Learning, Sharing, and Teaching > Reader Recommendations
3rd Row SUV/Minivan Recommendation
Skinflint:
We are expecting a third child this summer, so I need to start thinking about retiring my frugal old sedan for something with 3 rows. Anyone have any recommendations? I'd like something relatively new since my wife will be driving the little ones around and doesn't want to deal with a bunch of maintenance. 4WD is not necessary but would probably be nice to have since we do live around some pretty treacherous terrain which gets lots of snow/ice in the winter (MMM convinced me this is unnecessary, but I know it would make my wife feel better).
I was thinking a used Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna would be the obvious choice, but those are almost too big for me (I'd still like to park this thing in town without it being a big deal). Also, the MPG on those models isn't great. I was surprised to see that the Toyota Highlander actually has a smaller wheelbase and better mileage than the Sienna or Odyssey (and it seems there are even some hybrid Highlanders out there). So, maybe I'm better off looking at a mid-size SUV, as ridiculous as that sounds.
After you all punch me in the face, please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.
englishteacheralex:
We love our Mazda 5 but we are in unusual circumstance that make it an ideal minivan. Here's a review of it that I wrote in my journal:
--- Quote from: englishteacheralex on December 25, 2017, 04:34:10 PM ---Merry Christmas, everyone!
The Mazda 5, six months in
We bought a 2008 Mazda 5 on the 4th of July. It had 65k miles on it, and we paid $4600. Had a couple of rust spots on the roof, but otherwise fine. It's a stick shift. Mr. ETA believes that when you buy a car as old as the cars we drive, it's best to buy a stick shift because replacing a clutch is a relatively cheap repair, while replacing an automatic transmission is not worth the cost of the repair. Something like that. I don't know much about cars. I learned to drive on a stick shift back in high school, and I don't much care whether I drive that or an automatic.
In case you don't know, a Mazda 5 is a minivan with sliding doors and seating for 6, but it looks like an econo-hatchback. Mainland folks hated them (Mazda discontinued the model in 2015, I think) because they are much smaller than the far more popular Sienna or Odyssey. But in Honolulu, we thought the Mazda 5 would be just the ticket for a family of four trying to get in and out of a tiny tandem parking spot a couple of times a day in our condo's parking lot.
We also liked the idea of being able to take everyone around in the Mazda 5 if we had two or fewer guests staying with us. It worked a treat when my brother came for a long weekend, and this week with the in-laws it has been perfect. And when it's just us as a family of four, it's AWESOME. Sliding doors plus all that cargo space in the back. We love it.
True: there is very little cargo space when the back seats are in use. We put both car seats in the back so that MIL and I can ride in the middle two captain's seats, and FIL and Mr. ETA are in the front. With some creativity we are still able to fit our snap-n-go stroller in the car along with groceries, beach gear, and a large backpack. But there's a lot of Tetris-ing around of belongings in order to accomplish this. It's fairly cramped once all is said and done.
On Oahu, it's difficult to take a road trip that takes longer than 1.5 hours, and most of our trips take around half an hour or less. Much less, generally. It takes us about 15 minutes to get anywhere in town. So being squished but mostly comfortable is fine for such short distances.
If I were on the mainland, I might still be into the Mazda 5, despite the cramped quarters. I'd definitely get one of those cargo boxes that you strap on the roof, though.
MPG on the car seems fine, although I haven't done a scientific study of it. We fill up the 15.9 gallon tank about twice/month.
We were able to use the Mazda 5 to pick up and transport the new dishwasher we just purchased at Lowe's last week. Plenty of space. The Mazda 5 also fit the toddler bed I bought off craigslist for DS last summer--didn't even have to disassemble it.
If we were going to have a third kid I think the Mazda 5 would be just fine.
So far, zero repair bills (I'm probably jinxing this by writing about it). I point this out because so many people are terrified of used cars that are older than 3 years. Now, we are definitely in odd circumstances, because we only put about 10k miles/year on a car due to living on an island. We also don't have to deal with all the road salt that destroys cars where I grew up in upstate New York. So I don't want to be too smug about how everyone ought to buy cars the way we do.
I highly recommend the Mazda 5. If our 2003 Matrix craps out, I think we'd just buy another Mazda 5. Nah, we'd buy another Matrix. They don't make those anymore, either. I like having a car with better MPG for when we take longer trips.
--- End quote ---
englishteacheralex:
One nice thing about the Mazda 5 is that you can fold down the two back seats separately, so even if you had a third carseat you could still fold down one of the back seats for extra cargo space.
We live on an island, so we don't drive super long distances very often. We also don't have any pets. It's a great car for our circumstance. YMMV.
yuka:
Don't discount the value of having doors that slide back rather than folding forward, both for how much opening you get into the back, and for how easy it is in parking spaces. Additionally, that extra height is extra height that every bag or child has to be lifted.
Also, I think my parents' minivans turn tighter than my wife's full-size sedan (Impala). I understand that the most important thing is how it compares to the handling of your current ride, but what I'm trying to say is that a minivan is still quite a few steps down the food chain from the enormous vehicles that they design roadway geometry around (enormous American firetrucks, typically,) so you'll have some wiggle room either way.
In any case, I think you're likely to have the minuscule difference in fuel efficiency dwarfed by a difference in purchase price, throwing the baby out with the bath water. At the end of the day, those vehicles are all thirsty because they're enormous bodies with even more enormous engines.]
I'll look at 2014 cars:
To try the numbers, I looked for a list of 'efficient' 3-row SUVs (with 4WD), and found the Toyota Highlander hybrid (27/28, 3.6 gal/100mi, goes back to 2014),Mitubishi Outlander (24/29,3.8gal/100mi, reviewers dislike the third row and this is a 4 cylinder model), Nissan Pathfinder hybrid (same numbers as Mitsubishi)
Toyota SUV (27/28, 3.6 gal/100 mi): 360 gal per 10kMi (baseline) (added cost at $2/$3/$4)
Mitsubishi/Nissan SUV (24/29, 3.8 gal/100mi): 380 gal per 10kMi (+20 gal) ( $40/60/80)
Toyota Sienna AWD (16/23, 5.3gal/100mi): 530 gal per 10kMi (+170 gal) ($340/510/680)
Honda minivan: 19/28, 4.5 gal/100mi 450 gal per 10 kMi (+90 gal) ($180/270/360)
Obviously, double those numbers if you drive the family car 20kMi per year. This assumes you drive at the same efficiency and profile of driving types as the EPA does, but it's a start. And what I'm trying to show is that the gas difference may not be the difference you think, compared to finding a good deal on whichever vehicle you choose. I used 2014 because that's so new I don't think anyone could be too worried about maintenance.
I don't know about insurance considerations, but it's possible that one class is cheaper than the other. Finally, remember that those SUVs are HYBRIDS. For normal SUVs, you should assume SUVs are comparable to, or worse than, the worst minivans in terms of efficiency.
At the end of the day, I'd say that minivans are more functional, and a pretty solid choice, and sticking it to the big companies because car-makers love when you buy those high-margin SUVs. But if widening the field allows you to find a used car that you're happy with for a good price, that's the real way to come out ahead in car buying (doubly so in the excellent buyers market that seems to pervade the entire country right now.)
yuka:
I'd like to amend my post to say that the Mazda 5 is another excellent idea that should probably be way more common than it is. Yay englishteacheralex!
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