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Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surpr
by anonAndOn 6y ago
Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surprising amount of furniture or even large sheets of lumber or drywall. I would only consider replacing my minivan with an electric minivan.
- organsnyder 6y agoNot full electric, but we've been loving our Pacifica PHEV. You do sacrifice a bit of practicality—no towing capability, and the middle seats don't fold into the floor like the gas version (the battery is down there)—but in the summer we sometimes go months without refueling. I fully concur on the practicality. The only vehicle more versatile than a minivan is full-size van (my family's conversion van growing up was insanely useful).
- nsxwolf 6y agoThanks for the heads up on the PHEV and the stow-and-go seats. That one would be a no-go for us because we it to haul stuff all the time. With the seats fully stowed it's practically as good as a pickup truck. Of course, you have to get all the toy cars and goldfish crackers off the floor first if you want the seats to actually stow.
- blhack 6y agoBETTER than a pickup in my opinion! You can lock the doors.
- ImprovedSilence 6y agoI called my parents minivan the indoor pickup truck, the seats spent more time stowed to haul stuff then not (after kids were grown)
- organsnyder 6y agoI've found the goldfish crackers readily crush themselves out of the way and the dust vacuums up fairly easily, especially if left to age for at least three months. Toy cars can definitely bugger up latches and hinges, though.
- nsxwolf 6y agoGot the Pacifica a few years ago, never looked back. Probably will buy a new one in a few years.
- dhosek 6y agoThe Pacifica Hybrid is wonderful. We buy very little gasoline (even less this year).
- lallysingh 6y agoHow are they on road trips? Instead of a luxury SUV, my main concern is comfort.
- nsxwolf 6y agoGreat driver and front passenger comfort. I haven't heard the kids complain about the rest of the seating. I've sat in the middle row a couple times and being tall-ish it wasn't as good as the front but still pretty decent. The ride itself is great, and its not noisy. There's an active noise cancellation system, not sure if it does anything as I don't think I can turn it off to compare.
- eptcyka 6y agoIf you want comfort, get an E-class wagon or similar. SUVs are not built for comfort.
- geoduck14 6y agoGreat for road trips! I've taken more than 6 trips longer than 15 hours and they rock.
- mkhpalm 6y agoWe do a lot of cross country trips visiting family and my wife and I will alternate driving. If passenger gets tired of looking at the road or wants to get some sleep they usually hop over the center console and go hang out in the power reclining 3rd row. 2 kids ride in the 2 center captain chairs and one in the 3rd. Larger dog (90 lb) usually wanders around between everything. We usually put a cargo box on top so we can keep the cabin cleaner but we'd still fit without it. I also own a top trim mid-sized luxary SUV and I'd say the limited pacifica (plus all packages) is easily the go-to option for comfort on road trips. Its no contest how much better something like that is compared to what basically equates to a larger sedan with a big trunk. Maybe something like a suburban or a yukon xl could compete but thats about all I'd think might.
- hombre_fatal 6y agoI was a triplet in the 80s where the fullsize van was a family favorite, and I haven’t seen vans much since. Why did the fullsize van fall out of style? (Assuming it did) It doesn’t seem much bigger than the other goliath SUVs and pickup trucks that saturate our US streets.
- ashtonkem 6y agoActual full size vans from that era had horrible crash safety records, perhaps they built a bad reputation because of that?
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoIn the 80s people didn't care that much. An 80s van is still gonna beat an 80s car in terms of crash test results. And the bad results are only for the driver's legs. The kids in rows 2/3/4 are safe as can be
- hombre_fatal 6y agoI have good memories of growing up in the 90s with a fullsize van as the family vehicle. The most 90s thing of all was probably my dad plugging an inverter into the cigarette lighter so that he could power a SNES and 10" TV on our 24-hour drive to Pennsylvania to pacify us kids. That was peak existence for young me.
- xyzzyz 6y ago> That was peak existence for young me. Man, I felt shivers just reading this. So much 90s cool.
- souprock 6y agoDon't forget the 5th row. My van has 15 seats. I'll fill the final seat this summer. The safety problem is that most drivers can't deal well with a suspension that lets the vehicle movement lag well behind the driver inputs. Drivers would roll the vans over while driving on perfectly straight roads with good pavement. It's the same as pilot-in-the-loop oscillation. When the vehicle has a delayed response, the operator will overdo the input. That then needs to be corrected, but the correction may also be overdone. Each mistake leads to another mistake of larger magnitude in the opposite direction. The extended-body vans like mine are particularly bad. When the body got extended, the rear axle didn't get moved rearward. Instead, the read tire pressure was increased to compensate for bad axle location. Non-professional drivers often got asked to drive these vans for daycare, church groups, and other group activities. The problem got so bad that the federal government mandated that states act to keep the vans from being used for daycare and similar uses. Each state did something different. My state uses a $250,000 fine against the original dealer that sold the vehicle new, even if the vehicle was subsequently sold. This totally shut down new vehicle sales. The vans can be leased however, and they can be purchased coming off of a lease. As a result, all vans are provisioned as preferred by the rental companies. (white, naturally aspirated gasoline V8, cloth seats, etc.)
- blhack 6y agoMy wife and I don't have kids (yet) but absolutely love our Pacifica minivan. It fits 4x8 sheets of plywood in the back perfectly (it was designed this way), all of the seats fold down into the floor, which is awesome, and it can tow a trailer. We actually got it because it meant we could more easily pack more things to burning man every year. Since then we've done tons of road trips all over the country, and build the back of the van into a bed. Love that car. Hoping to upgrade to a hybrid with the comma.ai autopilot eventually.
- thedanbob 6y agoI inherited my family’s old minivan while I was at college—a small, private one where the students lived on campus and most didn’t have their own vehicles. Overnight my popularity skyrocketed.
- jcims 6y agoMy wife and I rented one while on a vacation trip with our two girls to North Carolina. Holy moly was it convenient!!! Very eye-opening experience.
- safetyengineer 6y agoUncool when I was 15 and 16. At 17 we'd have parking lot parties in my minivan.
- mkhpalm 6y agoI hated minivans until we caved and got one. It is easily the most useful vehicle I have ever owned. Best "pickup" I've ever owned as well.