Been there done that.

Go for the mini van. The plain utility of a family rig is why they rock.

We had a Chrysler and got the lucky one that gave us no problems.

Best of luck.

Cheers~

We have had three mini vans. One Chrysler and two Honda’s. The Honda vans were great.

I now have a new Honda Pilot nice but I’m wondering if I should have got another Odyssey

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I think these things are ugly as sin. Ugliest thing since the Aztec. And I just plain dislike Ford on General Principles. But my neighbour across the street, when faced with the identical dilemma, went with a Ford Flex. Asked him about it after a couple months of ownership and they're happy with it.

We've had our Flex for 2 years now, it's a 2013 SEL FWD, and have been completely happy with it.
My wife loathes minivans, so this ticks the minivan-ish box on size (with a bit less interior height). It drives like a car, which is nice for in town, gets good MPG & works well with our 2 kids in their large Recaro carseats.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

Once the 2 oldest can buckle themselves it won’t be as bad I keep telling myself.

It won’t be. But I find I miss that age.

I'm going to go with the "buy a minivan" crowd.
My wife loves hers even though we don't transport kids (soon will, though!!). I bought her a 2006 Odyssey from a Honda dealer after looking at cars.com and getting the carfax on the van.

Minivans are often babied by their drivers: ours had documentation of regular frequent maintenance at the dealer, the interior was impeccable, one small ding. It had 85,000 miles on it; needed a new motor mount, and subsequently brakes.

Either a Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna is going to be rock-solid reliable. It's much easier to get kids in and out of a van than an SUV.

Try to get your wife over the minivan hangup. At least as safe, more reliable, better handling (low COG), more economical than a big SUV.

My daily driver is a Ridgeline, my wife's is an Acura TSX wagon, we've got a Mustang convertable for sunny days and when a bunch needs to go someplace I bought a Transit van. 3.7 v6 gets same mpg as the Ridgeline, I look cool as hell driving it and everything fits.

DS, I am curious. Who made that van and what did it cost? Is it rwd?
I like it.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
DS, I am curious. Who made that van and what did it cost? Is it rwd?
I like it.

Ford Transit pretty sure it is RWD and prices vary great depending upon setup.

The Mercedes/Chrysler Sprinter is the same class.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
DS, I am curious. Who made that van and what did it cost? Is it rwd?
I like it.

Ford Transit pretty sure it is RWD and prices vary great depending upon setup.

The Mercedes/Chrysler Sprinter is the same class.

And well out of the OP's $10,000 or maybe a little more price range.

Yes Black nailed it. Ford, very popular in Europe and introduced to USA for mod year 2015. RWD, 5 speed auto I think, maybe 6 speed not sure. Mine is 150XLT window van set up for 10 passengers. Gets under a 7 ft garage door. Drives and handles great. I've had this about a year and 1/2 and paid $24,000 tax included out the door for certified 2015 w/30,000 miles.

Many configurations of cargo or passenger, 3 body heights, two body lengths, 3 suspensions. I've owned and driven E series vans for 40 years and this is a world of improvement over the old econolines and I thought they were pretty good.

Thanks for the advice so far! Its always funny to hear the back and forth between anti-van and pro-van people. I dont have too terribly much of a say in the matter. Once we get out and drive some Im sure my wife and i will both have more solid opinions.

We started looking at more vans but they are either2 to 5 years older and/or all have 50k+ miles more than the SUVs weve been looking at in the same price range. I thought vans would be lower mileage and be cheaper, but it looks like they hold their value well in this area.

I did find a couple Highlanders that could be close within a budget, but its still early to say that is the answer.

quote:

Odyssey

This is your answer. whatever age is necessary to fit your budget. I promise everything else will be worse. Maybe workable, but worse.

Most car accidents happen on the showroom floor.

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:
We love our Chrysler Pacifica. Granted we are in our 60's now, but it is a nice vehicle, the fold flat into the floor seats, allows you to easily convert it into a cargo van when needed.

It easily, and comfortably, holds six seniors heading out for the day.

Same here. We've taken it cross country and over much of the West in the year we've had it. The Stow N Go seating makes it the best van we've owned (first min van was in 1984.)

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
My daily driver is a Ridgeline, my wife's is an Acura TSX wagon, we've got a Mustang convertable for sunny days and when a bunch needs to go someplace I bought a Transit van. 3.7 v6 gets same mpg as the Ridgeline, I look cool as hell driving it and everything fits.

These are pretty cool vans. We have about a dozen of them in our fleet so far. Plenty of power and room, the drivers like them.

I, however, have a huge bitch about the rear brakes. I want to kick the dipshit in the nuts whom designed it that you have to remove the rear axles to replace the rotors. Two of our vans have already gone through the rear brakes in only 12K miles.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
We have a Highlander and a Sienna.
I wish we did not have the Sienna but we have 3 in car seats. Buckling the 2 in the back row is a gigantic pain in the tail. Getting them back there sucks too as the base for the center seat of the second row is always there and you have to step on it.

The Highlander is great but good luck finding one anywhere near 10k.

I would look at the 2008 or older Land Cruiser or Lexus LX 470. They are built like tanks and will easily go 300k plus miles.
I made an offer on a 2007 LX was that a cherry. They balked and I ended up getting the Sienna and they called back the next day.
So with I had the Lexus.

Once the 2 oldest can buckle themselves it won’t be as bad I keep telling myself.

I have zero problems getting the 2 kids in the third row. What I do is put the two middle row captains seats all the way forward which takes about a second and both the kids and me crawl in the back and I buckle them in. Then I slide the two middle row captain chairs back and put the other two in those. The whole process takes me probably 2 minutes. I never even contact that console you mentioned.

quote:

Originally posted by PorterN:
We started looking at more vans but they are either2 to 5 years older and/or all have 50k+ miles more than the SUVs weve been looking at in the same price range. I thought vans would be lower mileage and be cheaper, but it looks like they hold their value well in this area.

Interesting. Are you comparing like brands of SUV and minivans? Comparing a KIA SUV to a Honda or Toyota minivan I would expect your observations, but comparing a Toyota Highlander to a Toyota Sienna I would expect the opposite.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
We have a Highlander and a Sienna.
I wish we did not have the Sienna but we have 3 in car seats. Buckling the 2 in the back row is a gigantic pain in the tail. Getting them back there sucks too as the base for the center seat of the second row is always there and you have to step on it.

The Highlander is great but good luck finding one anywhere near 10k.

I would look at the 2008 or older Land Cruiser or Lexus LX 470. They are built like tanks and will easily go 300k plus miles.
I made an offer on a 2007 LX was that a cherry. They balked and I ended up getting the Sienna and they called back the next day.
So with I had the Lexus.

Once the 2 oldest can buckle themselves it won’t be as bad I keep telling myself.

I have zero problems getting the 2 kids in the third row. What I do is put the two middle row captains seats all the way forward which takes about a second and both the kids and me crawl in the back and I buckle them in. Then I slide the two middle row captain chairs back and put the other two in those. The whole process takes me probably 2 minutes. I never even contact that console you mentioned.

I have a 3rd car seat in the second row and I have weather tech mats which do not allow the seat to slide forward.
I need to replace the rear mats with another brand that allows the seat to slide and may e that will help.
I wish I would have payed attention to the center row a bit better. I would have gone with the Honda since you can have 3 car seats in the middle row.

I wish that someone would make the third row of seats face rearward like they used to with our old station wagons. If that was done with a Sienna, Highlander or Odyssey with AWD I think that would be the perfect people/cargo hauler.

I just bought a 2106 4Runner, but I wanted 4-wheel drive and not AWD. I have had, since 2000, a Durango, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Nissan Pathfinder and the 4Runner, while also multiple vans as company vehicles. Third row in an SUV is really limited; the Durango was the only one that could seat anything larger than a midget or a 5 year old in the third row, and I would hate to wrestle with a car seat in that row.

While looking for this 4Runner, I looked at a ton of SUV's. I could have gone with the Highlander and I can tell you that getting into it would be just the same as a Rav4, at the same height. The Highlander is built on the Camry platform while the 4Runner is on a truck frame.

I have owned Odyssey vans too, nice but I found them very expensive to own and maintain. In your situation, though, I think the Highlander, or Sienna/Odyssey vans are the most reliable, durable and value holding vehicles that you mention.

Subaru is making an 8 passenger SUV called the Ascent. If you end up paying down the other cars and getting a new vehicle, I would consider that one. Financially, it makes more sense if you just buy used vehicles and drive them into the ground, but if you are buying new, the Ascent seems less vanilla than a Highlander or Pilot.