ALT-5 Suvs are they Worth it
As a child growing up in a family of 6 I'd grown accustomed to road trips as the best part of every summer. We'd travel all over the nation, in the back of an orange 78' station wagon volvo, definitely not an SUV.
But the "back" was also more like a living area with the rear seat folded flat and sleeping bags stretched out because we could; we didn't have car seat and seat belt restrictions. We could climb all over the place, switch seats, whatever-mom could even breast feed the baby. Sometimes we'd put thinsulate pads along the windows to block out the sun of our, well, mobile home.
Today, the reality of traveling with a family is dramatically different. Every town you drive to has large signs posting "Click it or Tick it!" and kids don't get along as well as they used to. Once you show a DVD from the back of an Suburban flip from the roof player and there is no going back to the alphabet game and I packed my grandmother's trunk with . . . . All my five siblings have families with no fewer than three kids in any one family, and they all drive SUV's, except me.
As the first sibling to have kids, I took the lead in vehicle changing, and traded in a really sweet 97' Ford F-150, Silver and Black, Lariat Edition pickup for a brand new Ford Focus Wagon (I tried to follow in the steps of my father, and since Ford owns Volvo, this was the next best thing to the Volvo station wagon, and one that I could afford). The focus had a very meager 12 gallon gas tank and averaged close to 30 miles to the gallon, but three kids later I learned it would not even hold three car seats in the back seat. To travel the country, let alone to the market, would be a clandestine act because my kids were not properly secured.
I had only one sensible alternative-buy a minivan. I got the 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan with seating for 7, and instantly fell in love with the opportunity to arrange my kids with a space between each one of them, and it was all legal. Plus we could carry a lot of gear and go . . . most places.
It was at the my grandparents 60th anniversary, up at the summer pasture when I realized what a fool I'd been. As my grand caravan, with a beefy 4 inch clearance clanked and creaked over the dirt road, the rest of my family careened around corners, watched their DVD's, ate lunch on the go, and made it in time to fish the legendary family fishing hole, while I spent time changing yet another flat tire.
I was sold that very afternoon as I watched over 23 of my own siblings and cousins and uncles and grandparents, drive away down the old dirt road leaving me in the dust and the pragmatic pain of having selected yet again, the wrong vehicle. Trust me, the SUV is worth every penny!
