Suggest an SUV (fine, a minivan) for me

[InglewoodFan]

I'm a wagon guy, but I always thought the Sienna Limited was cool - just for the reclining second row seats. http://editorial.autoweb.com/2015-toyota-sienna-review/

[Sliver]

Those recliners are in the XLE as well as the Limited. We have a Sienna XLE and those recliners are insanely comfortable. I laugh at how spoiled my kids look driving around in them hah.

[WinColumn]

Originally Posted by Yellefan

I'm also in the market for a new mini-van. Are there any out there that will pull a small trailer or tent trailer? Looking at specs I can't seem to find any that will unless it's super light. I should look for my parents old station wagon that would pull a giant trailer and we would all sit backwards in the back-- good times.

The Sienna and the Odyssey both tow 3500lbs. All Siennas in Canada already come with the "tow prep" package if you were confused about that as I was. You would just have to add a hitch and you're good to tow to 3500lbs. I have the current model Sienna and use it to tow a light pop-up trailer. There are some hybrid trailers that can be towed and are less than 3500lbs.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

We didn't find any of those issues in the one we were looking at, but it was the top trim level. Not sure what kind of performance you were expecting out of a 5000 pound 7 passenger vehicle.

If you hated it so much to the point of ruining your vacation, why didn't you take it back and try something else?

I was too lazy to go return it, which is the only reason I kept it. We drove all over the big island in it. It was such a lumbering burden and made that aspect of the trip far less pleasurable than had I been in a minivan.

People settling for a crappy driving experience are the reason you can't buy a Passat wagon anymore, but you can get any number of lifeless Buick Enclavesque clones. Having it for a week solidified my disdain for the entire class of vehicle and the people who drive them. WTF do you want to raise the floor of a vehicle for, anyway? It's not like you'll ever off road in a Buick, but meanwhile you're stuck cruising around in a bloated CUV that drives like crap.

If you're seriously thinking of getting an Enclave, at least test drive a minivan first. If you have to ask what kind of performance I expect out of a seven passenger vehicle, you clearly haven't driven a minivan since that's what I expect. They're better in ever single way. Price, fuel economy, comfort, interior size, handling, acceleration, and I could go on.

[WinColumn]

Also, in my opinion, you don't need AWD in a van. I don't think you would ever find yourself stuck in city driving. Get a good set of winters and you won't even slide much at stop lights. The weight of the van and the large tires handle really well on snow. AWD is nice to have, but you are giving up some fuel efficiency.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by WinColumn

Also, in my opinion, you don't need AWD in a van. I don't think you would ever find yourself stuck in city driving. Get a good set of winters and you won't even slide much at stop lights. The weight of the van and the large tires handle really well on snow. AWD is nice to have, but you are giving up some fuel efficiency.

And performance. I test drove the Sienna AWD and it was too slow for my liking. Almost a second slower to 60, which doesn't sound like much, but it's over 10% slower and very noticeable. A complete deal breaker for me.

[Ashartus]

The Odyssey and Sienna are probably overall the top minivans out there, but a bit pricier than some of the alternatives and can be hard to find a relatively new used one. If you want a Sienna don't bother with the AWD, it comes with (or at least did a couple of years ago) these annoying runflat tires instead of a spare that require you to get pressure sensors reprogrammed every time you switch out the tires. The tires also cost a fortune.

I've heard the Kia minivan isn't far behind the others and is cheaper. As far as the Caravan, I think there's a reason why there are a lot more used ones on the market. It's functional but in my experience not as reliable as the others.

[Mr.Coffee]

Another issue with the Grand Caravan (I have one and I like ours, but haven't driven any of the others so admittedly probably my opinion shouldn't count) is that the 3rd row in the back can't fit 2 car seats, only 1. Which is stupid because it's a bench filling the entire row. I always thought that was kind of annoying.

I'm a pretty fertile guy.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Another issue with the Grand Caravan (I have one and I like ours, but haven't driven any of the others so admittedly probably my opinion shouldn't count) is that the 3rd row in the back can't fit 2 car seats, only 1. Which is stupid because it's a bench filling the entire row. I always thought that was kind of annoying.

I'm a pretty fertile guy.

What year? Ours is 06 and I'm pretty sure we 've had two car seats in the 3rd row before.


As for anybody who can't understand why people buy Grand Caravans over Honda or Toyota. It's pretty much cost.

[Mr.Coffee]

2012 and nope, definitely only 1 carseat hook up in the back row. Maybe just our model or something? Dunno.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

2012 and nope, definitely only 1 carseat hook up in the back row. Maybe just our model or something? Dunno.

My 09 Sedona is like that, just one set of car seat hooks in the third row. Super annoying.

[Ace]

Car Seats was the reason we ended up buying the Odyssey. If you're planning to have more than 2 kids you should only buy this one. The odyssey has an option to move the 2nd row seats out 2" on each size which is a huge amount when trying to squeeze three seats in one row. The odyssey is also the only van that allows you a tether strap location at every rear seating location, which gives you maximum flexibility when deciding how to configure the seats.

I owned a Yukon with 7 seats, and it's ridiculous. The back row is not comfortable for adults, yet only had one tether strap anchor location (can only put one car seat), like what the heck is the point of this row (the newer GM's have fixed this, but The Explorer, Armada, and Sequoia are still only one back there)

Do not buy a car that you plan to haul kids in car seats around without studying this page:

http://thecarseatlady.com/latch3rowvehicle/

You NEED a tether anchor to install a car seat (you do not need latch). The vehicles without tether anchors in all seating positions are useless IMO.

[btimbit]

Ugh, hunting for seat anchors. Dont miss that. It was a good day when my little guy moved into a booster seat.

Also the one thing I miss from the 90s. Being able to add and move top tethers

[Yellefan]

Thanks for the advice about towing... I'm glad to see there are a couple of options for me. I clearly misunderstood the towing capacity of the sienna and odyssey.

[Sliver]

Yeah I've towed 3500 pounds of tent trailer with my sienna. With a weight distribution hitch it was a non issue.

[Weitz]

Trade the kids in for a sportscar.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

If you want a Sienna don't bother with the AWD, it comes with (or at least did a couple of years ago) these annoying runflat tires instead of a spare that require you to get pressure sensors reprogrammed every time you switch out the tires. The tires also cost a fortune.

This was REALLY annoying when I had my Sienna. I had to replace all 4 because one blew and apparently the tread was to worn out on the other 3 to match them up with one new one. Mucho $$$$$

Other than that I LOVED my Sienna. Great for 3 kids, car seats, groceries, strollers...all the crap your wife and kids need. Throw a ski box on the top and you get even MORE room for random crap if you ever go on a holiday somewhere and have a wife like mine who buys half of Walmart and tries to stuff it behind the back seat.

Great resale value on the Toyotas and Hondas as well.

I rented a chrysler last year on holiday, and it was a total POS compared to the Toyota. Would NEVER go that route.

[temple5]

We bought a leaseback Dodge Caravan Crew with 18Km from High River Dodge for $24.5K - we wanted to pay 10% cash so that limited our options away from the imports.

List price new for that vehicle was close to $35K and the dealers in Calgary were charging $27K+

We got the crew model because of the heated seats. We had no need for DVD or Nav.

It works great for us, we have 1 child with another soon on the way. Its great to have that space available.

[Mr.Coffee]

I should have added previously but the other thing to consider is to avoid the DVD player in the van or don't focus a purchase on that. It costs you way more than just buying your kid an iPad to watch movies on. I kinda wish we thought this through prior to buying the van with that DVD feature. Plus then the kid can watch their own shows and don't have to "share" the one screen if you have more than one kid.

Don't get me wrong we use the DVD player and you can control it from the front which is handy, but don't kid yourself, any long distance trek you'll be stopping every 20 minutes anyway which gives you time to find them a show on the iPad while you're stopped...

[btimbit]

Yeah the DVD player is handy but there's cheaper and better options to keep kids entertained these days