In praise of the minivan

The minivan isn’t known for its sporty good looks.

Or as a status symbol.

And it’s not a vehicle that car enthusiasts lust over.

But man, there’s just nothing else that meets quite so happily at the intersection of practical and frugal for families that have more than three children.

Here’s why I dearly love my van.

(My van = a Toyota Sienna that is a few years old.)

It can fit eight people.

There are only six of us, but we frequently use our extra seats to take friends along with us.

And when Mr. FG isn’t with us, I can bring my 4 kids plus me plus 3 friends, which is awesome.

Sliding doors are EPIC.

You know how children are sort of accident-prone?   And how spatial awareness is perhaps not their strong suit?

That’s why sliding doors are so fabulous.   There is no possible way that children can open the sliding doors and hit the car parked next to me.

There’s so much cargo room.

My van has 39.1 square feet of cargo space behind the third row of seats, which is actually almost exactly the same or more as a large SUV.

(For instance, the Suburban has 39.3 square feet of rear cargo space and the Expedition has 18.6.)

(Let’s ignore the fact that my van needs to be vacuumed, shall we?)

We can pack for a week at the beach, complete with a canopy, beach chairs, beach toys, and other luggage, and our things still only come about halfway up the back seat.

And we can fit all kinds of music gear in when we head to church (guitars, a bass, an amp, a speaker cabinet….)

So excellent.

The cargo well keeps things from falling out.

Why is the well awesome? Because you can pack it full of stuff and when you open the rear gate, nothing in the well falls out.

This is pretty stinking fabulous for groceries.

SUVs and older vans tend not to have recessed storage (my 2000 Sienna did not), but most newer minivans do, because they’re designed to let the seats fold down into the floor.

We rarely have our seats folded down (we fill them with people!), so our rear well is almost always available for storage.

The price is good.

No vehicle that carries my family is going to be super cheap, of course.   Once you have more than three kids, sedans and mid-sized SUVS are too small, so you have to choose either between a van or a large SUV.

(A Highlander or something similar wouldn’t hold all of us!)

An SUV large enough to accommodate us starts at $40-$50K, while a minivan like the Sienna starts at $27K, and that’s an enormous price difference.

There are variations in the used market (you could buy a used SUV for less than a new minivan, I’m sure!), but when you compare apples to apples, minivans are by far the least expensive option for my family size.

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So.

Minivans will probably never be super cool, but they are marvelously practical.

And thus, I love mine to pieces.

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P.S. For families that need to drive in snow, or off-road, or who need the horsepower to pull trailers, I can totally see why an SUV makes sense.   But since I don’t need to do any of that, a minivan is where its at for me.

P.P.S. The fabulousness of minivans does vary. I had to use a rental Town and Country a few years back, and it was not nearly as nice as my Sienna (poorer performance, less cargo space, less comfy seats, etc.)   So, my enthusiasm for the minivan is based on my experience with Siennas, not with other minivans.

P.P.P.S. Mr. FG has a small stick-shift car that he drives most of the time.   But he totally does not mind driving the van when we go somewhere as a family, or to work if his car is in the shop.

And when friends or co-workers give him grief or tell him they could never drive a van because it’s not manly enough, he just says, “Hey, I have a wife and four kids.   What could be more manly than that? ;)”