Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Do you really need room for that many people? When you get married and have kids, whenever that is, you may find your needs have completely changed.
For me a minivan would not be practical. I adore my little 2 door hatch (bikes go on top everything else in the trunk). I have a small pickup for hauling brush and messy stuff I don't want in the car (bikes go in the bed).
The little Transits are great in theory, I like them a lot. But I find most vans these days to have poor visibility. I never had issues with large old box vans but now that everything is so aero I can never get happy with mirror placements.
I always liked the older Outback wagons. But only up to 2010 or so. Hate the new Forrester sized ones.
Oh - and like others said - middle aged? Please. Late 50s at the earliest
I agree with this, if it was not for the not so great MPG I would only buy minivans from now on.
Mazda MPV, Kia Rondo those types of cars are really practical.
minivans actually get great MPG. In all highway, I was able to pull 500 miles in one tank of Odyssey. It gets solid MPG for its size.
I prefer my 05 Dodge Durango AWD. It is plenty big so I can toss skis in the back (I ski about 5 to 6 days/week during ski season), and I've never been stuck in the snow. And it is great for runs to Home Depot or Costco.
Granted I haven't driven all the minivans out there, but - if you don't mind driving a boat that wavers and rolls, then the minivan is for you. I just can't get over driving those monsters around (and I have to for extended-family outings). I daily drive an SUV with tight sport suspension. It's only about 25% less practical than a minivan but I'll take the trade-off.
Minivans are awful. Granted if that's what OP or anyone else wants then by all means pursue what you want! I think they're best suited for taxis and uber drivers. My wife and I had one a few years ago and it was a terrible vehicle. Design quality was atrocious. To be fair, this was a Chevy Uplander and as far as minivans go it was probably worse than others, as evidenced by it's short existence as a model.
We now have 2 full size SUVs. The one we bought to replace tomatoes mentioned minivan and the second we picked up about a month ago as my daily driver. I was looking for a ~2000-2002 4Runner but found an 02 Sequioa with low miles at a pretty good price. We do just enough off road/beach driving/towing that a minivan would not be a practical vehicle for us.
With that said, OP if you want a minivan and can afford to do it, go for it! You like what you like for your reasons and you owe nobody and explanation for any of it!
Granted I haven't driven all the minivans out there, but - if you don't mind driving a boat that wavers and rolls, then the minivan is for you. I just can't get over driving those monsters around (and I have to for extended-family outings). I daily drive an SUV with tight sport suspension. It's only about 25% less practical than a minivan but I'll take the trade-off.
A few select SUVs handle well: BMW X5M, Grand Cherokee SRT-8, etc., but the average run-of-the-mill SUV has inferior chassis dynamics relative to a minivan. Handling is very important to me, which is one of the main reasons I stay away from SUVs. I'm not saying minivans are sports cars, but to claim SUVs are superior to minivans because of handling is stupefying. Quite the opposite, in fact.
With few exceptions, there is no "Sport" in SUV. The "Utility" part is conspicuously absent in many as well. But, at least the "vehicle" part is accurate.
I'd bet that if the majority of SUV owners were capable of doing an non-emotion based assessment of their vehicle needs, they'd get a minivan. "I don't like the image" is an emotion-based statement. Claims of inferior interior space and chassis dynamics are simply excuse making.
A few select SUVs handle well: BMW X5M, Grand Cherokee SRT-8, etc., but the average run-of-the-mill SUV has inferior chassis dynamics relative to a minivan. Handling is very important to me, which is one of the main reasons I stay away from SUVs. I'm not saying minivans are sports cars, but to claim SUVs are superior to minivans because of handling is stupefying. Quite the opposite, in fact.
I disagree. While minivans ride more similarly to a car, that alone doesn't make them superior with respect to handling. When we bought our first Sequioa one thing that impressed me about it was the quality of the ride, handling, and maneuverability especially for such a large vehicle.
Quote:
With few exceptions, there is no "Sport" in SUV. The "Utility" part is conspicuously absent in many as well. But, at least the "vehicle" part is accurate.
This is purely opinion. While "sport" is relative with all of these vehicles, the untility (at least with the ones I own) cannot be questioned. It's a matter of lifestyle preference, though. If you're most ambitious goal for your vehicle is to drive for uber then a minivan may be your best bet. A minvan's utility would be insufficient for my family's use.
Quote:
I'd bet that if the majority of SUV owners were capable of doing an non-emotion based assessment of their vehicle needs, they'd get a minivan. "I don't like the image" is an emotion-based statement. Claims of inferior interior space and chassis dynamics are simply excuse making.
Doubtful. If I had a dollar for every time my wife or I said "we wouldn't have been able to do this in our minivan" we'd have paid off our first Sequioa within a year! As for not liking the image, the one minivan I owned was such a prolifically bad vehicle that "image" became the least of my concerns. When it became a safety risk to my children I quickly traded it away for what I could get for it and upgraded to an ininitelt better vehicle.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
