8 or 12 passenger van?

amother

Fri, Jan 26 2024, 11:39 am

We have 6 kids ka"h and we found out we are expecting. We weren't planning on purchasing a bigger vehicle until much closer to baby, but our main 8-passenger van was in an accident and totaled. So now we only have an old 7-passenger van that was really just our backup van. This pregnancy is so new that no one knows which makes having this conversation much more challenging in real life.

Financially we're not well off, but we can qualify for financing.
My husband is very torn at whether or not it's worth it for us to get a 12-passenger because our eldest 2 are boys and will be going to yeshiva in a few years so the situations where we'd need the whole family in the car will not be that many.

We live in an area where people have big families and many have large vans so it's not unusual and parking isn't an issue on a day-to-day basis, but it is a much larger vehicle. I have driven them, I'm not "scared" by them, but they are much bigger. We thought of a suburban, but I don't like not having sliding doors with younger kids.

They are also about 20k more, but they tend to last longer. which is great in theory, but we've said that about our last 2-3 vehicles and all met untimely ends much sooner than we had been hoping.
I'm very torn. I don't like not having a vehicle that our whole family can fit in, but I do understand that its a much bigger expense.

How do we make this decision?

amother

Indigo

Fri, Jan 26 2024, 11:47 am

Guess you have to theoretically figure out how often a year you will all be traveling together. My sil who has 8 children did not get a big van because she said the day to day of driving that big a van is cumbersome. Instead they needed two cars anyway so she got a regular minivan and her husband bought an older model car. The few times a year they drive with everyone they take two cars. For a summer vacation they rented a bigger van.
Some people have taken a 8 passenger and added a middle seat in the front row, tho I’m sure it’s not 100% safe.

mha3484

Fri, Jan 26 2024, 11:52 am

We are a family of 7 in a 7 seater SUV. If I had another kid, I think the 12 seater makes more sense. Not the 15. That's too big. But kids get bigger, the personal space is nice for them. My 13 year old son is taller then me. Also the ability to carpool is great so even if you have car seats you can still fit a bunch of kids. Like my friends have 6 or 7 family carpools for mesivta so you only drive 1x a week but 7 teenage boys take a lot of room. Thinking more also my friends with high school girls also find it useful to make a 5 family carpool so everyone gets 1 day so its also beneficial to have the space when your girls get bigger.

Hashem_Yaazor

Fri, Jan 26 2024, 3:51 pm

mha3484 wrote:

Ford Transit is the same size whether it's a 12 or 15, it's just a matter of trunk size

They also have 10 seat options though that may be a nice compromise for this family. I believe they're not as long but maybe I'm wrong...

amother

Thu, Feb 08 2024, 2:08 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

My husband tried looking for the 10 passenger but couldn't find one.

We do 1-2 big trips a year, we live in the Midwest, and have family on the East Coast.

Lots of people in our community have big vans, but I can't say I would be excited to drive one on a regular basis. We don't go lots of places all together, but I like to be able to take a chol hamoed trip or something all together. Feels weird to have to split up. We have a 2nd vehicle, but we dont trust it for more than local driving.

My eldest will likely go away for yeshiva in 2-3 years, so having a big van is somewhat of a temporary need, but I don't know how to decide if it's worth the splurge.

amother

Butterscotch

Thu, Feb 08 2024, 2:20 pm

We went from having an 8 seater mini van and a small car to having a 15 passenger van and a mini van. If you do carpool or would benefit from the extra seats on a day to day basis it may be worth your while. If for the most part you only go with the entire family 1-2 times a year I would definitely think twice about it. I find that 90% of the time you really can fit fine in a mini van.
Some of the cons for me are:
- there are virtually no automatic sliding doors on 12-15 passenger vans
- since the doors are usually manual the little kids have a hard time closing them all the way and many times I have had to go around to do it myself.
- bigger step up to get in the car so harder for little ones and elderly people
- hard to hear the children in the back
- harder to park
- slightly harder to drive, change lanes etc. (although when you get used to it, it really is not that hard)
- uses more gas