comfort all add up to a minivan.

See, they're for secure guys.

Yeah, and for guys that are *smarter* than the typical road-raging SUV driving soccer mom. And if you need to feel better about it, rent or buy the movie "Get Shorty."

Sorry if the previous comment sounds like a flame, but when I'm on my bike, those are the vehicles that scare me the most. (Most distracted, least observant, and infrequently curteous).

[J. Alden]

You will still have your toys.

You'll love the van. I didn't want one but my wife made me. It's really her car anyways. I'll always have one now.

Tell your buddies with SUVs they're insecure with their manhood.

[negusm]

I was very anti minivan with our first kid. My wife had the 4 door Camry and I had my Probe GT. When her Camry got totalled, she wanted something bigger and was talking about a minivan. We got the 4Runner since I REALLY didn't want the minivan.

We did allright with the one child for a while with this setup. Then a month or two before my wife was to give birth to our daughter, I sold the Probe to Carmax and we got the Honda minivan. This time around my wife put her foot down since she didn't like how the 4Runner drove like a truck and didn't want another SUV or pickup.

Best decision EVER.

-Mike

[Evil86lx]

well, i personally hate anything that has the dodge name on it, just make sure the ball joint recall has been done if you buy a durango, it would suck to have the spindle fly off on the interstate, and i'm not kidding, my best friend works for dodge, and after his 20th lower control arm he sold is beloved hemi truck, and bought a ford, just a heads up, and i guess i am with fordfreak on the vw thing, but then again i have 2 vw tatoos on my body, so i guess my opinion is one sided

i just bought the a hyundai for the boy and me, we are only a 2 person family, but it works for me, i went out with cash to buy a new gt, but the carseat wouldn't fit in the back, it was 2 wide for the rear bucket thing, and my tiny 2yr olds head was hitting the roof, made me sick, i went with cash to buy it even ( a stack of 100's) well i left there, went across the street, bought a hyundai, and have been very happy with it

Yeah and the VW Passat's have the same probelm with lower control arms falling off.

I work on VWs everyday and there is a reason I dont own one.

kyle

[fordfreak300]

Tell your buddies with SUVs they're insecure with their manhood.

Just because I own an 89 suburban with a 502 in it does not mean I am insecure in my manhood. Just means i wanted another toy

[v8only]

Tell your buddies with SUVs they're insecure with their manhood.

Just because I own an 89 suburban with a 502 in it does not mean I am insecure in my manhood. Just means i wanted another toy

I'm with you, as i've got a gas sucking 4x4 with big tires too.

[mfpmax]

wow, did this thread turn out not how I expected it.

as a bunch of hormone raged mustang fellows, I thought everyone would say hemi hemi hemi.

This was all the convincing I needed. I knew i should have gone minivan, but WANTED the hemi.

However, i'm 98% sure to go minivan now, + it'll save me a few grand vs the hemi durango

great post mike, thanks for all those points!

Why would you want that big ugly hunk of an SUV they call a Durango? Its like Dodge Ram with a topper with down syndrome.

[v8only]

it's not pretty, but imo it's the best the big three have to offer. the expedition gets 10 mpg's, the durango has more power, and gets better gas mpg's. I don't like GM, as my 06 chevy 2500 work truck has had tons of problems and under 10k.

[85vert]

I went through this same thing last year. My wife really wanted a Toyota Sienna. I tried everything I could to get her to look at something else, but she now owns what I refer to as the Starship Enterprise. The Starship is obscenely comfortable to ride in, and completely unremarkable to drive. It is safer than an SUV since the center of gravity is lower and best of all it's big enough that it's no fun parking in the garage which leaves more room for the 'vert

[Capriman86]

We have 4 kids....have had the 97' Mercury Villager (aka a Quest) for about 7 years now. Sitting at 104k miles.

Been very happy with it.


Our next choices are:

-Nissan Quest
-Toyota Sienna

Now ....our van is SMALL inside compared to most...and was the year before
the double sliders came out. But we have done very well with it!

Keep in mind....you can't get your kids spread out FAR ENOUGH.....they need to make plexi dividers to separate them!

I put in an overhead flip down screen, dvd player under the seat and a RF Mod. to send the movies thru all the speakers.....kids love it!

I honestly don't like the durango since the design change....not a pretty truck anymore to me.


Here is a pic of it a few weeks ago when I gave it the spring cleaning

[Clarko]

I had one of those Villagers as my first car. It was odd that it was a Ford/Nissan Cooperation. 3 Rows of seats with the middle ones coming out. When you take the middle seats out and slid the front ones up as far as you can in the up postion, you can fit an entire front subframe for a camaro in there. Lol, I did.
Sold it at 205K, still runnin strong.

[sk83r005]

My parents had the minivan. It was an 03 they bought brand new with 8 miles on it. They owned it for a year. The tranny was nothing but problems. Also, the thing went through break pads like they were made of rubber. We traded it in for my moms Grand Am. With me and my brother and sister being older there was no need for the van any longer. ALso, the van was a pain to do simple maintenance. Spark plugs sucked.

My neighbor has a Durango with the 5.7. It has 130,000 miles on it. Its fairly easy to work on and it sounds great with the aftermarket exhaust system. With that being said, I'd go with the Durango.