A Family Hauler
 

Ok, after reading the thread on the X5 I have a question. What if you have 6 people in your family. 4 boys, 13, 15, 17 , and 19. Other than the Suburban what else can you get that would haul around all that weight?

Find a 2-3 year old Mercedes GL450 and buy it with the CPO warranty. Ford Expedition? Not sure if they have 3rd row seating.

Mazda5? borderline mini-van tho.

Expedition? Trying to get away from gas guzzler. Little more info, 19 year old 6' 4" 250#, 17 yr old 190, 15 yr old 165, 13 year old 6' 170 lbs. If I thought the Mazda would do the trick I'd say yes but don't think it'll hold the weight.

what about a 3 row, GMC Envoy XL?

your kids are huge..maybe it is full size van time.

What kind of mileage does an old retired UPS or bread truck get?

GMC Acadia, Chevy Traverse, Buick Enclave


We have tue Saturn Outlook version and like it. These were designed as 3 row seating vehicles, not as an SUV that got a third row added after the initial design. Before you buy anything that has third row seating, you owe it to yourself to go check on of these out. The wife and I were a day from buying an Acura MDX before we went to see the Outlook.

With over 30K miles driven, we've not had any issues. Just a poor fuel quality problem that set off the traction control (stupidly linked to the engine timing control in such a way that it thinks it has a failed traction control).

Having the same discussion at home.

Need to replace the wife's 01' Tahoe this year. I love that truck, absolute tank. We always reset the trip meter on fill up. Drove it on Sunday and put gas in, getting ~12 MPG. Ouch.

Wife wants a new Tahoe, she really likes it. We haul our kids and neighbors kids a lot so 8 passenger seating is on the top of her required list.

Getting her used to the idea of a Traverse instead. And they start at $10k less than the Tahoe.

IS the Outlook a 7 seater, does it have the middle bench option for 8? Looked at it online and could not really get the seating spec.

What about an actual mini van? When it comes to hauling people and their stuff - they get the job done.

Where the price of gas may be going in the next couple of years - I would not want to be buying a Suburban.

i just remembered. my friend has an ACURA MDX with the 3rd row. huge and powerful.

dont know about mpg. it could be painful.

I don't think the Outlook is available since Saturn was dissolved. Or is it still?

When we bought our Outlook we spec'd it out from the factory. We could have gotten the middle captain's seats or the bench. We got the bench. So our's is a true 8 passenger vehicle.

The thing about the Outlook is it has a flat floor from front to back row, so the third row has plenty of leg room. Unlike the other vehicles that started out on a truck platform, and the rear seat is bolted to the trunk space. Getting in and out of one of those is not as easy with the flip foward middle row seats.

The Outlook has middle row seats with flip forward backs and the bottom cushions flip up and everything flods together and slids forward making it easy to get the the back row. We have big boys too. the 14 yr old is 5'11" alread and the 16 yr old is 6'1" maybe. Even the 6'+ kid is comfortable enough in the back row.

Getting in and out of the MDX's third row is a pain in the arse and the third row is basically bolted to the trunk...so it's a "squeeze behind the middle row and climb up into the trunk" routine. The wife really wanted the MDX and we were going to buy it with the thought that there was no other "smallish" 3-row seater available. The second she saw how the middle seats of the Outlook folds out of the way, she forgot about the MDX.

Although the Outlook appears small, it really isn't. It is smaller than a Suburban and the like, but it is pretty big. Infact the interior space is larger than that of a Tahoe. The back area, with all the seats folded down is bigger than that of the Tahoe. With all the seats folded down, I can lay down (think sleeping at the track) without my head or feet touching the front seats or tailgate..with room to spare. I'm 5'10.5".

The average fuel mileage on a 2500 mile road trip to Florida and back packed with 5 kids and stuff was 18 MPG with a lot of 70-80 MPH speed time.

The wifey gets probably 16 MPH on her commute (alot of stop and go). I drove it with MPG in mind once across town and I got 18 MPG. So it's fairly economical for such a large vehicle.

ETA: we also have the AWD version with the towing and touring package, so maybe we get slightly less MGP than the 2WD version.

ETA2: we have two baby seats in our's, once facing foward and one rearward in the middle row. We can still fold one seat to give access to the third row, and there's room for an adult in the middle row still!

A Toyota Sequoia seats 8, and will do 6 adults with gear pretty well.

The Sequoia starts at a little over $40K. The Acadia starts at ~$31K.

Nicely equiped (custom leather color and extrior color combo, DVD and sound system (basically everything but NAV..who needs it anyhow..., HID, towing, touring, etc..basically every option but NAV) we got out Outlook for less than $40K using the wife's GMS discount (about 3K).

Hard to beat for a new vehicle like the OUtlook.

My wife has an Odyssey. It is amazing for carrying people. Took 5 people and our gear on a 15 night trip up to Vancouver from SF this summer. (2 adults, 15 YO, 7 YO and 4 YO)

I have a Dodge Durango. It is OK for carrying people, but used they are very affordable. If you do not mind poor gas mileage, I think a used Durango is a great deal.

Wife likes them as well. My brother works for Toyota so I get a smokin deal on them.

Still, starts at $40k and 14/19 MPG.

Took a quick peak and can get a used 2010' Outlook for $23 or brand new traverse starting at $29k or nicely equipped for $36k.

Really tempting.

I think Ford is going to bring the Smax over to the US, maybe they will make a Bullitt edition so you can tell us at every possible opportunity how great it is.

Ford S-Max Review: 2011 Ford S-Max From Europe

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezfl...cd_gallery.jpg

I see church vans that hold quite a lot... :) But I would say go with a minivan if you still want somewhat good gas mileage.

I know a few families with the Mazda CX9 that really like them.

I can't imagine cramming that many larger (assuming boys are normal sized) folks into a cramped vehicle. Our LR Discovery seats 7 - but 2 of the 7 better be small and you need either a roof storage or second car to haul the attending stuff.

I would get a used Ford Excursion Diesel. They can get in the high teens/low 20s mpg if driven right.