Magic Family Vehicle
The gas light flipped on today in my mini van. I was already running late to meet Rob for lunch with the kids (Now that it’s summer, we try to have lunch with him near his office at least once a week), so the numbers I was about to see didn’t help my mood. I pulled into the gas station near my house and filled up. It cost $78.00! –Choke, gasp.– I remember back in high school filling the tank of the family Buick for $20.00. Am I really that old already?
Now that our van is over a decade old and is starting to fade (I have to close the driver door by pulling on the window frame because the bolt holding the handle on is stripped and the handle is wobbly, the rear window doesn’t work, one door is a weird unmatching yellow/white color because of a bad paint match at the body shop, the CD player gets stuck constantly and takes several tries to even read the CD, the clips for the sun visors have broken, the doors will only unlock with a remote or if the key is held at just the right angle in the passenger door, not at all if you try the driver door… etc.) I know the time will inevitably come for a new family car. It wouldn’t take much to beat the 13.8 mpg I’m getting in the Plymouth Grand Voyager, but even the best rated mini vans don’t seem to have great gas mileage. Hopefully our trusty van will hold together for another year or more until the magic family vehicle is on the market. Maybe there is a better option for a family of six already out there. Anyone have a favorite family car? Tell me about it!
Yeah, that does remind me of the old station wagon!
Actually, we have paid up to $4.79/gallon and come close to $100 on a fill-up, but car payments can bite, too, so we drive used cars with over 100,000 miles. Nice used cars, though.
For up to 7-passengers, I would nominate the Mazda CX-9, which gets 16/22 mpg. Here is what they say at Edmunds.com:
“Until recently, the only vehicles truly capable of carrying seven adults or lots of cargo were minivans, traditional full-size SUVs and passenger vans. However, a new crop of crossover SUVs (sometimes referred to as CUVs) has recently been introduced that provides the space of a large SUV, respectable fuel economy and handling, and exterior styling that doesn’t immediately scream “diapers!” One of the latest seven-passenger crossovers to become available is the Mazda CX-9.”
Or, the Honda Pilot, 16/22mpg, which has been around long enough to generate some good used car deals. See http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/
Thanks Dad! I love all of your insight on cars. Hopefully I won’t need to make any decisions for a while.
My parents seem to love only large vehicles. I remember driving around the “15 passenger/1 passenger van” all the time. I hated driving such a huge vehicle with so many seats and me, the only occupant. Having driven that van around it makes my minivan seem so small. I love my minivan. It makes my mommy life better. I am a proud minivan driver. And this time we do fill up the seats. (well, almost)
I’m the current driver of the 15 passenger van, and funny enough I ususallu end up filling every single seat since we tend to have all of my kids plus their friends with us most times. Gas is brutal, of course, but to off set that I just stay home a lot more these days, and have been in to visit with my family a lot less. And I limit my shopping to local areas only, and I do as much online shopping and price comparisons as I can to limit me driving around. The vehicle that I love? That would be my GMC Suburban. Even though we are short one seatbelt with the arrival of baby #7, I still love to drive it, and wish we all did fit in it together. Gas is also brutal in that one too, so I wish we could get one converted over to NAtural Gas. Craig and I are seriously talking about a Natural Gas vehicle at some point, and would love to find one large enough to fit all 9 of us. They are so wildly popular nowadays though, it’s harder to find them than it was before.