Friday, October 9, 2009

The MINI Van


Okay, so a couple months ago, I told you that we were going to rent a minivan, and how I thought I might die. Well, I am happy to report I didn't, and I have the proof right here. Now, I know there are a couple of you that read this blog that are in love with your minivan. It was a humbling expirence to learn a few good things about the minivan world.

First of all let me tell you we had a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Minivan that had about 6000 miles on it. So we were set up for a sweet ride.



I will admit there was a lot of nice features of the van that made our road trip to Vegas very convenient and comfortable.
I LOVED how all the doors auto opened and closed with just a push of a button, there was no need to slam the doors, they did it all by themselves.

I LOVED the storage space in the van, since we are over-packers by nature this was a great feature. However I could easily see how if you owned a van there could be treasures lost in the many hideouts that you would never see again.

And there were a couple of myths about minivans that I am happy to report are myths.

The first: Some people can look good driving a minivan, and if you want to look a little frumpy, when you are in the minivan no one is shocked. So either way you are covered.

The Second: THEY HAVE BLINKERS, (signals), you know those lights on the end and side of the vehicles, they aren't for decoration they really do work. I know can you believe it? I was shocked to learn this, since I had never before seen anyone driving a minivan use their signals.

The Third: My Pink CD sounded pretty good in the van, and the speakers spread out further than in my Lancer OZ, and I have to admit sounded good. You can rock out in a minivan. (Although people driving by wouldn't believe it, they would think you were just yelling at your kids.)

The Forth: They can do more than 60 MPH on the freeway. It didn't even kill the gas milage. For real people, are you listening? I am not kidding this is not a joke, I got this bad boy up to 90 more than once by "accident", and he loved it. Don't be fooled by the way you see other people driving, these things do have guts.

To summarize my review, minivans are great for long distance travel. Next time we plan a long distance road trip I am sure we will be renting another. There will however not be a mini van in my name, I need my little car that can get in and out of places fast, I have a reason not to participate in the carpool, (limited space), and I would probably loose Charlee in one of the hundred hiding places. I hope you learned something from my experience, and I promise not to laugh when you tell me you are buying one for your family.

3 comments:

Vanessa Shannon said...

LOL! There is another reason that makes mini-vans dreamy. When you have more than one child and they are over the age of 2, the van gives lots of separation space to keep them from hitting, poking, teasing, punching, and spitting on each while you are driving. On the other hand sometimes too much space isnt necessarily a good thing. This is my thought when I am cleaning the van out at a carwash....more space = more mess...yuck. Lots of free range chicken nuggets found in spaces I didnt even realize existed!

Stormy said...

Admittedly, we were not converted to the mini-van until numero dos came along. Up until then we had sworn we would NEVER buy one! I guess that makes us hypocrites! Oh well, we love ours and that it only cost us $5k on craigslist! (Although, the doors do not close with the push of a button). I also ditto your friend, Vanessa's comments about the separation of kiddos to minimize all the hitting, poking, teasing, etc....!!!

Jeff and Kim said...

We rented one last year and I loved it also. Same make and model. I could possibly see myself driving one at some point in the very distant future! LOL