Author Topic: vehicle options  (Read 2695 times)

msmith13

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vehicle options
« on: October 07, 2014, 09:03:55 AM »
We currently have 2 (fully paid-off!) vehicles...a Civic Hybrid that gets over 40 mpg (thumbs-up) and an Odyssey that gets under 20 (ugh).  We are an occasional family of 6 (my teenage son spends half his time with his mother) which is why we have the van.

Daily, my wife and I use the van to take the other 3 kids (all under 5 year's old) to day care (roughly 3.5 miles round-trip) and then come home to get the car for our daily (carpool) commute to work (roughly 32 miles round-trip). 

We've looked for car seats that would allow us to haul the 3 little ones in the car and, short of spending almost $300 each for some fancy, narrow seat (which mightn't work anyway), I haven't found any options.  Plus, even if we could do that, we still occasionally need to haul all 4 kids.

My question is this...is this the best vehicle option for us currently?  Thanks for the advice.

higginst

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Re: vehicle options
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2014, 10:25:49 AM »
The standard vehicle recommended for families that needs lots of seats is the Mazda 5. MMM has recommended it to large families a few times. However, it's not going to get the fuel economy that your Civic Hybrid does but it should be better than the Odyssey.

The other standard, more face-punchy advice around here is that a a 3.5 mile round-trip (less than 2 miles each way) is easily biked with two trailers: one of you hauling the 2 smaller kids and the other pulling the bigger. Or you could put one in child seat.  Also: WHY ARE YOU LIVING 16 MILES FROM YOUR PLACE OF WORK MOVE CLOSER !!!!111!!ll~!

I'm only half kidding about the commute.  32 miles is a long way to drive every. single. day.  MMM has told many, many people to move closer. So if you can, do it.  If you won't do that, you will probably save the most money by continuing your current arrangement until the kids are a bit bigger and out of car seats, rather than losing money trying to buy a different car.

Luke Warm

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Re: vehicle options
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2014, 11:38:21 AM »
i don't know, it seems like you're doing ok. if you've got to move 6 people then why not a honda odyssey? the cost of swapping vehicles would not be worth it in my opinion. riding bikes to daycare would be the first thing i try but dealing with kids under 5 might be more than you want to deal with day to day. the fact that you're car pooling the 16 miles is good.

catccc

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Re: vehicle options
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2014, 12:39:28 PM »
The Diono R100 should fit 3 across in your civic, and can be had for $208 each from Amazon.  Even if they were $300 x 3, you aren't going to find a car to meet your needs at that price.  I say stick with the vehicles you have.  Your teen is never going to be in both cars at once, so just make sure you plan to have the van available when he will be around.

Also, the the diono seats have a 10 year shelf life and can booster up to 100 pounds.  You likely won't need to get combination seats or boosters later.