think i need a minivan...or do i just want one?

[zolotiyeruki]

Sidebar: Minivans do have a magical quality of making the driver invisible to the opposite sex. As a single person, this was an obvious drawback, even though the car made sense for my work as a sample-toting sales rep. My first van was a nice, used Mazda MPV, but I agonized over buying the dreaded minivan. I jumped on the DMV website to see if I could find a fun vanity plate to ease my fears about disappearing into minivan oblivion. I scored "NOTAMOM", so I bought the van and never looked back.

ROFL!  That's a great story AND a great insight!  For some reason there's this stigma about minivans being uncool to drive, especially for men.  Yet a couple years back, we successfully fit an entire BUNK of 2x4's into the back of our minivan.  If you don't know what a bunk is, think about how lumber is stacked at Home Depot.  A bunk is the huge bundle of wood that the forklifts put on the racks.  That's 290-something 2x4's.  As we were loading up, the guy next to us in a (full-size) work van said "If you get it all in, I'm trading in my truck!"  And as we drove (slowly) off, we could see his incredulous face.

[Scubanewbie]

Sidebar: Minivans do have a magical quality of making the driver invisible to the opposite sex. As a single person, this was an obvious drawback, even though the car made sense for my work as a sample-toting sales rep. My first van was a nice, used Mazda MPV, but I agonized over buying the dreaded minivan. I jumped on the DMV website to see if I could find a fun vanity plate to ease my fears about disappearing into minivan oblivion. I scored "NOTAMOM", so I bought the van and never looked back.

ROFL!  That's a great story AND a great insight!  For some reason there's this stigma about minivans being uncool to drive, especially for men.  Yet a couple years back, we successfully fit an entire BUNK of 2x4's into the back of our minivan.  If you don't know what a bunk is, think about how lumber is stacked at Home Depot.  A bunk is the huge bundle of wood that the forklifts put on the racks.  That's 290-something 2x4's.  As we were loading up, the guy next to us in a (full-size) work van said "If you get it all in, I'm trading in my truck!"  And as we drove (slowly) off, we could see his incredulous face.

When considering minivans we checked the interior dimensions to see if a sheet of plywood would fit.  With the seats removed they're truly pretty amazing for carrying capacity!  Of course, I did something similar (on a smaller scale) with my civic with loads of sand/mulch, everyone thinks you "need" a truck when it's not really the case.

[Dicey]

One feature about my van I love is the Stow&Go seats. They drop right down inside the van. I can easily carry 4' x 8' sheets of plywood flat in the back, which makes me strangely happy. When the Stow & Go middle seats are up, their receptacles make awesome secret storage compartments, which is great for a vehicle with no trunk. Also love the heavily tinted factory windows for privacy. It's a Dodge Grand Caravan, which I know has less than stellar performance ratings, but DH can fix anything and parts are relatively cheap. He just bought a new radiator for $78 and installed it himself. Sweet. Since the van has 125k miles, that's a reasonable interval for a radiator replacement, I think.