Quote:
Originally Posted by problemcat13
I just got back from a 10 hour drive from Florida to NC...in my Honda Odyssey. The Forester would have fit our two kids and barely fit all the packing, but here's the big winner for the minivan: once we got there the four of us AND two grandparents can ride around comfortably instead of taking two cars and paying twice for parking everywhere.
YoGeorge is correct on many levels: the Odyssey (at least back when I was shopping for a kid friendly car) has more cargo space than an excursion, better MPG, better handling, smoother ride, etc, etc....it's just the stigma most people can't get over. Hello! I can haul 4x8 pieces of plywood in my Odyssey! Let's see most SUV do that! And nearly ANY 3rd row SUV still does not haul adults comfortably back there as well as cargo behind them.
We have toyed with the idea of replacing the Odyssey with a Tribeca, but we'd be giving up a LOT of cargo space to do that and we'd end up with a roof top carrier for a lot of trips. Minivans really are unbelievably handy. After our first child, we decided to suck up and get one. Oh, and YoGeorge, it was a comparison between and Odyssey and a SuperBee muscle car to show the advances in handling over the years. The Odyssey smoked it.
To the OP, I've spoken with people who said they could fit 3 car seats in the back of their 05 forester (which has less room than the 09), but it depends a lot on the carseat too. We use evenflo triumps (high safety ratings) and I know we couldn't fit three of those side by side in anything. Go for a third row something for at least one of your cars, you really need too. My wife gets together with one of her friends and they take trips with three kids at once, and she wouldn't be able to do it in our older Forester or even an 09, I'm sure.
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As I said, we have the luxury of four vehicles for two people--Honda Civic and my Forester as everyday vehicles for my wife and me, my old BMW 318is as "toy", and a full size Ford van that is the family "motorhome" now, but which I have commuted in at times. When our son was a toddler, in fact, my main driver was an '86 GMC turtle top camper van conversion...I drove it downtown, fit it in a parking garage, etc...
And yes, with the current Ford van, I remember after we bought it in 2003, we took four people and a TON of stuff (including 3 bicycles, luggage for four) from the Detroit area to the far reaches of the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. Then we put the rear seat up and did some family tours with a full load of seven people--and this was the last "family adventure" for my late father-in-law who passed away in 2006.
I've got musician and bicyclist friends whose main vehicle (including for commuting) is a minivan--because they just work for carrying stuff. (One of the musician buds needs to carry a $10k standup bass plus a whole bunch of other gear a LOT.)
Interesting that someone did a comparo between the Odyssey and an old Dodge musclecar--I definitely remember a different comparo (in Grassroots Motorsports magazine, I think) where they autocrossed an Odyssey against an old Porsche (I really think it was a Porsche) and the Odyssey won.
Finally, I remember just a few years ago, reading an article by the famous old race driver Dan Gurney. Gurney's main driver was a Toyota Sienna minivan, either stock or with some very gentle mods, and he would absolutely delight beating the crap out of lesser drivers in all manner of sports and performance cars around twisty roads.
If I had a young family, I would have no qualms about driving a minivan as my daily driver (and I have had Chrysler hemi cars, Corvettes, and all kinds of vehicles). One of the reasons we're are in this stupid energy crunch is because people have moved over to 10 and 12-mpg giant SUV's instead of driving things like minivans that would both suit them better and get double the mpg. All because it's not cool to "wear" a minivan....
George