2 years ago we decided to buy a minivan.......
2012 we adopted four kids. We limped along with a 2008 explorer as long as we could.... we hated the thought of a minivan. 2011 my wife was give a minivan to drive her and some coworkers to Wis. for a business trip. She had it for an extra day before they left and we tried it out hauling the kids around. We loved the convenience! We strongly considered a minivan as a viable option for our next family vehicle.
Less then a year later we had our first bio kid. The explorer just no longer meet our needs. So we spent the next six months researching which van we wanted. First we rented a town & country for a family trip to Omaha.
At first glance we liked a lot of the features and design. Te styling looked good and the van seemed to have plenty of power.
The platform met most of our needs, however we discovered a number of things we didn't care for as we tried different configurations. Due to the ages of our kids and the different types of seats we using(i.e boosters, high back child-seats, rear facing baby carriers etc.) we found that the optimal seating arrangement was very difficult due to the narrow third row. I also found a number of "broken" trim panels and other items that were not holding up(granted this was a rental and was probably not handled with the utmost of care). I did like the functionality of the stow and go, but found them a bit cumbersome and clumsy.
Our next targeted vehicle was the Toyota sienna. I had this one in my sights because I liked that it had an available AWD and I like the styling the best. It also had a full second row(3 seats) which was something we knew we would need as we wanted to have a second bio child.
Liked the power, superior towing capacity, and it had a number of cool safety features(one of which was a window sense that would not allow the window to crush your child's hand/head. The newest model year had just come out, so there were plenty of clearance vehicles with nice discounts. Toyota was very great about working on us on getting what we wanted and even gave as a test drive for the entire weekend so that we could fully explore all of the features and try several different seating arrangements. It soon became our front runner.
And then we looked at the Honda Odyssey. I was a little hesitant on this one as it was by far and away the most expensive option. After about 5 minutes with this one, I was sold. We talked the salesman into giving us an overnight test drive so that we could play with the features, and try the different seating configurations.
I really liked this one. The seating is one of biggest selling points. Has the widest third row, and the second row outboard seats can be adjusted to slide to sides for an additional few inches. This is a must if you have a van full of car-seats. The third row was super easy to stow, the second row was fairly easy to stow(took up the most room of all of the vans), but could easily be fully removed. It had the most comfortable and substantial middle seat in the second row. I liked the standard larger rear view camera screen(much larger then the Toyota) and second touch screen stereo. The interior was very well done. Lots of storage, visually appealing, lots of standard features, including a cooled storage compartment for milk.
We decided to spend the extra money and went with the Honda.
We haven't looked back since.
Other advantages of minivans over SUV's:
Lots of room. You have a $#!t ton more room. Especially over the unibody, non-truck platform SUV's(explorer types) To get the same number of cubic feet or more you need to go to truck based SUV's like expedition/Tahoe excursion/suburban ($$$$$$$) type SUV's.
One of the best features i like the most is the trunk. Most SUV's have a flat floor in the back, because the spare and rear drive train are under that, and there is no room for a sunken floor. Minivans have a deep tub-like floor that is great for groceries and actually gives a ton more storage. As many have stated the auto sliding rear doors are perfect! Keeps the kiddos from door dinging other cars and gives superior access to the third row.
I can't stress this enough..... GET THE MINIVAN! not only is it the better kid hauler, but in all actuality is the better utility vehicle. It's main downfalls are towing capacity and lack of AWD, but unless you are towing some big equipment, you will find it has more then enough for most light towing applications, and has way more space then most mid sized SUVs. This is coming from a person who did everything he could to avoid the minivan thing. Don't make the same mistakes we did. Avoid the SUVs, and GeT THE MINIVAN!
2012 we adopted four kids. We limped along with a 2008 explorer as long as we could.... we hated the thought of a minivan. 2011 my wife was give a minivan to drive her and some coworkers to Wis. for a business trip. She had it for an extra day before they left and we tried it out hauling the kids around. We loved the convenience! We strongly considered a minivan as a viable option for our next family vehicle.
Less then a year later we had our first bio kid. The explorer just no longer meet our needs. So we spent the next six months researching which van we wanted. First we rented a town & country for a family trip to Omaha.
At first glance we liked a lot of the features and design. Te styling looked good and the van seemed to have plenty of power.
The platform met most of our needs, however we discovered a number of things we didn't care for as we tried different configurations. Due to the ages of our kids and the different types of seats we using(i.e boosters, high back child-seats, rear facing baby carriers etc.) we found that the optimal seating arrangement was very difficult due to the narrow third row. I also found a number of "broken" trim panels and other items that were not holding up(granted this was a rental and was probably not handled with the utmost of care). I did like the functionality of the stow and go, but found them a bit cumbersome and clumsy.
Our next targeted vehicle was the Toyota sienna. I had this one in my sights because I liked that it had an available AWD and I like the styling the best. It also had a full second row(3 seats) which was something we knew we would need as we wanted to have a second bio child.
Liked the power, superior towing capacity, and it had a number of cool safety features(one of which was a window sense that would not allow the window to crush your child's hand/head. The newest model year had just come out, so there were plenty of clearance vehicles with nice discounts. Toyota was very great about working on us on getting what we wanted and even gave as a test drive for the entire weekend so that we could fully explore all of the features and try several different seating arrangements. It soon became our front runner.
And then we looked at the Honda Odyssey. I was a little hesitant on this one as it was by far and away the most expensive option. After about 5 minutes with this one, I was sold. We talked the salesman into giving us an overnight test drive so that we could play with the features, and try the different seating configurations.
I really liked this one. The seating is one of biggest selling points. Has the widest third row, and the second row outboard seats can be adjusted to slide to sides for an additional few inches. This is a must if you have a van full of car-seats. The third row was super easy to stow, the second row was fairly easy to stow(took up the most room of all of the vans), but could easily be fully removed. It had the most comfortable and substantial middle seat in the second row. I liked the standard larger rear view camera screen(much larger then the Toyota) and second touch screen stereo. The interior was very well done. Lots of storage, visually appealing, lots of standard features, including a cooled storage compartment for milk.
We decided to spend the extra money and went with the Honda.
We haven't looked back since.
Other advantages of minivans over SUV's:
Lots of room. You have a $#!t ton more room. Especially over the unibody, non-truck platform SUV's(explorer types) To get the same number of cubic feet or more you need to go to truck based SUV's like expedition/Tahoe excursion/suburban ($$$$$$$) type SUV's.
One of the best features i like the most is the trunk. Most SUV's have a flat floor in the back, because the spare and rear drive train are under that, and there is no room for a sunken floor. Minivans have a deep tub-like floor that is great for groceries and actually gives a ton more storage. As many have stated the auto sliding rear doors are perfect! Keeps the kiddos from door dinging other cars and gives superior access to the third row.
I can't stress this enough..... GET THE MINIVAN! not only is it the better kid hauler, but in all actuality is the better utility vehicle. It's main downfalls are towing capacity and lack of AWD, but unless you are towing some big equipment, you will find it has more then enough for most light towing applications, and has way more space then most mid sized SUVs. This is coming from a person who did everything he could to avoid the minivan thing. Don't make the same mistakes we did. Avoid the SUVs, and GeT THE MINIVAN!
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