Chris and I did try several basic 4-door varieties, but I seem to like the small wagons better. Yikes, I blanch a little just typing that. Growing up we had a few station wagons, including the lovely brown one with wood trim. With 4 kids, my parents would be up front and the rest of us would fight over where to sit, either the 'middle' or the 'far back.' And of course everyone wanted to sit in the same place. We'd also take the station wagon on the yearly trip to Wisconsin. This was fun because my parents would sometimes put down all the seats and lay out sleeping bags and we'd have a big area to play in. This was way before child safety laws were invented, obviously.
Anyway, I've looked at the following so far:
Malibu Maxx: This was fun to drive, easy to maneuver and it had plenty of room in the back seat so I don't bump my head all of the time and tall people fit in there too. The ones I drove even had window roofing for the back seat.The downside seems to be it has a bigger engine than I would need, so it would use lots of gas.
Pontiac Vibe: I drove this one a couple of days ago and loved it. Again, easy to handle, gas and brakes were great. Again, lots of head room and leg room in the back seat. And the engine is actually smaller than what I am used to but it still worked great for me. It's not like I'm going to be hot rodding with Peanut in the back seat. Unless some punk is just needing a beat down.
I would still like to try a Mazda Protege5 and a Toyota Matrix.And for some reason people keep pointing out Ford Taurus wagons to me. I shudder. I think it's just too wagon-esque and I'd feel like I was in 1985 again.
The tough part is that the cars I like are just a bit out of price range. But since we don't need it for a couple of months yet, I have local used car lots bookmarked and will be keeping an eagle eye out for a good deal. Hopefully it will all work out.
Suggestions and input welcome in the comments!
4 comments:
I'm currently lusting over every Mazda3 5-door that I see. I'll be driving along, my head suddenly jerks around like "woah! what was that beautiful car!". Yep. Mazda 3 5-door.
Also, I love the mazda 5. It's a minivan on a car chassis, with dual sliding doors (and OH MY GOSH you'll appreciate that when you're trying to wrestly a snap-in car seat in or out of the car and some a-hole parked too close to you and you can't open the side door far enough. And then when your 2 year old wants to walk to the car but is ALWAYS on the wrong side of the door when you open it and you have to then close the door to grab him and then open teh door to put him in adn then he is ticked off because that's NOT HOW HE WANTED TO DO IT.)
Um, no personal experience, though.
The 5 also has a fully folding 3rd seat, so it seats 5 in the back but also folds flat for hauling around some bigger gear. 2 friends have them and they love them.
correction, it seats 4 in the back (both rows have captain's chairs) so 6 total, or enough room for some serious gear for grandma's house.
I swear, I dont' work for Mazda, just happen to really really want one of these.
You know my feelings-my Mazda3 is freaking awesome, and the hatchback ones handle just as well. Oh, and I believe we are getting a Pacifica for the DC trip, so you'll have a full weekend of wagon testing!
Julie - you scare me a little with your enthusiasm and experience. But I did ask for input :) Duly noted.
Nikki - I checked out the Pacifica and thought 'gee, it looks awesome for a road trip, but not for a kid.' weird!
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