We are part of the quarter century minivan club (89 Voyager with baby#1, 97 Transport, 2006 Odyssey… each one with nicer amenities). Thankfully the Odyssey only has about 80K miles, and I only add a few thousand a year. I still love it, but DH would not want to get another one now that both kids are grown and gone.
The Honda saleperson told us older drivers like the high-ish seat of CRV. I was skeptical, but sure enough, my dad did like it in the showroom. It’s easy to do a “side sit”, then swivel legs around.
Re: senior citizen access. We have both a Honda CR-V and a Kia Soul, both bought with the need to transport my (now) 98-year-old mobility-impaired MIL in mind, as one of several criteria. Both work pretty well but she much prefers the Soul. The CR-V seating is a bit higher and the passenger doorway either smaller or a bit farther back, not sure which (or possibly both). In any event, she finds it easier to back herself into the passenger seat in the Soul, plop herself down and then swing her legs in. Ease of the “side sit” might depend in part on the height of the sitter (cf. post #40). Larger SUVs don’t work for her at all; too big a climb.
All I know is that I’ve had several seniors struggle to get into the van that have had no similar problems getting into our sedan vehicles. I guess it just depends on the individual. At this point, we rarely have more than 4 people in our vehicle most of the time, so could have H choose whatever sedan strikes his fancy and continue keeping our minivan for hauling bigger things or when our kids are visiting or we have a vehicle being repaired.
His Volvo probably won’t last a whole lot longer, but who knows, as we don’t put on many miles every year on any vehicle.
I am kind of fond of the crossover vehicles, vehicles like the Mazda CX5 and the like seem to me to be a nice combination of things, while driving decently. I think most of the options people have been giving are good cars, the only problem with Volvos and BMW’s is if you do need to get things fixed, parts are sky high (not that anything is cheap), you are buying what are considered luxury market cars and you can pay for it. The good news is both brands vehicles are pretty reliable, and for example BMW was offering free service for a couple of years, but if you do need service it can be expensive. I am not a fan of full SUV’s, I don’t like the high up position, even with anti rollover stuff built into the cars, they still have problems with rolling. Then again, my wife’s dream car is a Chevy Suburban, so go figure…(we don’t own one, we have a Honda Odyssey with 200k that is just disreputable enough for me to drive (I still cry for the subaru wagon my wife made me get rid of, now that was a wonderfully disreputable car!), if reliable, and our other car is a Camry Solara convertible for fun driving)
I get free maintenance with the BMW. I have never owned a minivan. I have rented them on few occasions, but I didn’t find seats to be that comfortable.
My Odyssey has 180k miles and I’m finding it difficult to imagine my next car. (Prior car was a Grand Caravan.) Should it be a sedan? An SUV? A fun car, like a Mustang? There are so many choices! I’ll probably have to be practical since I’m responsible for taking my mom around and she definitely needs a higher entrance point. I do wonder if we will keep our van for times when we need seating to transport 6.
I think I am the only suburban mother on the planet who never owned an SUV, minivan or station wagon. Since my kids were born, I’ve driven a Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Lexus ES300 and now a Toyota Prius, which I love. I’ve simply never seen the need for anything bigger than a sedan. Honestly the Civic was just fine even when they were babies in car seats!
I bought our minivan for our kids, so we could drive them and my folks, comfortably fitting 6+. It turned out useful for camps, hauling around kids friends and now my nonprofit gear.
The Acura RDX works well for us. It is comfortable and reliable. Not as a big as the MDX, which is why we chose it. I wanted a more car like feel, with the function of a wagon as needed.
We have a Mazda 5 (wife’s car) when she decided the Odyssey was too big. It still seats 6, and can haul large items when needed, but smaller and handles better.
subaru xv crossteck- did any one mention this? I have this top of my list. I test drove it and it was really nice and not too long and quite comfortable. D1 has my CRV after D2 used it. does great cross country and lots of room. I am driving a honda civic hybrid which is great on gas mileage but not so much room and not AWD. did think about the honda fit but not AWD (apparently it is in europe). I love hondas but subarus coloradans swear by.
We are in a similar process, although my biggest consideration is rear and side visibility. Not sure it if’s due to my being 5’2", but I find it horrible in most vehicles. We found and really like Subaru Forrester/Outback but minimal research pointed out class action lawsuits and tons of customer complaints regarding excessive oil usage. A no-go for H, so back to square one.
@Pizzagirl, I was there with you until I inherited a step-child with 3 kids we really didn’t survive well until we got a minivan, which I HATED. First a Honda Odyssey, bc my H is a Honda guy, then a Toyota bc it had all wheel drive (but was a terrible Van for us, and I should haVe sued them bc somehow they put an issue that was totally a manufacturing issue through my insurance co., before I was aware of the future implications of that. $$$. Now I have a Volvo SUV which I love, but it is kind of overkill much of the time, for my 10 mile commute. Right now I’m trying to figure out if I should go with my heart and buy another Volvo, or go more practical. Hopefully I won’t need to decide for another year or 2.
We too sought out other options than vans for our 3 kids. We had a Mazda MPV and a GMC Envoy - both with 3rd seats.
My friend who are basically clinging to her Odessey when it finallly needed to go (and she didn’t want to give up a third seat BUT her family insisted, “no van!”) ended up with a Honda Pilot. She likes it.
^^Exactly. The Odyssey’s sliding doors are a better feature than the Pilot’s car doors. The only difference is the Pilot has 4WD. Less room and more $$.
