I’m looking at a used Montana right now so I thought I’d see what y’all thought.
We’ve got one kid, another in July and some tentative plans for kid mark III fairly quickly so my Explorer ain’ta gonna cut it no more.
But this is wearing on me.
Why? Because you don’t want a van? If you don’t want one, don’t get one. I don’t think it’s a requirement just because you’ve got kids ;).
I’ve driven a variety of vans, and we own a used Windstar. Most of 'em handle like boats (the Odyssey is the most car-like of the bunch I’ve driven, but of course it’s also the most expensive), but if you really need the versatility of a van (i.e., you can take the seats out to haul things, put 'em in to haul people), there’s just no good alternative. If you can, look for one with sliding doors on both sides - that’s a nice feature.
If you feel there’s some stigma to van-owning, just get over it. If you’re going to have three kids that close together, a van would make life easier. And with the dual sliding doors, you and momma can each drop a kid into the car seat and be done with it. Otherwise there’s the reaching and the climbing and the stretching, and with all the crap you’re going to have with the kids you should look to making things easier where you can.
My wife drives our two around in a 99 Mercury Villager which is not as nice as the newer Hondas or Toyotas, but I think it’s more car like than most vans of any model year. You could pick up a similar model for under $10K. It’s really a re-badged Nissan Quest, so those would be a good choice too. FWIW, I have a friend with a Montana (a 97 I think), and he commented that he’d not buy another one. Important options are the dual sliding doors and rear a/c. If you’re buying used, the cool new featues like folding seats aren’t available, except for Hondas and Mazdas (the third seat folds flat in each of these).
Congrats on the family, and I think you’re crazy. 
I drove a '96 Astro for about a year (it was basically a hand-me-down that I couldn’t pass up). It handled like an ocean oil tanker but other than that it was good for cargo and the dogs.
Being that I have no kids and none are in the immediate future, I got rid of it only because I didn’t need all the space and it wasn’t very fun to drive. Got an Audi A4 about a year ago now, it handles a little better.
If I had more than one kid I’d get another Astro.
Yeah, it’s just the last gasps of ‘BUT I PLAYED IN A PUNK BAND!’ screaming at me. I’m really as sedate as one can get these days.
But yes, with 2 kids (and maybe another…who can say?) and 2 large dogs it begins to make sense to me.
This is a 2002 Montana with dual doors, dual stereos and independent fore and aft heating and A/C. If it had XM I’d marry it. But I’ll have to get that dropped in separately.
I’ve got a 1995 Dodge Caravan. I bought it in 1997, no regrets, though I’m now thinking of upgrading to something larger - just had my fifth child, so there’s no extra seats for company or cargo. When I was looking for the minivan, we were told to avoid the Windstar like the plague, but maybe it’s better now.
Just pretend you’re Jack Black in ‘School of Rock,’ though I don’t recommend buying a van that’s burning oil ;).
I forgot - you’ve got greyhounds too. That’s one reason why we got our van - it was very difficult to get our large males into a car when they were old and no longer able to hop in under their own power. The other reason is my husband’s woodworking hobby - it’s much easier to haul plywood sheets around in it.
Our Windstar is OK, though obviously you can find better. We just went with what we could get in our price range at the time we wanted to buy.
Or be a Trek geek – buy a white Honda Odyssey, then stencil “USS Enterprise - Galileo 7” on the side.
I have driven my dad’s Mercury Villager quite a few times, Ginger drove it to Edmonton and back last year, I recommend it highly. It rides well and (being a Nissan) runs great. When I buy a mini van, I think that’s the kind I’m gonna get.
1992 Dodge Caravan. Bought it with about 105k miles on it, have had it for 3 or 4 years. Never had any trouble aside from usual maintenance.
What’s weird about it, though, is the paint is peeling in certain spots. And there are about 5 other Dodge Caravans, same color, running around this city with paint peeling off in the same locations. I’d love to know if they were the same year as mine.
I drive a '99 Dodge Grand Caravan and I only have one kid. The gas mileage is a pain in the ass, (especially when you consider I drove a Cavalier before this), even moreso now with the gas prices on the rise. I think $1.95/gallon for REGULAR is a damn crime.
I love it though. I’d love even more to have a 2005, but this one’s good for now. I think it had 72,000 miles on it when I bought it last summer/fall, and I paid $9300 for it, taxes and stuff included.
It’s much easier to haul everything I need (no more struggling with the stroller in the trunk, I don’t have to worry as much about groceries getting squished by other groceries, and I can fit seven people in it on bar night). Plus I have a rack on top and the third row comes out which has helped haul things like insulation, building materials to use while remodeling our bathroom, wood chips for the garden, etc. They’re just good things to have.
OTOH, my parents had four kids and I think the biggest vehicle they ever drove was a Chrysler Cordoba. Other cars we had included a baby powder blue Chevy Nova (HAHA!), a Taurus, a Buick of some kind…
Good luck with the newest Baby!
We have a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan. I never thought I could drive anything that big but I absolutely love it.
We’ve had it for 2 years. It has almost 70k miles on it now. The versatility is great. I can have 2 car seats in the back (my daughter is 3 years old and my son is 7 months) and my inlaws in the way back. Sliding doors on both sides are wonderful! I’d love one of the newer ones with fold into the floor seats for when we need to run to Home Depot but I like not having a car payment right now even more.
I really like buckling the kids in and not having to kill my back to do so. I find it rides pretty well too - I feel the bumps and rumble of the road more in my MIL’s car than in my van. I also like being up higher so I can see more.
Depending on how old you are - my parents didn’t have car seats for us and never bothered with seat belts. There would have been no way to fit three car seats in any of my parents cars - especially since kids are now required to be in a booster seat until they are 80 pounds - and there certainly were not seatbelts for 4 in the back of anything they drove. I remember bouncing about with my cousins in the back of my father’s Chevrolet Suburban. I also remember having to stop my little brother from trying to escape out the open back window while on the highway.
1997 Chrysler Town & Country LXi - nice features; very comfortable, esp. for traveling; not as good maneuverability as Toyotas or Hondas; Would have liked it a lot more had it not kept BREAKING DOWN. After it left me stranded for the 15th time, I traded it in for a:
2004 Toyota Sienna LE - As much room as the T&C, but chairs aren’t as comfortable. Third row fold down seats are sweet. Couldn’t order the middle model (LE) without getting an automatic side door. You may like the automatic doors with babies, but I think they’re more trouble than they’re worth. When I was looking, it was a tie between the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna as far as handling, reliability track record, and features. What sold me on the Toyota was that the seats were more comfortable. The Honda seats were very stiff.
I love my Aerostar, but '97 was the last year they were made. I’m babying mine as long as I can. 140K miles and still doing fine.
But when it finally dies, I’ll probably get a small pickup - we’ll just need something to drag the trailer occasionally.
We have a 1997 GMC Safari. I’ve had to do some maintenance to it, but overall it’s been a pretty good van. Very roomy. And has quite a bit of power as far as minivans go…
We have a 1998 Pontiac TransPort/Montana that just turned 100,000 miles… AND IT SUCKS!
In the past 1.5 years we have had the following problems:
[ul]
[li]Two… count 'em… TWO cracked heads. Replaced at a cost of $1,800.[/li][li]Battery went dead for no reason. Cost of replacement… $60.00[/li][li]and to top it all off… the catilitic (sp) converter is not handling emissions correctly and we are now hearing a clunking sound when we turn too sharply. Easily a $600 repair for the converter alone, plus whatever the cost for fixing the steering.[/li][/ul]It’s been an expensive 1.5 years… and I want to get rid of this thing. Pontiac is not a brand I will be looking at for my next minivan.
My dad has a 2002 Montana and I think he did marry it on his last trip to Vegas :eek: . He loves it, but his model has 2 bucket seats in the second row, no benches, so if you have that third kid crawling into the back row to strap 'em in could be a serious pain. Wait until the eldest can climb back and affix himself to the seat by himself. There’s also a compressor plug back there, so you can put Chance I to work blowing up the beach toys on long trips 
180,000 plus miles on my 1993 Mercury Villager. We bought it when we had two kids and where planning a third and the oldest is now 17 and driving it. We eventually had to put a new transmission in it, but then we pull a boat loaded with water skiing and camping gear with it from south Texas to central Arkansas a couple times a year. Oh and it had to have stuff like a new starter and a couple of brake jobs, but aren’t those fairly routine type things? I’ve liked it as much as any other car and I didn’t really want a van. Did want the kids though so that sorta made the van moot, since I certainly wasn’t interested in driving a station wagon.
My dad had a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan that he sold to me when my son was on the way. It only lasted about six months before we sold it - it needed $5,000 of various work on the engine, a new transmission (twice), electronics shorting out, other things like that. He drives a Honda Odyssey now. Keep in mind he’s an empty nester. You can’t feel too bad - at least you have kids as an excuse. All he has is the fact that my mom wouldn’t let him buy an SUV or a pickup truck for his trips to Home Depot. At any rate, he’s had the Odyssey for about a year now and he’s been really happy with it. I like it too - I think it drives a lot like my Accord. I almost prefer it to Mom’s Volvo. I really think if you’re going to get a minivan you should look into a Sienna or Odyssey. I’m not trying to start a Great Debate or a flamewar, I just wouldn’t trust the domestics - particularly used domestics - in reliability.
We’ve got a '97 Aerostar too (see FairyChatMom, above). I consider it to be one of the “most useful objects in the universe”. Great mileage, fits in the garage, hauls lotsa people. The only problem is the scary feeling when MrsPullin wants me to remove the seats (this always happens just prior to spending lots of money on something heavy that I have to carry upstairs. It’s amazing how many dollars worth of furniture can be stuffed into a minivan by a determined female:) )