Since retiring in my forties in 2007, I occasionally drive our daughter to pre-school classes. As I wait in the car line to drop her off, I've been noticing the makes of the other vehicles. Except for our car (or my truck), 100% of the vehicles were either SUVs or mini-vans.
It appears that many of the SUVs and mini-vans are loaded (e.g. leather package, built in DVD), and I estimate them to be less than three years old. We drive a compact car and a pickup truck, which are five years old. While my spouse's compact car has a upgrade package, I drive the base model truck, which has a manual transmission.
Our daughter has been asking when we will buy a mini-van. (Answer: Never, since my spouse despises the thought of a mini-van being the primary vehicle.) In the meantime, our four year old will need to settle for the occasional ride in my full size pickup truck, which she still thinks is pretty cool.
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2 comments:
Actually, I LOVE my Dodge Caravan mini-van. It did not come loaded--in fact I refused to spring for the electric windows because it would have added $400 to the price. I bought the van new in 1999. With five children and assorted grandchildren, I needed the room. But I found that I loved sitting up high and having such a good view of the road. I loved being able to put the back seats down or removing them completely in order to transport all kind of things. I even loved the row of plastic hooks in back to attach grocery bags so that they would remain upright. Now that "Big Green" has 159,000 miles, several dents, and an ever-increasing roster of needed repairs, I am thinking about getting another vehicle. It will probably be a Prius. But if I do, I'll still miss my mini-van.
We too have 5 kids.
So the "family car" has to be a mini van. Though it is used inefficiently most of the time, like sending one kid to school or something like that, it's the only car that can take all of us in one go.
I looked for opportunities to be able to rent such a car for family trips, but it is not an easy thing. Most rental cars are the sedans.
We live in Malaysia.
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