Mini van or SUV?

Ok, so our van has the GEN 3 faulty seat belts in it (02 Dodge Caravan - Thanks Daimler Chrysler )

At the time, we bought what we could pay CASH for and be done. Looking back, I regret this. I wish we would have put all that money down, taken out a small car loan and gotten an Oddy or Sienna. We would have paid it off within a year or two with bonus checks. But NOOOOO... we wanted to be debt free. Which I normally STRONGLY advocate, but when it comes to safety (not bells and whistles) you shouldn't have to settle (IMHO).

So here we are, debating between making a move on an Oddy or an SUV.

Why SUV? Only to be able to tow a boat which currently is in storage at a marina. We pay $145/mo for that... but the boat is protected with inside storage plus it's super easy to access. We show up, they drop it in the water and we jump in.

I love the sliding doors, storage and safety of a minivan... but don't like being committed to $145/mo to a marina. If we had an SUV we could tow the boat and save that $$. But I almost wonder if it would be awash with the extra $$$ we'd be using in GAS and insurance for an SUV - not to mention the potential roll-over risks.

So what should we do?? (PS: selling the boat is not an option. It's DH's baby plus it really does give us some awesome family time.)

I've been wondering the same thing for myself. Interested to see what others have to say.

We recently looked at the Honda Oddy and Honda Pilot...I'm torn between the two.

Have you considered towing with the van? I remember the van being able to tow almost as much as the Pilot...I think 3,000 lbs

If you don't need the seating capacity-the Honda Ridgeline truck is pretty impressive. It seats 5.

We've got 3 kids so we definitely want 3 rows with room to spare.

I called Honda and the Oddy can only tow 2500 lbs. Our boat weighs 3400 lbs and that doesn't include trailer weight.
It would definitely strain the Oddy.

I think auto mfrs have made a lot of improvements to their SUV designs in recent years, to address rollovers. Just anecdotally, I have noticed that newer SUV's are a lot wider on their bases than their tops, and I'm sure that's due to reducing the risk of rollovers. The designs are definitely better now than they were in the tippy-toppy days of the early 2000's.

Here is the link to the Insurance Institute's crash ratings. They must have something about rollovers there, too.

http://www.iihs.org/

Good luck!

TN Mary said:

We've got 3 kids so we definitely want 3 rows with room to spare.

I called Honda and the Oddy can only tow 2500 lbs. Our boat weighs 3400 lbs and that doesn't include trailer weight.
It would definitely strain the Oddy.

Click to expand...

I looked up Honda's website and it indicates the 2007 Oddy can tow 3500 lbs, with optional setups (Requires surge-type or electric trailer brakes, load-distribution hitch and transmission- and power steering-fluid coolers.).

http://direct.automobiles.honda.com/odyssey/specifications.aspx?group=all

You may want to check out Honda Oddy forums to get
some first hand experience from other Oddy owners.

3500? Sounds good.... let me run this by some folks on the boat board.

I know they talk about needing weight allowance for the trailer plus some extra weight for gear on board.

I must have gotten an misinformed sales guy!

THANKS!

What about an older Tahoe or Suburban? (late 90's) My Suburban (a 93) gets decent gas milage for it's size, and tows FIL's boat very easlily according to DH (I won't drive it while towing anything - I don't even like driving it when it's loaded up for vacation). A 93 goes for about $5-7k, a '99 is $8-10k.

But would those SUV's have side curtain airbags and rollover detection?

I've vowed to not skimp on safety this time around. Bells and whistles I can do without.

Some car-based SUVs are very safe and have better towing limits than most minivans.

Models like the Honda Pilot (4500lbs), Volvo XC90 (4000/5000 lbs) and Saturn Outlook (4500lbs) come to mind offhand. I'm sure there are others with a good mix of safety and towing capability, too.

Like others said, safety feature wise, the safest SUV and mini vans are pretty much on par these days.
Each has its unique advantages (features, comfort, convenience, towing capacity, off-road cabability, drivability, handling, gas consumption, etc..).
Based on my experience, I found it useful to categorize the priorities and score the pros/cons accordingly. Just like how some car magazines reviews vehicles.

According to your evaluation, I would say
a mini van with towing capacity over 3500 lbs
would be ideal, since you still value the convenience of having sliding doors, easy access,
and the "real" 3rd row seats. You also perceive mini vans as safer with lower center of gravity and all the safety features available.

Thanks guys. Awesome advice.

I don't think there is a minivan that can tow over 3500 lbs (if ya know of any, let me know).

I posted this same question on the boat board I'm on... and they said a 3400 lb boat on a van limited to 3500 lbs would be REALLY pushing the transmission. If anything happened to it while pulling a boat, the warranty would be null and void.

You have to account for the weight of the trailer PLUS all the gear that's on board. Ideally, if you have a capacity to tow 5000 lbs, you really want to keep TOTAL tow load to around 4000-4500 lbs. Always tow UNDER your capacity, not over.

I'm going to look into the other options you all mentioned like the Outlook, Pilot and Volvo.... but I have a feeling, I'm going to like the cabin layout of a minivan better.

Holy cow... that Outlook is BEAUTIFUL!!!

Found out it's got an all steel frame, tons of safety features, easy access to 3rd row, decent gas mileage (18/24), and can tow 4500 lbs.

But kinda pricey: $30 - $42. And since they only came out in 2007, not a whole lot of used ones out there.