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How To Choose a Spacious Vehicle
Has your family started
to cram into the old sedan like a pack of sardines?
Have members of the neighborhood car pool begun to look
suspiciously at your battered station wagon?
Perhaps it’s time to retire the
old family car and move up to a bigger vehicle. Often,
the choice for a more spacious family vehicle is a toss-up
between a sport utility vehicle (SUV) and a minivan.
Both offer flexible passenger and cargo areas, comfortable
seating for five to eight persons, and rear-seat entertainment
systems. Although the SUV has a slightly higher risk
for rollovers than minivans do, both are equipped with
similar safety features, such as air bags and anti-lock
brake systems. So, which one deserves to park in your
family garage? To come up with the right choice, you
need to look at how the vehicle’s styling, fuel
economy, passenger and cargo space, towing capacity,
and safety will suit your family’s needs and lifestyle.
Styling
More than a matter of need, a vehicle’s
styling is a matter of personal preference. The SUV
usually wins out over the minivan when it comes to appearance.
With its rugged, sporty styling, an SUV oozes urban
cool, unlike the minivan, which is perpetually associated
with soccer moms and suburban neighborhood carpools.
Most men would recoil at the thought of driving a minivan,
so if your husband would be sharing driving duties,
you might have to talk it out with him. Likewise, many
teenagers wouldn’t be caught dead stepping out
of a minivan, so if you’d be using the vehicle
mainly to drop off and pick up your adolescent children
from school, you’d have to consider their preferences,
too.
Fuel economy
Minivans give better mileage than SUVs,
which have a reputation for being gas guzzlers. If you
want to squeeze more miles out of the gasoline tank,
then a minivan would make a more economic choice than
an SUV. Other ownership costs, such as maintenance and
insurance, also tend to be higher for SUVs than minivans.
Unless you’re willing to pay the price for being
cool and stylish, the practical minivan is the way to
go.
Passenger and cargo space
Sport utility vehicles and minivans
have comparable passenger and cargo space, but the roomy
interiors of a minivan can be a delight to young kids.
Unlike SUVs, minivans also have a low step-in height,
so they’re easier for kids to climb into. Minivans’
large picture windows afford young passengers a better
view of the passing scenery, therefore keeping your
impatient young ones amused for a good part of the ride.
Towing capacity
If you own a boat and like to take the
entire brood for weekend sailing retreats, then an SUV
would make an appropriate choice. SUVs have superior
towing capacities, enabling them to pull practically
anything between a trailer and a small boat. Otherwise,
if you’re only schlepping groceries and your kid’s
soccer team, then there’s no reason to overlook
the minivan.
Safety
Although both have comparable safety
features, SUVs have a higher rollover risk than minivans.
SUV devotees counter this by pointing out that rollovers
account for only three percent of all traffic accidents
and claiming that SUVs offer excellent passenger protection
in two-car collisions. It remains to be seen whether
this supposed collision safety factor outweighs the
risk of rollovers. If the threat of rollover accidents
keeps you awake at night, then a minivan could give
you a little peace of mind.
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