My neighbor plans to buy a minivan/SUV

Okay I have no kids (yet). So please help me to understand this:

My neighbor has 2 kids, and they are driving a Subaru wagon and a Toyota Corolla.

Just heard that they are planning to trade-in the wagon for a Minivan or a SUV.

Reasons? The older kid (now 7) are going to after-school practices and the parents do carpool their kids (which is good). And my neighbor thinks that, to be fair, they should get a Minivan/SUV so they can share the carpool responsibility.

That means another low gas mileage vehicle on the road.

Shortly after I got my Prius, I was able to talk one of my neighbors into getting a hybrid. He only has 1 kid plus a dog, and was coming from a small-ish SUV. He wanted a Prius but was unable to find any available either to test out or to purchase off the lot, so he went to Ford and got himself an Escape Hybrid. Not a bad choice if you need the extra room of a small SUV I guess. Could be worse though!

On the other hand, my best girlfriend has recently upgraded from a Corolla to a Tacoma and now to a 4Runner. She's single, no kids, no pets, and the vehicle is used for her commute to and from her office job. I don't understand the 'need' for the larger vehicle either. I just don't 'get it'. She could barely afford gas for the Tacoma, and is complaining about the payments on the 4Runner, yet she got it anyhow (she's been in a bit of financial trouble for awhile now too).

Ok....I have no kids, but I have plenty of them around when I'm at my parents since my mother is a retired school teacher and "borrows" children whenever she can just to have them around. I can understand the desire to have more passenger capacity for carpool....so a minivan or SUV with third row seating makes sense. And really...most minivans aren't much worse on gas than a station wagon.

That said...without a third row of seats....the Corolla is as useful for carpool as an suv.

I love my Prius...but it's not the right car for everyone.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HokieHybrid @ Aug 11 2006, 03:43 PM) [snapback]301770[/snapback]</div>

This line pretty much sums up my thinking on this subject. Minivans do not get great gas mileage but it is the perfect vehicle for what your neighbor intends to use it for - transportation of kids from Point A to Point B PLUS extra room for extra backpacks, sport equipment, strollers, etc.

Plus, carpools are a great way to save gas and help clean up the air a bit.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HokieHybrid @ Aug 11 2006, 05:43 PM) [snapback]301770[/snapback]</div>

True.

But when my kids were younger we only had station wagons. Somehow we managed.

The SUV mentality really escapes me.

how about a matrix?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rancid13 @ Aug 11 2006, 04:57 PM) [snapback]301753[/snapback]</div>

I guess she "got her girl on".

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcsj @ Aug 11 2006, 05:41 PM) [snapback]301745[/snapback]</div>

Okay, now from an alternate universe. I bought my Prius to replace my mini-van (even though my mini-van was SUCH a chick-magnet). My kids are now 10 & 13. We had bought the mini-van (my second used one since having kids) to haul around all the crap that kids needed when we went places (playpens, portable cribs, etc.), as well as because we bought a house that needed a lot of work and the van could be loaded with full-size drywall or sub-flooring: up to 10 4' x 8' sheets. House was sold 2 years ago, kids actually need less crap now (iPods and PSP's take up little cargo area), and we don't carpool, thus the Prius.
It's all a matter of choice, and people can get defensive about their choices....

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcsj @ Aug 11 2006, 02:41 PM) [snapback]301745[/snapback]</div>

Well, you have to do the math to see if the carpooling is better than the overall MPG hit. The other consideration is that generally, newer cars are cleaner burning (probably only applies if their other cars are 10 years old).

I have absolutely nothing against minivans. Nothing. They are wonderful people movers, and are reasonably efficient at doing so. They are easy to climb in and out of, handle well, crash well, and get pretty good mileage.

Good for your neighbor. I will soon be joining him with a Sienna of my own. (As soon as the hybrid powertrain hits the market).

Nate

And if the Estimas or Alphards would ever make it out of Japan, we
could have all that TODAY. Blame the oil cartel.
.
_H*

Minivans aren't that evil. They're not as heavy and not as nearly as bad of a gas guzzler as some of the large and huge SUVs like Chevy Tahoes, Yukons, Surburbans, Toyota Sequoias, and Ford Expeditions and Excursions.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcsj @ Aug 11 2006, 04:41 PM) [snapback]301745[/snapback]</div>

We have a Prius and a Sienna. We do try and use the Prius for all our driving, but sometime you can't get around the fact you need to haul a bunch of people. We have no relatives around here so we frequently get visitors and once in awhile we have to carpool.

We put 18,000 miles on the minivan the year before we got the Prius. Since getting the Prius, we're on track for about 10,000 this year.

Perhaps the less efficient mpg of the mini-van is offset by the practice of car pooling? If more people are joining the carpool, one less efficient vehicle may be more efficient in actual practice than three (for example), more efficient vehicles?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mdmikemd @ Aug 13 2006, 04:34 AM) [snapback]302494[/snapback]</div>

We traded in our Sienna for our Prius. We were routinely getting about 22 MPG in the Sienna, which isn't bad for that large a vehicle. That's about 50% better than most of the large SUVs.

My wife and I have no kids yet, but this BIGGER IS BETTER craze really gets to us. You have to ask yourself: what did your parents or your parents' parents do back in the day? It was a sedan, or maybe a station wagon. Nowadays it seems like when people are going to have a kid(or even when they aren't), they decide that an Expedition may be a little small, maybe the Armada would work better?

Huh?!?

The funny thing is that if you really compare these vehicles to a vehicle like the Prius, the actual useable space in the vehicle is comparable (if not better). SUV's may look big, but when you get right down to it, some can't really haul all that much stuff. Also, what needs to be taken into account is the actual amount of time that the vehicle is being used to it's full capacity. You don't need an SUV to haul Jr. and his soccer gear around. You don't even need an SUV or minivan to get groceries. Most of the time I see minivan's and suv's, there's one, maybe two people in it - and the back....is EMPTY!

We've got our Prius on order, and that will be our family starter car - and I have no fear that we can carry everything we 'need' in it.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(quagmire0 @ Sep 7 2006, 01:06 PM) [snapback]315885[/snapback]</div>

The difference was that our parent's wagons usually had two bench seats that could seat six, with seat belts. When we had more than six people then we just squeezed more in, on laps, in back etc. That's all illegal (for good reason) now days.

Jeff (not a mini-van owner, but probably will be someday)

I suppose the "punishment" for excess consumption is being a big contributor to global warming, which may destroy his kids'/grandkids' future (along with every other creature's)... I think if we were cognizant of the real threat, and serious about preserving the planet, one shouldn't be able to buy some of the new cars that are being manufactured today.