Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Photobucket Mini-Vans or....

Mike is seriously thinking of getting another car for me to drive when I don't need the 15 pass van. The gas is killing us.

I was thinking a Honda Civic. Tonight he mentioned a mini-van so I could take the 5 younger ones with me as needed. I told him I didn't think they got very good gas mileage. He poined out even 20 mpg would be twice as good as what I get now. He plans to begin asking folks as they get into their mini-vans what their gas mileage is. I told him I thought a blog post would give us lots of info too.....without him having to catch folks getting into their vans.

His clunker Honda gets 40 mpg....but I can't drive it well with my aching joints.....

Would those of you with mini-vans leave a note as to what you get for gas mileage, and which one you have? If you have another car that gets over 20 mpg would you leave the info - and how many people it would sit - max with a car seat?

I was sort of pushing for a convertible.....but Mike points out I can roll the windows down and get the wind blown feel, and the roof will save me from sun stroke. ::snort::

Tonight we realized that our two drivers may be staying here when we move so I haven't a clue how we'd get the new car to a new town...but we'll worry about that later......and yes...we'll pay cash for whatever we get, so it has to stay in the IRS refund/stimulus price range. ::snort::

Thanks!

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19 comments:

Kelly said...

We have a 2004 Chevy Venture. It seats 7. It has a built-in carseat which is very nice. We get around 20 mph.

When will Mike transfer again? I really think Dayton is a good place to go LOL!

How sad to think about leaving kids around the country. So let's not :::snort::: Yep, wound up tonight. We're at the lake. The boys are sleeping. I'm wishing Doug weren't at work and staying on the computer way too late when I should be in bed!

Michelle said...

We have a Chevy Astro van. It gets 22 mpg and seats 8.

Michelle said...

Oh, we also have a VW Jetta that seats 5 and gets almost 30 mpg.

Anonymous said...

I'm driving one of those big old 15-passenger vans, too, but we have a Ford Taurus as a back-up. To me it feels like a sports car. :-) It can hold 5 people - 6 in a pinch - and it gets 20-something mpg.

Jodi @ SNAPPED said...

We have a Honda Odyssey which seats 8 and we average 20 -21 mpg on the highway. It has a neat feature that when you are going a constant speed, it drops the number of cylindars it uses to use less gas. {At least I think that is how my husband explained it}.
Gas here today was $3.89 in Idaho, I have been wondering how that compared to everyone else.

I LOVE the Legacy Poem at the top of your blog. I have read it about 10 times today. It is so very encouraging. THANK YOU!

~Jodi

Debbie said...

No mini-van here, although our 7-passenger conversion used to get 15/17 mpg...it is now 14 years old and has 200,000 miles, so we are running about 12 mpg.

Brian has a Ford Escort wagon that he loves that seats 5 and he is getting 35 mpg. We had a ford Taurus a while back that was bigger than the Escort, could seat 6 and got about 25 mpg.

Renee said...

DeEtta,
IF you get stationed overseas next summer you'll only get ONE vehicle shipped by the military. We looked into shipping dh's Crown Vic (bought here) back to the States (as far as FL) and it was over $2K.... so keep that in mind when thinking about having 3 cars with only two drivers. And the military doesn't pay to store your car while overseas.
We have a Toyota Sienna (seats 8) with a good amount of luggage space but I have no idea what the gas mileage is since we rarely go more than a few miles here in Germany (well in reality, it's currently on a boat in the Atlantic).

Renee said...

Oops, I forgot to ask. Did you get your stimulus $$$. We got a letter in the mail that said we were getting it but then when we turned to the other side, it said ours was being reviewed. Sigh.... that was going to buy the washer, dryer and part of the fridge.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Yes, Renee. We got the stimulus. I have no clue why we got what we got.....they paid us $3K. This was more than the base tax expert or I figured we'd get. We also got 8K as a tax refund (all Mike's salary was tax free while deployed and yet we had them take out our taxes....) so we are thinking we could get a vehicle that would save us gas now.....

Yeah, I'm not sure how we'll do the move with the cars...probably sell the oldest or leave it with the children. AND I don't have any real hope that we'll go to Europe - though the littles are now praying for this.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Hmmm.....that Ford Escort is sounding very interesting. LOL

Mike's clunker car gets 40 mpg.....

Unknown said...

We have a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan with AWD and the gas mileage isn't very good, 13-20 MPG.
You get 20 MPG on the highway.
Laura

Christa said...

I have a 2005 Grand Caravan, and I get an average of 20 mpg. It seats seven - unless you have to put two car seats in the back seat (which I do) - then it only seats 6.

Anonymous said...

Our 2002 Kia Sedona has worked GREAT for us. It gets around 18 in the city & 22 on the highway. Of course, this isn't running the AC, so summer months guzzle more gas. It seats 7. I have to remove seats in our model, but the newer ones have the seats that fold away. We haven't had any major problems with it & I know Kia has a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Kelly - OH would be good - I agree. Leaving kids around the country is not good - but you are right- we aren't going there right now. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Thanks - all keep the makes and mpg coming. LOL

Cynthia said...

We have a Ford Taurus that gets at least double (around 30) what our Yukon gets. I had been driving it for quite awhile last fall not necessarily for gas expenses, but to save mileage on the Yukon so it'll last a long time... it's nice to take on long trips. THen, the transmission went out of our Taurus. We just got another transmission yesterday and I will hopefully start driving it again within a week or two to now save $$ and mileage on the YUKON.

Laura Paxton said...

We have 2002 8-passenger Pontiac Montana, which seems to be kind of difficult to find. It gets approximately 22 MPG.

Hubby drives a 2006 Honda Civic which gets 30+ MPG.

I would LOVE to get a Hybrid, since we're in town now, we should get great milage...but they don't make the big enough for our family.

all in the family said...

DeEtta,
We have a Town and Country. We LOVE it. In town it is 20 and on the HWY is 21-25. It seats 7 and has TONS of room. We just saw a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan advertised. It only has 12,000 miles for around $16k. The Grand is the same as the T&C, not as many bells and whistles but this one does. Thanks for stopping at my blog. I've missed ya!

Margie said...

De,
Embarrassed to say I don't know how much milage I get for the gallon. Never have figured that out. I own a 2002 Chevrolet Venture. I'll ask my hubby though, he'll know and I'll get back with you. It seats 7.
Magie