Looking at getting a new (to us) vehicle. We currently have a minivan, but we want something that can tow more.
We have 2 kids in carseats, so the minivan is nice because we can bring the whole family and a few other people when we have friends/family visiting. But the vast majority of the time we don’t need the extra seats.
It occurs to me that what would be perfect would be a vehicle that was pretty common in my youth: a station wagon that had removable rear-facing seats in the back. On the occasions that we need extra seats, we put them in.
They don’t seem to exist any more. I assume that this is because they don’t meet modern safety standards. But maybe there’s something I’m missing?
An SUV with a third row of seats that can at least fold down may be a partial solution – I believe that the Mazda CX-9 does this, and there are likely others, as well.
Older Mercedes station wagons have third row rear facing seats that fold down flat. We had one on which we installed a tow hitch. Mercedes wagons came as either 2WD or all wheel drive. We now have a 2016 Volvo XC90 SUV that has third row forward facing seats. We had a factory tow hitch installed on this as well.
We had rear seats professionally installed in our stationwagon when the kids were little. In Australia the company that does this is called Techsafe Seating, and it’s all perfectly legal, legitimate, and within safety standards. Not sure how that translates to the US market.
You also have vehicles available for both passenger and cargo depending on options like Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit and the like.
Price range?
Why rear facing seats? Are you meaning rear facing child seats? Note that the old rear facing seats could induce car sickness in higher number of occupants.
Thanks for the replies. Should have given more information.
Towing ~3000 lbs. A minivan works fine (although not our current minivan. No tow package), it’s just bigger, more expensive, and less fuel efficient than we need/want the vast majority of the time.
The goal is to have a smaller, cheaper, more fuel efficient vehicle that does the things our minivan can do.
I’m still not getting it. A minivan is smaller than the big SUVs. They are the same expense or less than these mid size SUVs above. And the minivans get better mileage. Chrysler Pacifica and Honda Odyssey vans hit near 30 mpg on the highway - I rent them (Pacificas) regularly when we visit our Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. They won’t do that well when towing, but nothing does. Typically priced in the low $20k range from rental agencies. Adding the tow package is trivial.
For cheaper, buy used. A slightly more fuel efficient vehicle will end up the same or worse when towing. A minivan will probably match up better with the tow vehicle aerodynamics.
You’re looking for cheap, smaller, better fuel economy, coupled with tow capacity. Figure out which one option to throw out and proceed.
Rent when you need to tow is the best answer based on your information.
“You are looking for a unicorn” is certainly a possibility.
My impression was that once upon a time station wagons with rear jump-seats filled the categories of (occasionally) seating 7 (like a minivan or a large SUV can) but at lower cost and higher fuel efficiency than SUVs and minivans.
Part of the issue is that there are just very few station wagons sold in the U.S. anymore. Here’s an article for wagons that were available last year (note that at least one, the Buick Regal TourX, has since been discontinued), and I don’t think that any of them have any sort of third-row seating.
FWIW, when we eventually got rid of our stationwagon, we replaced it with what’s officially a 7-seater SUV, but the two back seats fold down, making it functionally equivalent to the stationwagon in terms of seating/luggage. It was actually more fuel efficient, being newer (and somewhat shorter). No idea about towing, since I never tried, but SUVs are generally supposed to be able to tow, aren’t they?
The only thing we could have done with the old stationwagon that we definitely can’t now with the SUV, is haul wardrobes about in the back of it.