Car for 4 kids

[bucketfoot]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

last two posts are sorta what I am getting at. Day to day, the van is just so easy to live with. I have never owned one but rented them a few times and man, so easy.

Agree completely. We had an Odyssey before we got our Pilot.

The Pilot was fine once the kids were grown, but other than it not being a minivan, there was nothing that the Pilot was better at than the Odyssey.

[Joe240]

Originally Posted by rice_rocket88

I'm actually curious how the new Kia Sedona minivan/suv mixup is going to look for 2022. Although I have not driven in the new Caddy as the OP has mentioned, I have driven in all of the other mentioned options of Yukons and Suburbans (about 5 yrs ago) and.. they kind of sucked, so unless they went leaps and bounds better I don't quite get it. Come to think of it I might have been driven in the Caddy in the first couple of generations, and that was nothing to remember either.

I think Tech wise, it might only be the infotainment for the front, as for rear passengers, there's nothing fancy other than more screens. Although middle row captains chairs seems pretty cool.

From what I seem to remember from the Yukon XL Denali was that it was a truck, felt like a truck, drove like a tank, floated like a boat, creaked like a battleship. Kind of looked cool, but honestly was a chore to get in and drive. The last rental car SUV we got was also pretty plush, but again, nothing came to mind other than it felt and handled bloated.

What's surprising is when you then compare to the minivan it drives like a sports car. Not nearly as much body-roll and feels lighter. Capacity wise, ease of using the rear storage and of course.. those sliding rear doors is priceless. Honestly speaking, get your kids and wife, grab a bunch of bags or groceries, get them to try to throw them all in/out of the vehicles you are trying, ask them to get in and out of all of them, and see which makes them happier.

My kids are younger, but they are too short to reach anything useful from the trunk of a Yukon's trunk (when we were on vacation). They also often have issues flipping/moving the middle row to get out of the back of the 3rd row also. Heck, I get frustrated when I go to drop of the kids going to school and the same Mom in her SUV has to wait and get help for her kids that insist on sitting in the 3rd row of the SUV in the kids drop off line. It never fails morning after morning one kid pops out of the middle row, and the other two kids struggle to get out, the mom gets out of her car, she gets yelled at for leaving the vehicle... someone shuffles over and tries to get the kids out while the entire line of cars are emptied and still waiting for them. Minivans roll up, sliding door opens.. kids run out, sliding door remotely closes.. all done.

I've owned a couple Odysseys, not a lot different, the Toyota's also not a lot different. I've grown up with at least one or two of my friends who got to drive the family minivan.. they just work and are nice. I like SUV's, but they just never pull off the 3rd row well. The solution is to try to make it bigger, but then the handling, weight, height just doesn't work, nor does the fact that it does not have a sliding door for the rear.

I hear what you’re saying here. Captains chairs in the middle row (2nd row) solve those issue quite well. Since there’s a space between the 2 seats, the kids in the back can go between the seats and out. There’s also buttons to flip and moved the seat out of the way. The older Chevy twins were difficult like you mentioned. But the 2021+ for both are quite easier now. I’m pleasantly surprised.

Raiti’s Rides on YouTube is pretty thorough of the new suburban walk through. He has other videos of driving and stuff as well, but this one he shows how to access the back seats and he even climbs in. He’s 6’2” or so himself for reference:

[F32Fleet]

Minivan. Purely utilitarian and easy to drive, no worries if it gets beat up.

[Nachbar]

Two i8's 😁

[Germanauto]

There's a reason why Tahoes, Yukons, and Escalandes are so popular...

There's always the Expedition and Navigator lol.

[keg97]

We have an Escalade ESV 4WD- great truck but it is what it is- so don't expect a terribly exciting drive. I'm most surprised by our mileage- we've averaged just a hair over 19 MPG over 85K miles and can crank out low 20's on straight highway runs. We too have 3 very active kids (15,12,10) and two large dogs (Lab/German Shepherd)

[aftercorbu]

The King of Jordan's $620,000 bulletproof Ford Excursion limo is on the market for just $84,000.

https://www.businessinsider.com/king...Gjvw3IW2EAE_JU

[GenXer]

It really isn't that big once you get used to it. I drive a crew cab full size pick up truck to work everyday. My Tahoe got about 24-28 MPG on the highway. My truck is getting 22-24 MPG. Besides, it's rugged enough that you don't have to be all that careful with it. You're not likely to curb the wheels either. Most of the time you can just drive right over most obstacles in your way. You main concern is driving over people but there are enough sensors and cameras to avoid that.