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Commuter family vehicle

GottaB

By GottaB
in Can You Help Me With This?

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GottaB

GottaB 594

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I commute from Pflugerville to near downtown Austin daily.

 

I currently have a Honda Accord but I also have three kids that are growing. What’s the best balance of space and daily driver?

 

I had an F150 crew cab but I felt like was wearing it out driving it like a car on mopac at 18,000 miles a year.

 

I’m thinking Ford Explorer. I have considered a 4Runner but the interior seems smaller than the explorer.

 

I considered Subaru’s Ascent as it drives like a car and gets better mileage than the two above.

 

What say the shag.

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LebongJames

LebongJames 1811

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We have a 2016 4Runner Limited and we absolutely love the car. I had a work Explorer and it was such a terrible car. But it was the base level with a base engine. 

4Runner gas mileage is pretty shitty for 2019 standards. Wife commutes from South Austin to downtown 8 miles each way and gets like 17mpg. 

I get 18-20 in my F150 Ecoboost  2wd crew cab but I drive a lot of highway miles to Dallas/Houston/ San Antonio. 

Get a truck

 

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5539

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4 hours ago, LebongJames said:

If you are looking at pricing of the F150. Look at the STX model. You can get a lot of truck for a really reasonable price . 

Yep.   I drive a 2017 STX F-150 and I thought I got more features  with  the STX vs the some of the XLT's that were on the lot such as a bigger touch screen with Apple Car Play, 20 inch wheels and a different kind of fabric on the seats which wears better than the XLT upholstery.   And about $4000 lower on the sticker price too.  

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ButtFumble

ButtFumble 5180

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you have 3 kids just bite the bullet and get the minivan

I drove one of these about 500 miles recently on the highway and it will go 90 easily and it got good mileage

you can't beat the room with kids and the ease of getting shit in and out

maybe with 2 kids the SUV would work, but with 3 fuck it your life is over anyway so just get what works

1f4d9539bf8a4c6495354dd80e87aabe.jpg

Edited by ButtFumble
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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5539

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you have 3 kids just bite the bullet and get the minivan
I drove one of these about 500 miles recently on the highway and it will go 90 easily and it got good mileage
you can't beat the room with kids and the ease of getting shit in and out
maybe with 2 kids the SUV would work, but with 3 fuck it your life is over anyway so just get what works
1f4d9539bf8a4c6495354dd80e87aabe.jpg


The 80s called and said they wanted this Caravan back. At least recommend them a Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey. Full disclosure. We had a Toyota Sienna back in the mid 2000’s when my two oldest were young ones back then. It did make it easier to get them in and out of the vehicle in tight parking spaces and it was an OK drive for a mini van. But as soon as they got older and bigger, we traded for a Toyota Sequoia SUV .
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GottaB

GottaB 594

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We have had a minivan for 7 years.
Dodge caravan. We are selling it now.

I appreciate the space and the sliding doors.

I hate everything else. The acoustics suck and the phone connection is awful. And It drives like a van.

I considered a Honda or Toyota but came to the conclusion that I just don’t like minivans.

I have spent the last few hours looking online at the highlander. It’s an option. I’ll check them out on Tuesday.

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elfenix

elfenix 34254

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are you downsizing to one car only?

 

edit: the highlander isn't going to drive that much different from a minivan, because it is a minivan. biggest difference is the independent rear suspension, so it'll ride better over choppy pavement, especially in choppy corners.  not that you can hoon one.

Edited by elfenix
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GottaB

GottaB 594

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is the accord the only car you have?



Our current cars are the accord and the caravan. When we went camping with the boys I had to use the caravan and it was stuffed.

The Honda is what I got because I commute. 30mpg. It drives great but the room is limited and sitting three across in the back seat is getting annoying because the kids pester each other.

The dodge seats well but isn’t enjoyable to drive. No oomph on the toll way and noisy. 20mpg on a good day.

She’s getting rid of the van and will likely get an explorer. I’m thinking about doing the same. Sound excessive I know. But I’m more open to something that’s more commuter friendly but also good for the other stuff so I don’t have to use her car.
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Texaus

Texaus 377

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Hyundai sante fe. They make two different versions. A “sport”and one with 3 rows. I know this because I bought one for wife and was super proud of meself. Unfortunately, she was too uppity for the Hyundai, but I thought it was a lot of car for the money, seriously.

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torre

torre 1286

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20 hours ago, GottaB said:


I have spent the last few hours looking online at the highlander. It’s an option. I’ll check them out on Tuesday.
 

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/toyota-highlander/2100006699/

 

Highlander will be redesigned for 2020,  read that scheduled release is Dec.  Possible good deal on the '19's though maybe faster depreciation.    Excellent ratings by Consumer Reports. .

 I'm also searching for a vehicle.  What is  the forum general opinion of Consumer Reports' Vehicle Reviews  ?    Best of any, highly accurate, or grain of salt ?

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gecko

gecko 1104

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Honda Pilot with the 3rd row seating...

Big believer in Subaru Outback, but everyone will think you're a lib, gay, or both (NTTAWWT).  The Outback drives like a beast (6 cylinder) and is great over the road.  The Ascent with 3rd row is a good option, but I think Subaru is now doing those with the 4 cylinder turbo, or maybe that's 2020.  I just leased a 2019 Outback and turned over my 2017 as this is the last year for the 6s.  Note to self, I should have bought it outright.

Edited by gecko
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tokamak

tokamak 6431

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On 7/14/2019 at 5:40 PM, GottaB said:

We have had a minivan for 7 years.
Dodge caravan. We are selling it now.

I appreciate the space and the sliding doors.

I hate everything else. The acoustics suck and the phone connection is awful. And It drives like a van.

I considered a Honda or Toyota but came to the conclusion that I just don’t like minivans.

I have spent the last few hours looking online at the highlander. It’s an option. I’ll check them out on Tuesday.
 

We've put about 50k miles on our '15 Highlander so far. Great vehicle so far and we're really happy with it. That said, the bluetooth/phone connection sucks balls. Worst feature of the vehicle by a mile. Toyota's had 4 years to make it better (assuming you're buying new), but if it's really important to you, I'd read a lot of reviews and stuff first just to make sure.

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horn4life

horn4life 3760

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We had a similar situation with my wife and we ended up buying a Hyundai Sonata from Enterprise rent-a-car.  She mainly wanted a car that would "pay for itself" with her mileage expense reimbursement from her company.  I think we paid like $14K for a 2017 with 18K in miles.  It's not hard loaded with power seats and a sunroof, but the thing has a hell of a lot of space for a car that gets 32 mpg on the highway.  We waited and watched for a lower mileage car, and it's been a solid vehichle. massive trunk for car size.

Since your kigs are geyying older back seat legroom, trunk space, and mpg relative to car cost would be where i would be evaluating closest.

 

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GottaB

GottaB 594

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If you are looking at pricing of the F150. Look at the STX model. You can get a lot of truck for a really reasonable price . 



The wife brought home her Explorer today and I looked at trucks while I was there. Typical 10k-13k off STX and XLT models.

The STX may be the answer here.

I’ll keep my Accord as a commuter and use the truck when I need it.

The highlander at $8500 off (which I heard never happens) seems like a great deal.
43k msrp to 35k
1ce71cccf3da755548f4b26736329dc2.jpg
40k msrp to 32k
c30a30739bb011ea796cde85a1bd3095.jpg

I still almost went with an Highlander or Subaru Ascent but ultimately it didn’t make sense to have two vehicles with similar capability (explorer and highlander) when we could have the versatility of all three for the same price.
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GottaB

GottaB 594

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We've put about 50k miles on our '15 Highlander so far. Great vehicle so far and we're really happy with it. That said, the bluetooth/phone connection sucks balls. Worst feature of the vehicle by a mile. Toyota's had 4 years to make it better (assuming you're buying new), but if it's really important to you, I'd read a lot of reviews and stuff first just to make sure.

Because of this post I tested their system and really like the Entune gen 3 they had in the model I tested. It quickly connected, the volume wasn’t far off from the radio volume when switching, and was very intuitive.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Longhorn Fever

Longhorn Fever 267

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On 7/14/2019 at 11:49 PM, Buzzrock said:

Honda Pilot. We’re on our second. 8-seater, holds a ton of shit without being ridiculously huge, indestructible. Not a minivan.

I don't know, man. Since the redesign, I think Pilot owners are just driving a minivan with swingout doors instead of sliders.

Image result for pilot vs minivan

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