My mini van was awesome. I put some 15x8 NASCAR replica wheels on it, the 255 tires were too wide to open the sliding door but it looked freaking awesome. Had to downsize to 235s. Thing was a blast to drift around and practice J-turns in. Some times I really miss it. Of course it was a proper front engined RWD machine. I have no desire for a soulless FWD Mommy mobile.
We have a soulless FWD mommy mobile (odyssey). Its great for road trips or going anywhere that requires cargo room. We took turns watching DVDs in the backseat with my son on our 9 hour each way drive last weekend.
My wife DDs it, but I don't think I could. Its just too damn big.
Kinda wish I had a minivan over our Navigator. Other than for towing I think a minivan pretty much beats it in every way. My wife won't have one.
I really like them.
I do miss the V8 power at times
I was confused by this, so i looked it up and yep, turns out a 2006 Sienna is one year shy of getting the Lotus Evora motor. 
A 2GR Sienna would STOMP your old suburban in a drag race.
I think loving vans is probably my best-known quality here on GRM forums. I don't recall how many i've owned but i think it is 7 or 8. I just ventured into Dajiban-land (full sizes) with a 94 B250 we're fixing up. Still own my two turbo Caravans.
Conveniently though, just tonight my gf and I were driving two different customer cars home. Her in an ~06 Chrysler T&C and me in an ~01 Civic 5spd (which we verified to be only slightly quicker than the van). She was laughing hysterically as she diced traffic and then hauled ass down a bumpy road. She said she 'gets it' now. I consider myself a lucky man.
The wife wanted another van to replace her Caravan but at the time there wasn't anything that wasn't near 40K so she bought an SUV. They are handy, I'd probably have one if they came with a manual transmission. Sway bars and damper can fix most things. Hers had 190K and I kept joking about putting in the SRT4 drivetrain.
Joe Gearin wrote: Well I suppose driving a Minivan isn't cool.......unless you have a Hellcat Minivan! <img src="
Well, now I know what I have to do to my wife's van.
I love our '14 T&C, especially on the highway. It's nearly invisible with all the other white mopar minivans on the road, and with both Waze and a stealth radar detector, cruising at 80+ is fairly safe and trouble-free.
JAhmed wrote:2002maniac wrote: My wife's minivan ('12 T&C) has Jeep JK Rubicon wheels on it. They make me smile.PICTURES OF THIS PLEASE
I just checked my phone and it doesnt look like I have any. I'll try to snap a pic of it.
The Rubicon wheels have snow tires on them, it currently is wearing 18s from a Grand Cherokee, they are pretty bland compared to the black/accented JK rims.
I've DD'ed my MPV since it was brand new in 2005, and 150k miles later, I'm not looking forward to retiring it. Other than needing another 100 HP and 100 lb-ft of torques, I can't say it's been a bad ride. My wife is always giving me a hard time about throwing it into corners faster than she would. I reply with "But Honey, I'm driving the Porsche of minivans!" In all seriousness, I've enjoyed the handling, which far surpasses other family haulers I have owned, most conspicuously a Subaru Outback, which was a fat, wallowing pig by comparison. A CX-9 may be it's most likely successor, but I'm very much undecided at this point.
I would take any minivan over any "crossover" any day.
I've had a couple minivans as rental cars when on business trips. (They were free "upgrades.") Those things are useful as heck, especially if you get those ones with the fancy seats that fold into the floor. It's almost like an old panel van that you can also sit people inside.
In reply to Sky_Render:
Yep. When I go back to a full size van, the stow-n-go seating will be the thing I'll miss most.
To be honest, a minivan is on my short list as a replace the Infiniti.
I already have the manic sports car with the miata. My wife has the capable off-roader in her Xterra so really as a third vehicle it really makes sense with it's utility and campability. I also like being able to put my bikes inside the car and not having to worry about them if we go in for lunch after the ride or something like that.
The hardest thing is finding a used one without a trashed interior. Go figure a family friendly vehicle would have a tenancy to have a worn out interior.
My only experience with a minivan was a rental that I drove for 6 hours one way with the wife and 5 teenage girls. I don't remember what brand it was even, but that thing was like driving around a couch. I mean that in a good way. One of the most comfortable road trips I have ever taken.
Along with the flames and wheels, I see an awesome GRM build thread. I think it would sound outrageous with a turbo rotary power plant. It could be a "STIIenna". I think you may know someone with a spare drivetrain laying around. Think of the chicks you could pick up with that set up
I just put 650 miles on our '12 T&C during a family road trip, during most of which had 2 people in it, and just 3 for the return trip. We could easily have taken the TSX, but didn't. It wasn't hard to hustle it around the mountains of western Pennsylvania, despite the weight and size. I did a lot of manumatic shifting, which was really convenient with the lever right next to the steering wheel.
It's our third minivan over 25 years - bought the first a few months before DD#1 was born. We bought this one just 2 years ago, even though DD#2 is 21 years old and pretty much out of the house. I can easily see a day in the moderate future where I have a minivan as my regular driver, a sedan for DW, and a fun car.
Last week, my neighbor's Honda Odyssey got stolen out of their driveway. The perp painted a black stripe over 100 ft long down the road during the getaway (guess they took the time to disable TC?) - so seems like they have plenty of power for car-pools, etc.
Fews days later, I see said van back in the driveway with a bucket and a big bottle of disinfectant sitting beside it
sevenracer wrote: Last week, my neighbor's Honda Odyssey got stolen out of their driveway. The perp painted a black stripe over 100 ft long down the road during the getaway (guess they took the time to disable TC?) - so seems like they have plenty of power for car-pools, etc.
They really aren't that quick. A low 16/high 15 second car... empty. Put all the seats in, cargo, and a bunch of people and they are pretty slow. They will leave a lot of rubber just because their weigh distribution can be rear biased pretty easily.
Not as bad as some crossovers though. Our VUE had so little front traction. It was really easy to spin the tires with a whopping 140hp. Forward traction in the rain on a hill was almost non-existant sometimes. High CG/Body roll didn't help any either.
We had two Mercury Villagers that were just about perfect. Nissan V6 was torquey and happy to run, size was just right, and they both proved mechanically reliable past 200k. The 98 with one side door was noticeably better than the 02 that had two sliders.
I'm a bicycle mechanic, ride recumbent bikes, play in a few bands and own the PA, and generally need to haul E36 M3 around. Modern pickups are too darned big and the lift over height is ridiculous. (Try loading a 100lb. subwoofer in a pickup by yourself.). The same is true about most current SUVs, which seem big on the outside and little on the inside. I've decided I'm shopping for a another minivan when my CR-V is paid for. They're all too big these days (and the Mazda 5 is regrettably too small), but they're still the best tool for the jobs I have to do.
On a side note, I don't get the "I could never drive something that boring, soul-sucking, etc." stuff. Everybody need an appliance. It's sorta like saying "I'll never have a stove because it isn't exciting". Besides, that's what the Miata is for...
OK, while we are confessing minivan love, after putting 213K on the trusty 2002 Caravan, I just replaced it with a 2017 Grand Caravan. (Yes, they still make them!) It is better in almost every way. Minivans are just SO handy! My wife and I have always been sports car people, but, in reality, the area has built up so much that most of our driving is going down straight roads in traffic, or sitting stopped in traffic. And she wants to be able to carry four adults and all their golf gear comfortably. So the minivan is ideal.
When we want to go explore some fun back roads, we can take a Porsche!
Caravan Dan, the Minivan Man.
Mazdax605 wrote: but really at this point what am I holding on to anyway?
Welcome the the club, it feels so freeing to finally give up!
1988RedT2 wrote: I've DD'ed my MPV since it was brand new in 2005, and 150k miles later, I'm not looking forward to retiring it. Other than needing another 100 HP and 100 lb-ft of torques, I can't say it's been a bad ride. My wife is always giving me a hard time about throwing it into corners faster than she would. I reply with "But Honey, I'm driving the Porsche of minivans!"
I currently daily our 2000 mpv, and I'm shocked at how predictable it is in corners. You can feel it's weight, but it sticks. We live on a windy road full of indicated 35mph corners I can easily take at 60+.
Sanchinguy wrote: I've decided I'm shopping for a another minivan when my CR-V is paid for. They're all too big these days (and the Mazda 5 is regrettably too small), but they're still the best tool for the jobs I have to do.
The current Transit Connect is in between the Mazda5, and the rest of the minivans in size, and it looks to be just about the right size to me, just not sure about the rest of it. There aren't a ton of passenger versions out there, probably because their price appears to be higher than an equivalent Caravan, but they aren't too hard to find.
I thought maybe the Mercedes Metris was similar, but a quick check says its about the same as a full-size minivan.
We test drove a new Pacifica just the other day. No it's not as quick as our RAV4 V6, or as lively as our Fit, but overall I was impressed with with the driving dynamics. It's actually rather good looking too, in addition to all of that practicality. Enough so to probably be the leading contender for our next vehicle purchase.
On a side note, I find it funny that minivans still get the (uncool) 'soccer mom' title, when most actual 'soccer moms' drive a CUV.
This should make owning a minivan less embarrassing:
If you want it to be a 5-speed again, there are people local with the necessary parts (A-523 5-speed, etc.) to put it back to being a manual again.
Geez, go ahead, push THAT button!
I owned the unicorn of Mazda MPVs for years, a RWD V6-powered manual in Stealth Grey. Pulled the center seats out, the daughters loved "Dad's Limo Service", and I could carry some serious cargo in the middle. 193,000 miles later, a stuck lifter stuffing a valve into #5 piston, and a bad case of tinworm robbed me of my favorite DD of all time.
One tearful trade-in later, I'm wheeling a V6 Dodge Grand Caravan in CCB (Common As Cat-Berk) Green. Senior daughter named it "BEV", for "Big Emerald Van". Not so much fun as the MPV, could haul more internal cargo, gave me a good eight years before I needed a vehicle with more towing capacity. If I could have swung it, the BEV would still be in the fleet, but I've only got so much space in the driveway.
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