Thinking about getting a full size van, opinions.

[bullet]

With 2 little girls and someday a 3 girl/boy, my crew cab Dodge dually is getting cramp.
I've been debating getting a full size van. A high top diesel to be more exact.

This would be just for family commuting and vacation trips.

I was wanting the opinions of those who have or had a full size passenger van and what their opinions are. What are the pros and cons? What kind of real world mpg's? How safe are they in a crash? anything else?

 

[jd4320t]

With the cost of fuel I wouldn't get a full sized van unless I needed it. There are many small SUV's or CUV's that would fit your family well.

 

[bullet]

I considered the fuel thing, but I rather trade in fuel mileage for size, due to the fact larger autos take crashes alot better. I'd rather have my family in a full size van than a small cross over when it comes to crashes.
I have a Chevy Equinox also, but when it comes to family trips we always take the Dodge dually for the simple fact that I fell we're safer.

I read that the Chevy duramax vans are getting close to 20 mpg. I think I can live with that.

 

[45fan]

I dont think I would call a van safer than many of the other options out there that would fit your needs. Just take a look at the cargo vans of the model you are looking at. Not too much in the roll over dept, where many of the smaller vehicles are pretty strong. I can understand your rationalization, and in some very specific circumstances a larger heavier vehicle may be safer, but overall safety is more a function of design than size.

 

[ljadayton]

Until I got divorced I had an Uplander and it was AWESOME. 500 miles on one tank of gas. And I had the extended one with the 3rd row of seats. Adults could sit comfortably anywhere in the thing. DVD player kept everyone in the back happy for long trips.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'm also in the "I think a full-size van is unnecessary" camp...

My wife and I have been seriously eyeballing the Kia / Hyundai minivans. The Sedona & Entourage, respectively, are priced very very well, get pretty good fuel mileage for their size, have pretty good crash-safety ratings, AND are relatively inexpensive.

A 2010 Kia with 10k miles = slightly under $20k. (was one on Carmax not too long ago...)

Also, "feeling" safer in a larger vehicle doesn't necessarily mean that you ARE safer. There are way too many factors & variables to make an apples-to-apples comparison, but a good place to start would be the crash-safety ratings.

Happy shopping... Glad it's you spending the money and not me!


-J-

 

[christman]

We have had Suv's, Mini-vans, and Full Sized vans. If you are worried about space for trips get a full size van. I recommend a Chevy Express or GMC Savanna.

As far as safer goes, I have seen what happens to minivans in crashes multiple times. I have also seen full sized vans. Stick with the full size, especially for non-roll over crashes. When speaking of roll over's all vans are going to be at a higher risk for it, but the Ford Econoline series is at the top of that list.

The extra space makes trips so much more manageable. Especially if you need to pull over in a hurry to sleep at a truck or rest stop.

We will never go back to min-vans or SUV's after having our first full size van. There really is no down side other than the higher risk of roll-overs(which depends on crash scenario for any vehicle.) If you already have a normal crew-cab truck, you are already used to the lower gas mileage so that won't really be a factor either.

This one looks similar to ours, except we have the extended version that gives you a couple more feet in back. Ours originally seats 12, but we took out a 3 person bench seat for basically a small truck-bed worth of storage space for trips. It has really worked out great that way. The good thing about Chevy Expresses is that they have been around for a long time, and haven't really changed in design that much. So you don't need to buy a brand new 40,000 dollar one. Craigslist has 00 models for around 5-7.

One thing to keep in mind about full size vans though is their heating and a/c units. They have two for the front and back and the back can be pretty expensive to fix if it goes out. Ax me how I know. Go on, ax...

 

[J man]

You might want to consider a Tahoe, Suburban or Yukon. It would give you the full size SUV, decent room for people and cargo and some towing capacity. I do not think diesel is an option though.

 

[SSGSAD]

I am on my third, Mini Van, and I love them ..... 250,000 miles, and still getting 20 MPG ..... GREAT .....

 

[Plinker]

I don't feel like googling it, but an option may be a Dodge Sprinter with a conversion package. Their pretty large (much larger than a Chevy Express) with a small common rail diesel, supposed to get low to mid-20's on the highway.

 

[christman]

I don't feel like googling it, but an option may be a Dodge Sprinter with a conversion package. Their pretty large (much larger than a Chevy Express) with a small common rail diesel, supposed to get low to mid-20's on the highway.

Besides being fugly beyond belief.... This what a fleet mechanic has to say about them.

"I manage maintenance of the fleet for the company i work for. We have 8 Dodge Sprinters and 10 Savana/Express vans from GM.
Sprinters fuel economy is excellent, roof is high for the techs, the diesel engines have good torque, lots of optional equipement, like the wabaso with timer that heats the engine before take off in cold weather, dash is well designed with clips for papers abd places to add options for all uses, 16 thousand km between maintenance is great too, cab easy to clean, vehical is tough 500000 to 600000km range easily.
Downside: rear differentiel often breaks up, front ball joints needed all replaced at 100000km, sensors on everything and i mean everywhere and once one goes beserk the ecu puts a speed limit of 40km/h or no speed at all, lots of electronics which means it breaks often. Front bucket seats are hard as rock from 2005 to 07, don't know if the 08's are better. 200$ for an oil change, 2005 model's paint really does not stand up, rear door hindges and window contours rust in no time. Maintenance in general is expensive and dealers that maintain them are rare. Not all Dodge dealers fix them. "

 

[melensdad]

Buy a Dodge Sprinter. The smallest model they make would probably suit you very well, they have a great engine in them (Mercedes Benz) and run on diesel. They sip fuel and are easy to drive. I had one for several years and it was a GREAT van.

NEVER had any of the above mentioned problems with my Sprinter. It was used for work, hauled loads above the rated capacity many times, was comfortable too.

 

[88GT]

You might want to consider a Tahoe, Suburban or Yukon. It would give you the full size SUV, decent room for people and cargo and some towing capacity. I do not think diesel is an option though.

Skip the Tahoe/standard Yukon option and just go with the Suburban or YukonXL if you go this route. The extra cargo room may not seem like much, but when you start throwing in the kids' crap, you realize that extra 3 feet of space is really nice.

For that reason, the Suburban has a little bit of an edge on the van as most of the van is passenger room and very little area devoted to stowage of gear, at least not big gear like strollers, bikes, etc. Otherwise, I think the idea of a full size van is a good one. Never can have too much room.

I think you'll be disappointed if you go to a smaller SUV vehicle. But in the interest of full disclosure, this is coming from a mom who has driven a Suburban for the last 10 years.

 

[bullet]

I'm considering a sprinter. I like the idea of being able to take my 4 kids and 2 grandkids on long trips without worry of space.

I truely believe there is better margin of safety in a large vehicle. I hit a Chevy equinox (5 star rating) with my Dodge (4 star rating) at a 90 degree.
My truck stayed it's course with little effect from the Chevy. The Chevy was completely pushed off its course by the Dodge.
The Chevy had one of the front wheels broke off with the spring laying of top of the wheel. It also had alot of front end body damage and had to be towed off.
My Dodge got some light front bumper, but still drove fine. I actually drove it like that for a month before I had it fixed.

I didn't think the crash was very bad at all. I felt a slight jerk when I hit her and I actully pushed her about 15-20 feet.

She said it felt like a train had hit here and impact was very voilent, in her words anyway. She was very shook up. I felt so bad since it was my fault. This was my first accident in 23 years btw.

So if I have my say I rather have my family in a 4 star crash rating 18 mpg full size van. Then a 5 star, 30 mpg cross over or similar.

 

[bullet]

.

Skip the Tahoe/standard Yukon option and just go with the Suburban or YukonXL if you go this route. The extra cargo room may not seem like much, but when you start throwing in the kids' crap, you realize that extra 3 feet of space is really nice.

For that reason, the Suburban has a little bit of an edge on the van as most of the van is passenger room and very little area devoted to stowage of gear, at least not big gear like strollers, bikes, etc. Otherwise, I think the idea of a full size van is a good one. Never can have too much room.

I think you'll be disappointed if you go to a smaller SUV vehicle. But in the interest of full disclosure, this is coming from a mom who has driven a Suburban for the last 10 years.

Good point one the Suburban being made with more cargo room. I like the idea of being able to tow my boat too.
I've never towed with a van, but I hate seeing them at the boat ramps. Seem like they have a lot of trouble backing up and usually take forever.
I do plan to keep my Dodge for towing.

 

[christman]

Skip the Tahoe/standard Yukon option and just go with the Suburban or YukonXL if you go this route. The extra cargo room may not seem like much, but when you start throwing in the kids' crap, you realize that extra 3 feet of space is really nice.

For that reason, the Suburban has a little bit of an edge on the van as most of the van is passenger room and very little area devoted to stowage of gear, at least not big gear like strollers, bikes, etc. Otherwise, I think the idea of a full size van is a good one. Never can have too much room.

I completely disagree about the storage comparisons. We put strollers ( completely up), bikes, sheets of woods, lumber, kids sports equipment, and just about anything else in our van's cargo area. I have to kneel into the back of the van to get the grocery bags that are close to the last row of seats...If the stroller is the only thing in the back you can watch it rolll from side to side and back and fourth and it get annoying because it has so much room to move. Our van has bench seating as I said above, so all it takes is the quick removal of a bench to make another few feet of room. I like that I can remove the seats completely rather than folding them down, because it gives you an actual flat surface unlike a lot of SuV's where they fold down and the whole back area looks lumpy. With our current set up we have about a 5x 6 (probably more) space in the back that is just for storage without removing any bench seats. But, we also have the full size van with the extra 2 feet, not the custom, bucket seat full size luxury van.


Again, I have bench seats, so if your are looking at full size vans that have bucket seats in the back, you might not have this much room to work with.

As far as boats go, we don't have any trouble putting them in, but I suppose the size of the trailer is a big factor as well as the competence of the driver so who knows. It pulls our camper with no problem too. The engine is a standard V-8 350.

Gas mileage sucks for sure in general, and you can't beat the 4x4 feature of Suburban's and the like, but other than that, I'll take my van.

 

[88GT]

With our current set up we have about a 5x 6 (probably more) space in the back that is just for storage without removing any bench seats. But, we also have the full size van with the extra 2 feet, not the custom, bucket seat full size luxury van.

How many rows of seats are still installed to get that space?

 

[christman]

How many rows of seats are still installed to get that space?

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