I’m writing this post now because I’m currently looking for a 6+ passenger vehicle. I had a certain budget in mind when shopping. I thought my demands were fairly simple. I want to be able to fit at least 6 passenger comfortably, I wanted some cargo space when all 6 people were in the vehicle, I wanted it to be a safe vehicle, and I wanted it to be within a certain budget I had in mind. I didn’t think my budget was unreasonable for a used vehicle either. I also preferred an SUV over a minivan because of the weather we can get in Pennsylvania.
When I looked over 6+ passenger SUVs this is what I found out. The most affordable ones have little to no cargo space when the 3rd row seats are in use. Which doesn’t make sense to me because wouldn’t 6 people have more stuff on a trip than 4?
Then it seemed the ones that could accommodate 6+ and have all the cargo space you wanted were half the price of a small house. So I kept searching and searching. We were hoping to find a used vehicle with less than 35K miles on it. After much research on safety, cargo space, and seating capacity. My top 3 in the SUV category are the Chevy Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Honda Pilot. I’ve found a lot of good deals on them within a 50 mile radius of my town.
If you are looking for mini vans or considering, I did look at those too. Actually the mini vans now a days are really nice inside, offer a lot of amenities, and a good number of them are AWD so it woudn’t be too bad for the winter. I currently own a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica. I LOVE it. It’s AWD and has done great in our Pennsylvania winters. I was kinda sad that they stopped making them. BUT I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials. The Chrysler Pacifica is back with the 2017 model and yes I did check it out because I love mine so much. Won’t be able to find any used right now but even the new ones are fairly reasonable for a brand new vehicle. The Kia Sedona is probably the most affordable of all of them, even brand new. I could get a brand new Kia Sedona for less than a 2 year old GMC Acadia with 35K+ miles on it. Then there is the Honda Odyssey. A very nice looking mini van but the pricier of the 3 mini vans I narrowed down too.
Also if you own any of the vehicles mentioned in this post I would LOVE to hear your experience with them, negative or positive.
I have had two Chevy Equinox’s and I loved them both.