no1mad 

has failed in epic proportions. The wife just bought a Suburban. I voted for a minivan but was over ruled. I shall now attempt to turn dirt into fuel to keep that 42 gallon beast fed.

zeppinger

So what do you want from us, pitty? How about some more information as to WHY it failed for you.

DX-MAN

It's ok,...someday she'll get tired of carrying them and hand you back your stones.

enine

Having made the mistake of buying a minivan once a subruban is a batter choice. Minivans can get better highway mpg but tend to be aboue equal with city mileage due to usually having an undersized engine/transmission/drivetrain but the suburban has mre capability if you do need to haul or tow somehting.

Robert Foster

Just because you have a SUV doesn’t mean you have failed. Tell us more about how it will be used and how often.

enine

Thats the trick, if you have a 50mpg car and commuted 100 miles each way to work or a suburban and commute 1 mile to work who really uses less resources. I have a v8 truck but only drive a couple miles at a time unless we take a trip to the farm where a front wheel drive vehilce can;t go so its easily justified since it doesn't drive much and it the only thing suited for the famr driving.

Blindrage

why, because he let his wife make a decision?

In some relationships both parties are equal. If my soon to be wife decided to buy something I would hate to think she would back down just because I disagreed with it. Should he have chosen that hill to die on because it would support your ideal of being car free?

Torrilin

*shrug* If we were in a position where we truly needed a vehicle, it'd be a half ton pickup or minivan on a half ton chassis for hauling (I am NEVER driving a minivan built on a car chassis EVER AGAIN). If you've got 3 or more teenagers, have a small business, or your wife works from home, odds are that Suburban is needed. You may not need a *second* vehicle beyond that. In a lot of situations, you only need a heavy hauler and enough bikes for all the adults.

Going all overdramatic over a heavy hauling vehicle seems a bit silly.

enine

There never were any half ton minivans, the only frame based minivans in the us were the aerostar and Astro/Safari which were on the 1/4ton chassis. To get a half ton van chassis you had to go to the regular size van. With the death of the astro safari (and s10 chassis it was based on) and the aerostar there are only front wheel drive minivans left in the us. I don't plan on ever owning a front wheel drive vehicle again.

no1mad 

Ya want more info? Here it is:

1. 5 kids between us. One teen, our 8 and 5 yr olds live with us. Two more teens live in NC, but are currently out here for the summer visitation. There is a strong chance that those two may end up out here on a more permanent basis.
2. We became car light just over a year ago, after the Dr. said that I should not be driving anymore. My wife has been driving everybody everywhere in her '05 Hyundai Elantra. Her car is good for the daily commutes of around40 miles r/t, but not very utilitarian.
3. We may be moving soon, and the wife wanted something that could tow/haul. The Suburban would allow us to just rent a trailer for a flat fee, instead of renting a truck and paying mileage on top of that.

To sum up, we needed a vehicle large enough to seat our family of seven safely and legally, and offer better utility than the current car. It's just that I wanted a minivan for the lower (perceived) operational costs, but the wife wanted more for "just in case".
The SUV will be used for weekend family outings, cargo hauling duty (already brought a orange tree home in it) and those road trips to pick up/drop off those kids. The small car will continue to be the daily driver.

enine

Minivans actually cost more to operate as I learned. A suburban is a truck and has truck sized parts like brakes and suspension. minivans have car parts which wear out faster when used for towing and hauling. Trucks usually have grease fittings on the steering components, if its 4x4 there will be 11 total, minivans typically have greased for life which means if dirt or water gets in the seals the joint wears out because you can't put in clean grease to first the dirt out, trucks you put in new grease and the pats keep clean and last forever.
I good upgrade is to switch from the P rated to LT rated tires, improves the handeling and ability a lot, plus on a vehicle that size the softer tires men more rolling resistance and therefore less mpg. Before I put the off road tires on my truck I was hitting 21mpg and its the 6 seat extended cab with 4x4 and the 5.3L v8.

no1mad 

Interesting stuff. I've got a '99 GMC Suburban with the 5.7 and RWD. It came with fresh rubber BFG All-Terrain, but thinking about trying to swap out for some Long Trail Touring to improve the MPG a bit.

enine

Oh yea, the BFG AT's killed my mileage, those are an aggressive tread so they have a lot of resistance plus I want up a couple sizes to raise ground clearance so mine dropped to 17 max so its like I'm getting Toyota mpg now (their trucks are the worst in mpg). But with P rated tires I was getting holes in them on the farm and having to patch them so i traded mpg for not having to fix tiresall the time.

zeppinger

I dont know, I think its the 5.3 Liter V8 pushing around about 6k pounds or so of metal and glass that kill your millage more than anything

zeppinger

Consumer Reports has reported that the cost of owning the average mini-van is significantly cheaper than the cost of the average SUV or pick-truck. Not to mention the significantly better safety ratings for hauling passengers.

Min-vans have been around for a long time and are, on average, rated to be more reliable than trucks and SUVs. Plenty of large families around the world get all of their kids to and from one place or another without resorting to anything resembling an SUV.

enine

No, read my previous post, I got 21mpg before the tire change, went down to 17mpg after.

Lamplight

Any minivan besides the Astro/Safari isn't really meant to be hauling much beside people. If you buy a Kia mini van expecting to haul a trailer on a regular basis, of course you're going to be disappointed. My family and I rent a couple of mini vans a year for day trips, and each one has gotten extremely good gas mileage. But I'd never dream of trying to use them for more than just basic hauling (groceries, kids, small potted plants, etc)

Artkansas 

I still don't see how it affects you being car lite. It's not like you are being forced to not ride your bike.

Both a minivan and an SUV are bad moves in my book. But then again, so is having that many kids. You'll just have to suffer along till they are out of the house and the SUV is scrap iron. This too shall pass.

enine

Consumer reports doesn't count everything, when they measure reliability they only factor in breakdowns not "maintenance items". Some car based vehicles you replace nearly half the engine as a maintenance item so it doesn't count against their reliability even though its still downtime and cost.

The safety ratings ratings are skewed too, remember minivans are typically family vehicles so they get driven as such most of the time they don't have the stick a block between the axel and springs lift kits a truck or suv does. My cousin has rolled a half dozen trucks but that doesn't make them prone to rollovers because they were all due to his modifications but those kind of things affect the overall average.

CR is a pretty bad source of data, take two vehicles which are the same except for the name on them and you will get two different ratings because owners opinions and perceptions affect their outcomes.

wahoonc

Trucks are expensive to maintain....I just spent close to $2000 of the company's money to fix a front end problem on a 2007 Chevy pickup with only 62,000 miles on it. POS. Guess how many bikes I could buy for that?

Aaron

enine

Any thats why the cost of ownership numbers are skewed, company owned vehicles get abused and you never hear the real reason why something broke because they employee will tell you they were just driving down the road, they won't tell you they were airborn over a railroad crossing

jefferee

If I were to spend that much money on bikes, I would be able to buy.... one.

Roody

Since this is a carfree forum, I wonder if the OP has any interest in hearing suggestions for using the motorized vehicle--whatever type--as little as possible. If not, I see this thread as being off topic for the forum.

Anybody have any thoughts fot the no1mad using this gas guzzler waste of resources as little as possible?

I might start with training the kids to be more self-sufficient when it comes to transportation. Do they all have bikes of their own and good walking shoes?

enine

Thats why I said the sub was a better choice. A minivan can't really do much more that a bike while a truck or suburban can. You take the bike for normal day to day activity and use the truck when you need to tow or haul more than a bike can.
IMHO cars are worthless since they can't do anymore than a bike. I can't see owning a car.

I-Like-To-Bike

Do you drive in snow much? Better get a winch.

The only thing I ever see rear wheel drive pickups haul in the winter are cinder blocks or several bags of sand for added traction and for use to get them out of snowy areas that front wheel drive vehicles handle without a problem.