Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

have a third kid and then let’s talk.

When our second was born we had a CR-V and really liked it. However, put two infant seats in the second row and there’s no room for my mother-in-law who lives here and often travels out of town with us. Hence, the Odyssey and its third row.

Last night, though, we put the boy in his brand new booster seat. A couple more years of payments on this minivan and we’ll definitely move to something smaller - probably a wagon just like yours.

Going anywhere good?

…or an SUV…

Addressing Smithers’ question specifically, I’d say that demographic is any young family that’s not one of those elitist, core-city, white, liberal yuppie types. Unfortunately, that doesn’t account for SUVs, and there’s some kernel of truth behind that sarcasm.

I’ve had longstanding issues with the working logic that having children means you need a mega-van/truck. My sister-in-law and her husband (what some would call a brother-in-law, but not Smithers) bought an SUV the moment they started *planning* their first child. Two girls later, they still have the SUV, but drive a VW Golf around most of the time because it’s better on gas. Apparently all that room, even on long trips, wasn’t desperately necessary. And if grandma can’t ride along… well, not all of us would plead for our mothers-in-law to come.

Of course, my opinions are entirely formed as the kid who took many a family trip to Cleveland in the back of a LeBaron GTS hatchback with his brother and sister.

If I had two kids our family truckster would be a Volvo wagon. I could never drive a miniman, and Mrs. Roosh: “Not interested!”

Incidentally, minivan sales are way down in favor of crossovers like the Mazda CX-7 and CX-9, The GMC Acadia/Buick Enclave/Saturn Outlook, Ford Edge…

…hmmm, this sounds like a good post topic…I’m outta here.

Two kids (now ages 9 and 6)…Prius since ‘02. No problem. Plenty of room and 50 mpg.

Two kids, both in car seats, and we drove a Nissan Altima. Third kid comes along, say hello to Ford Windstar! BTW, SUVs were impractical then and still are today.

Top this: I once worked with a guy that had 8 kids, all girls (He was a Mormon, BTW) and under the age of 12. Their one and only family car was a VW Fox Wagon! He actually modified the interior to have another seat which faced out the back. They would all pile in and drive to Idaho to go camping!

Call it an “Avant”, “combi”, “SUV”, “crossover”, or “estate”, and it’s still just a damn station wagon. Change the ride height and put a body kit on any one of those designs to get another.

But minivans are minivans, even if the original Dodge Caravan was built on the K car (Aries/Reliant) platform.

Call it an “Avant”, “combi”, “SUV”, “crossover”, or “estate”, and it’s still just a damn station wagon. Change the ride height and put a body kit on any one of those designs to get another.
Actually SUVs and minivans are completely different from crossovers and other car-based platforms. SUVs and minivans are body-on-frame truck construction. Wagons and crossovers are unibody car-based platforms. Car-based platforms have a car-like ride, better handling, more fuel-efficient, less prone to flip over, etc.

SUVs and minivans are body-on-frame truck construction

my minivan is unibody… i’m not saying it makes it cool. i’m just sayin’

Just as long as it’s got a 5k towing capacity, I’m good.

“I once worked with a guy that had 8 kids, all girls (He was a Mormon, BTW) and under the age of 12. Their one and only family car was a VW Fox Wagon! He actually modified the interior to have another seat which faced out the back. They would all pile in and drive to Idaho to go camping!”

Did they have a dog that they tied to the roof that shat down the back of the car?

“Did they have a dog that they tied to the roof that shat down the back of the car?”

Funny. They apparently had dogs, cats, ducks, goats, and other critters at home. But no, they didn’t follow the Mitt Romney school of travelling with pets. They didn’t tie their recently dead aunt in a chair to the top either.

Beat this! Growing up my famliy would vacation in a station wagon not much bigger then the Passet. There were 7 of us kids and my parents. Oh course we didn’t have to worry about babyseats back then, but still 9 people in a wagon gets tight. Still, I would rather pack into a wagon then own mini van.

I’m with you on that one. I love my wagon, even without kids it kicks ass for roadtrips with bikes or climbing gear and four people. Even Timmer couldn’t make owning a mini van cool, but he came closer than anyone in history.

4 reasons I like my mv.
A) 3 kids
B) Getting said kids out of car seats when they were younger was much easier on the back with a mv than our Taurus
C) Sliding doors don’t ding cars in the parking lot when kids open them too fast
D) More space for 3 kids = less fighting on road trips

Friends of my in-laws have a Caravan they’ve rigged to carry 4 bikes inside of and still have room for gear. It’s pretty sweet… for a minivan.

Smithers wrote this post…

Then I wrote this…

…the Wall Street Journal wrote this…(look at the Blog listings at the bottom)

(It was Smithers’ post that inspired mine)

I love my minivan–not much else works when you’ve got five kids. And for what it’s worth, the new “crossovers” are more or less minivans, but without the sliding doors.

(minivans, except for the Chevy Astro type, have been unibody for at least a decade, by the way)

And they’re not that hard on gas, really. I get 20-22 mpg in the city and up to 28 on the highway in my Venture, depending on how fast I go. You have to go for a pretty small sedan or a hybrid to get much better.

Perfect for transporting dogs to the dog park!

If driving a minivan calls a guy’s manhood into question, then the so-called men who drive their truck-wagons to the dog park have even bigger problems… like which flannel to wear, where your softball glove is, and which Ani DiFranco CDs to put in rotation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.