As your family grows, you might find that you should choose to drive a minivan and not an SUV. This might surprise you, but we can tell you why.
Aren’t minivans gone from the automotive market? Nope, not at all. In fact, some minivans are now more interesting and useful than the models many of us grew up with. If you remember the Pontiac Transport, Ford Freestar, or early versions of the Dodge Caravan, we don’t see these vans in the market today. Today, we have some beauties including the Honda Odyssey, Chrysler Pacifica, Kia Carnival, and Toyota Sienna.
1. Minivans are Easy to Drive
Driving a minivan feels like it would have if your parents drove a station wagon back in the day. This driving feeling offers you an impressive level of comfort and practicality on the road. You can take your entire family out for a nice dinner, go to your favorite weekend spot, or head to the park for an afternoon of fun. If you want a three-row SUV, you’ll most likely have a much larger vehicle which can be more difficult to drive.
2. You Can’t Argue With the Practicality of a Minivan
Even though SUVs have utility in the name, you might find that minivans are more practical. The Chrysler Pacifica offers the Stow ‘N Go seats, and most of the other models have excellent storage options for your family. Whether you need to fold the rear rows to turn your minivan into a cargo hauler or you need to keep a couple of seats up for your kids, its easy to see how practical this vehicle can be. Most SUVs don’t have much room in the third row and lack the rear cargo capacity families need.
3. Automakers Put a Lot into Improving Minivans
When the Chrysler Pacifica arrived, it was the first and only hybrid minivan in the market. This vehicle gave you everything except a kitchen sink, which you could have brought with you. The Toyota Sienna was the only minivan with AWD, but that’s not the case today. Also, the Sienna now has a hybrid powertrain, giving you impressive fuel mileage. The Kia Carnival is more square than other vans, offering a bit of a minivan/SUV hybrid look.
4. Minivans are Easy to Park
Even in the early days, minivans were built with large pieces of side glass to offer drivers the least amount of obstructions in their view while driving. The differences you’ll find when parking a minivan versus an SUV are incredible. Even with the addition of advanced safety technology, you’ll find it much easier to park a minivan. This is especially true if you have a three-row SUV.
5. Minivans are Made for Families
Do you need to tell the kids in the third row something? Are you going through a drive-thru and need their food order? The Honda Odyssey has the benefit of CabinTalk and the Toyota Sienna has EasySpeak. These are two different names for the same thing, which is a system that allows the driver to communicate with rear passengers using the microphone of the audio system. This will amplify their voice through the rear speakers and make communication much easier. You won’t find anything like this in SUVs.
6. Minivans Answer the Questions that Kids Ask
Do your kids ask you how much farther you have to go, or are we there yet? Many kids have some variation of these two questions and with either the Honda Odyssey or the Chrysler Pacifica, these questions are answered. When asked “How Much Farther?” the Odyssey will answer, provided you’ve put the destination in the navigation system. The same happens in the Pacifica when kids ask, “Are We There Yet?” These two minivans take away these annoying questions, you won’t find an SUV that does this.
7. Entering a Minivan is Much Easier than an SUV
Minivans offer sliding side doors, many of which are now power-operated. This means it’s much easier for kids to get in and out of the vehicle. Because of these doors, and the sliding second-row seats in most models, its easy to access the rearmost row of seats when desired. This makes it much easier for parents to help sleeping children out of their seat and into the house when the journey is over.
8. Roof Racks are Easier to Reach
When you look at SUV that offer three-rows of seats and you want as much interior room as what you find in the cabin of a minivan, you’ll find most SUVs to be very tall. The roof rack on a minivan allows you to pack a lot of gear on top and reach it pretty easily. The taller full-size SUVs with roof racks might require a ladder to reach up and get things off this area of the vehicle. Do you really need to travel with a ladder?
9. Kids and Pets Can Enter Easier
Most minivans are built lower to the ground to accommodate kids and older adults getting inside. These vehicles are much easier to enter and exit as needed. When you look at SUVs, many are made with higher ground clearance for off-road driving. This might not suit you and would make a minivan the better choice for you to have the drive you desire. Put your family inside a vehicle that’s made for families and let those off-roaders have their SUVs.
10. The Versatility is Amazing
If you’re a one-vehicle family, you need a vehicle that can be everything you need whenever you need it to function for you. With a minivan, you’ll find added storage areas that are made for parents traveling with kids. This might mean you find seatback pockets for kids to keep some toys, lots of extra cup holders for those extra drinks, and the versatile cargo room that makes this vehicle work for everything you desire. You won’t find the same level of versatility in an SUV that you find in a minivan.
Will these ten reasons help you find the right minivan to drive or are you still looking at an SUV as the vehicle you want to drive?
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