Another minivan or used larger SUV, trying to decide

[marymoo86]

We have a minivan but it's on it's last leg and we rented a vehicle to take on our road trip to Florida. We waited too long to reserve something and were stuck with a Yukon. There was barely any cargo space at all. I had to leave the stroller behind (which was just a city mini single, nothing big), and even then it was a tight tight fit with only a rock n play brought along as baby gear. I can fit a ton more in my minivan then we were able to fit in the Yukon.

There are enough new features out that I am definitely buying new and my minivan is a 2012 (but it's a Dodge Caravan and pushing 130k miles.) Some of the features blind spot,etc. were really nice in the Yukon we rented, though, so I maybe would consider used if you can find something with them. (in our case our youngest is 3 months so we'll buy new because I'll be driving a ton of kids around for a long time to come.)

Were you using the 3rd seat? I have a Tahoe and the cargo space is huge but we don't use the 3rd row.

[doberbrat]

I love my minivans. When I was looking, the only cars that had as much usable cargo space was a yukon xl or suburban xl type thing. SUVs often have curves in the rear that make the cargo space inefficient. Plus my sienna has much better mileage than an suv (though not great!) and insurance was less.

For hauling of people + every day stuff, I prefer a minivan

[AngB]

Were you using the 3rd seat? I have a Tahoe and the cargo space is huge but we don't use the 3rd row.

Yeah, we have 4 kids now plus my mom came so all the seats were used.

[carolinacool]

I can’t speak to whether you want a minivan or a large SUV. However, between DH and me we’ve only ever had one new car, a Nissan Maxima that DH bought in 2000 when we were still dating. We have bought our last four cars from Carmax and have had really good experiences. I had a Nissan Altima that I kept for about 7 1/2 years until we upgraded to an SUV a few months after DS was born. I kept that Murano for about 8 1/2 years until early last year when it started having some trouble. But by that point, it was essentially a 12-year-old car. We decided to go ahead and trade it in for a newer Murano with more bells and whistles and safety options. DH bought his Altima (do you see the Nissan theme? Lol) in 2011, I think, and it was about two years old, and it’s still going strong. I’ve actually known several people who bought from Carmax and I haven’t heard anyone say that they had any issues.

[kdeunc]

I drive a Suburban. It has a ton of cargo space. There is no way I could size down to the Tahoe. You lose a ton of cargo space with the 3rd row in use. I would be ok with buying a used Suburban. Mine is a 2007 that was a dealer car with 5000 miles on it when we purchased it in ‘07. It now has 195,000 and other than standard maintenance we have put less than $2000 into it for any issues.

[hellokitty]

Lol, I am your twin. Our kids (all boys) are the same ages and I was in the same pickle. Had two Honda Odys in a row (wanted the side curtain airbags) and when my 2009 Ody started to have small nagging issues I wanted a new car, but I was just sick and tired of the minivan thing, even though I loved my odys. I went with the subaru ascent. I love to drive my ascent (it is so fun, we used to have a ford explorer and it was NOT fun), but for kid gear (my boys do band, baseball, travel baseball and cross country), it is definitely a tighter fit than my ody. We often bring a pop up tent with us to travel baseball, plus cooler and stay at hotels, so luggage. The car is packed tight, in my minivan, bc the cargo space has more height, this was less an issue. I thought I'd miss the sliding doors, but bc my kids are old enough, it's been ok.

I will admit that I got the car that *I* wanted this time, bc I've had two cars in a row, for my kids and bc ody never came out with the 4wd that they said they were going to have (and I don't like the toyota minivan). We moved to a new house a couple years ago and I kept getting stuck on the driveway on the way up... it helped some to get snow tires for my ody (kind of fun to drive with snow tires, btw, very bouncy), but in the end, I really wanted the AWD too and we are subaru people, this is our 4th subaru. We begged and wrote to subaru for years to make a minivan or a good suv (not tribeca, sorry, that thing was bad), so we are going back to our roots. I love the safety features on my subaru and feel that it is safer than my honda ody, not to mention I saw the quality of my honda ody fit and finish decrease between my 2001 to 2009... I feel like honda isn't what it used to be, in fact I did not like the look interior or exterior of the honda pilot. Call me weird, I did NOT like the lowered honda ody style, I know it's easier for older people and little kids to get in and out of the vehicle, my brother has the newer style and I just didn't care for it, in fact my 2009 was used, and when I got it, I also tried out the new 2011/12 (?) I did not like it, compared to the taller ody style, we live in a snowy area, I prefer more ground clearance.

So, it's personal preference. In the end, it's based on your priorities and you'll adapt. Yeah, I could have gotten a 3rd ody and we'd have more room, but I wanted a car that I liked (I would prefer to drive a sedan), you'll adapt. If I were to go comparable cargo space to SUV, I'd have to go yukon level and no way in hell amd I driving that big of a SUV, but most moms with 3 boys I know drive the yukons and I can see why. My ascent now definitely feels bigger than my ody (front end, the ody was very short compared to SUVs), thank goodness it is decked out in cameras.