Trading in for a used SUV

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
So we bought my wife a brand new 2013 Mazda 3 back in 2013 and now that we have a little girl, we find that we need more room. Getting her in and out of that things is a damn task and really have no room to put in a stroller and all the other stuff we need to take with us, so we end up taking my car most of the time.
I have done a good job, keeping the miles low (2013 and only has 43k miles) and keeping it in good condition, because I had the intention on keeping it and paying it off.

I digress, So the wife is looking for something like a Ford Edge or ford Escape... something along those lines that is just more roomier. My Parents just literally bought a 2013 Ford Edge that has just about every bell and whistle that was available with 50k miles for 16k.

So that is sort of what we are after. Used, but more amenities for the wife.

Any recommendations on what SUVs to stay away from?
 
My company car which is a 2017 escape is in the shop to find why exhaust is getting in the cabin. It has been a decent vehicle with no issues up until this.
 
Mini Van X2

I’ve said this before, I’ve heard all the excuses but I can’t be convinced mine wasn’t a good buy. Me and my wife both said we’d never own one, but that changed with kid #2. I’ve heard all the Tahoe/Suburban excuses, they get X mpg, tow well, have room, unicorn dust comes out the vents, keep your man card, blah blah blah.
My wife was driving 70+ miles a day. Van has more room, doors open down the side instead of swing, gets an average 22mpg. Just drove it to Ohio and back and got a hand calculated 26.87 mpg. It was $12k with 100k miles and all the bells and whistles. My wife absolutely loves it.
What I own/drive isn’t indicative of my man hood.

You should really consider a van, especially if you might have another kid.
14’ model Dodge caravan with the 3.6 engine. Paid for is an even better part!
 
77GreenMachine said:
Mini Van X2

I’ve said this before, I’ve heard all the excuses but I can’t be convinced mine wasn’t a good buy. Me and my wife both said we’d never own one, but that changed with kid #2
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For us, Kid#2 had many changes associated. BUT...if you can hold out until Kid#3 by then, you're a pro, and can pack those little crumb snatchers into a Miata.

It's like those commercials where the parents are so careful bathing baby#1 but by baby#3 she hands it to daddy in the shower. Shoot, I think we really NEEDED a full size 15 passenger VAN with baby#1 but by kid#3 we were taking road trips (with each kid having a friend) in the exploder with all our crap for a week.
 
It can be done with a smaller car for sure. I just love the room the van offers. Remote doors and hatch are nice. The gas mileage and the initial purchase price is what sealed the deal for us though.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So we bought my wife a brand new 2013 Mazda 3 back in 2013 and now that we have a little girl, we find that we need more room. Getting her in and out of that things is a damn task and really have no room to put in a stroller and all the other stuff we need to take with us, so we end up taking my car most of the time.
I have done a good job, keeping the miles low (2013 and only has 43k miles) and keeping it in good condition, because I had the intention on keeping it and paying it off.

I digress, So the wife is looking for something like a Ford Edge or ford Escape... something along those lines that is just more roomier. My Parents just literally bought a 2013 Ford Edge that has just about every bell and whistle that was available with 50k miles for 16k.

So that is sort of what we are after. Used, but more amenities for the wife.

Any recommendations on what SUVs to stay away from?
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Is the Mazda paid for? What is the trade in value of the Mazda?

If you are gonna have another kid in the next 2-3 years, go ahead and buy a minivan.
 
My parents had an Edge. If you have to put 3 people in the backseat, it was very uncomfortable. They traded it on an Explorer.
 
We have a super bad ass ultra-marathon running, 100 mile bike riding friend who drives a minivan. No kids, but does have dogs that go most places with her (and husband). We see how convenient the minivan is for gear, dogs, groceries, etc. Kinda hard to give an abrupt NO to one in the OP's situation.
 
We got a Durango, seats 6 or 7 and even with the 3rd row up still have room for a real stroller. We have 2 kids and works well, 90% of the time the back row is laid down. Fits everything we need and by the time another kid comes around we can throw the oldest in the back and not have to worry about car seats being buckled in 3rd row. Haven't had any issues it's a 2014.
 
jyaks said:
We got a Durango, seats 6 or 7 and even with the 3rd row up still have room for a real stroller. We have 2 kids and works well, 90% of the time the back row is laid down. Fits everything we need and by the time another kid comes around we can throw the oldest in the back and not have to worry about car seats being buckled in 3rd row. Haven't had any issues it's a 2014.
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x2.

My wife doesnt like driving an SUV though, and we never use the 3rd. We are looking at going to an Outback most likely.
 
77GreenMachine said:
I just love the room the van offers
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You can't beat it. It truly is THE most practical vehicle for a young family. We even broke down and bought one after Sara was born....didn't have it long though...the wife hated the minvan stigma
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
Aint happenin. no way.

If we have 1-2 more kids, I could see the benefit of getting one, but for now, I'd like to stick with an SUV.
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If you like Mazdas, look into a Mazda5. Same size and sportiness of the Mazda3 but w/ van doors. NOT a typical minivan. In fact, here in Maryland they are classified as a car, NOT a van.

We had one for 7 years and loved it. Got it when kid #2 was born & #1 was 5.5.

A year ago we dumped it for an 08 Pathfinder, b/c we're now at the point where we routinely have kids + friends. You have lots of time before that's a problem.
 
CasterTroy said:
For us, Kid#2 had many changes associated. BUT...if you can hold out until Kid#3 by then, you're a pro, and can pack those little crumb snatchers into a Miata.

It's like those commercials where the parents are so careful bathing baby#1 but by baby#3 she hands it to daddy in the shower. Shoot, I think we really NEEDED a full size 15 passenger VAN with baby#1 but by kid#3 we were taking road trips (with each kid having a friend) in the exploder with all our crap for a week.
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This. We have four kids. At first we thought we needed something big enough for everything. Truthfully, you can get by carrying MUCH less than you think. Why do a couple 30 pound kids need hundreds of pounds worth the gear to go to the grocery store?

Now, I had several minivans as company cars and I admit they’ve been my favorite of the literally 12 different long term company cars I have had.
 
shawn said:
I'd skip it. Not big enough, IMHO.
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For me and my family's uses, my experience has been either get a 4 door car, a van or go straight to the suburban and be done.
Any of the explorer/envoy/4runner class look cool but when you actually get in them they have less room than a full size car once you account for the trunk being gone.\
Then you get into the full size tahoe/durango/expedition class and you can realistically fit 3 normal size folks (ie not my family) in the middle row and 2 normal size kids in the 3rd row. but with the 3rd row down you cant even put a grocery bag in the back. With a suburban/expedition EL/ sequoia you actually have room.

But in OP's case seems like a total life step personal satisfaction want. So get what you want.

Just dont lie to yourself that you need it becasue its too hard to get an infant in the back seat of Mazda 3. We had kids young and my boy came out the hole wearing 12 month clothes. But my wife wasnt giving up that damn 99 Super Sport SS I had custom ordered for her and she had custom painted with zero miles on the clock. So she fought and fussed and bent over putting him n and out of car seast for 2 years...then when number 2 came she looked at me exhausted one day and said..Im not doing this again. Camaro was gone before sunrise the next day and we had a "family car"
 
Wife has had an Edge since 2008...we loved it as a 2-4 person vehicle. Plenty of room for that quantity of full sized adults. Or plenty of room to fold down the rear seat for our dog(s) and a weeks worth of luggage. Added a kid, what you pack tripled and a big bulky car seat takes up a metric ass ton amount of space, and you can no longer fold the seat down. And now kid #2 is less than 3.5 months away. Over the last 18 months, we've been renting anything and everything for a week at time, Ford flex, Tahoe, suburban, 4runner, mini vans, etc etc. Our pick is gonna be the EL expedition/navigator. Little shorter and narrower than an all out Suburban. Size is right, wife is comfortable driving it, there's enough space to continue operating as we always have. I'm not anti-minivan, I just don't understand the hub-bub...pass through doors, cool...can do that with an suv too. Fold down seats, can do that with almost every vehicle now. DVD players/tv's...optional too, or spend a couple hundred at Best Buy.
 
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Jody Treadway said:
We have a super bad ass ultra-marathon running, 100 mile bike riding friend who drives a minivan. No kids, but does have dogs that go most places with her (and husband). We see how convenient the minivan is for gear, dogs, groceries, etc. Kinda hard to give an abrupt NO to one in the OP's situation.
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Oh it's possible and it happened. The Mrs and I swore we'd never own one and we've stuck to it. For all the pros you can come up with, I can come up with just as many or more for an SUV.
 
Deplorable said:
This. We have four kids. At first we thought we needed something big enough for everything. Truthfully, you can get by carrying MUCH less than you think. Why do a couple 30 pound kids need hundreds of pounds worth the gear to go to the grocery store?
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This

Ron said:
But in OP's case seems like a total life step personal satisfaction want. So get what you want.

Just dont lie to yourself that you need it becasue its too hard to get an infant in the back seat of Mazda 3. We had kids young and my boy came out the hole wearing 12 month clothes. But my wife wasnt giving up that damn 99 Super Sport SS I had custom ordered for her and she had custom painted with zero miles on the clock. So she fought and fussed and bent over putting him n and out of car seast for 2 years...then when number 2 came she looked at me exhausted one day and said..Im not doing this again. Camaro was gone before sunrise the next day and we had a "family car"
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and this.
I personally just don't buy into the philosophy that you NEED a big-ass car for a family of 1 or even 2 kids. When I was growing up we had old Benzes, a sedan and a wagon. Yeah, we used for the really long trips to west TN, but 90% of family trip around town were in the sedan.
The WHOLE rest of the world, people drive smaller cars (that get way better MPGs) routinely and yet live perfectly happy lives.

I drive an old Protege5 as my DD and rarely need anything bigger. Use the old truck on weekends.
Our Mazda5 was perfectly fine for 7 years, as a 2 kid car starting with one as a newborn (she was literally almost born in the car). Even w/ the weeklong trips down to NC, I can count on 3 fingers the number of times we had to use a car carrier and that only b/c of Christmas, where the kids accumulate crap.
You really just do not need that much stuff.
Yeah, the damn strollers today are huge and don't fold up so well... but that's only for infants, and will pass.

Unless you're Ron-sized, get a "fun" car that's reasonably accessible, and worry about the space for a 2nd kids later.
Like I said, the only reason we ditched the Mazda5 was b/c it got to where we were routinely carrying 3-4 kids and the 3rd row was just too small. But you have 7+ years before that matters, just trade the car then.

Here is something to think about seriously. People often buy a big SUV b/c of paranoia of needing a lot of space for long trips, yet those trips are like 1-2 times a year. Given that the big SUV comes at an annual expense of $500 or more in gas, what does it cost to just rent a bigger car when you need it? May or may not pan, just depends on your needs.
 
UTfball68 said:
Ford flex, Tahoe, suburban, 4runner, mini vans, etc etc. Our pick is gonna be the EL expedition/navigator. Little shorter and narrower than an all out Suburban.
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Yes, but shit motor in the Ford, and they're ugly to boot.

In either case, get the 2nd row captains chairs. That's a must. The problem with most of the vehicles with 3rd row seating (other than the useless cargo area on the smaller ones that Ron elaborated on), is that you can't get to the 3rd row if you have car seats, and you don't want to put a kid in a car seat in the back row. By the time you have three, the oldest can get in and out of the car seat unassisted.

The bigger ones also seat three in the back, giving you a bit more extra room.
 
RatLabGuy said:
The WHOLE rest of the world, people drive smaller cars (that get way better MPGs) routinely and yet live perfectly happy lives.
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Our kids are required by law to be in car seats until their 14th birthday.
 
shawn said:
Our kids are required by law to be in car seats until their 14th birthday.
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Yeah, well, that blows.
But that's also just a booster, which takes up virtually no space. The one Laney uses is the size of a phonebook.
 
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