Station wagon or Minivan? Which is more apt to be a 'member of the family'?

The Flex is Ford's new 'mini van', replacing the Freestar (a Windstar spin offs) and is pretty cool;
surprisingly so. Anyone else notice how much it looks like a wagon? I don't
get to Omaha much but it seems like I see more of them each time I do.

 

Yeah, Mark...that Flex is a nice looking rig.

 

Titanic, that is one of the best wagon shots I've ever seen. What a great picture and it sure does show just how much a part of childhood these wagons were. Thanks for posting it. It really brought me back.
By the way, anybody ever try to take their ski boots off on a minivan tailgate? Oh wait, they don't have one!!

 

This is hardly an indictment of minivans. There are things that you can do more easily in or with a station wagon than in or with a minivan, and there are things that you can do more easily in/with a minivan than you can with a station wagon. I think the latter outweighs the former, and that's why minivans are everywhere in 2011 and have been for the last 20+ years while station wagons have pretty much faded away.

 

Back in '88 to '91 or so we had to go the minivan route with the 2 little ones. First we had a '86 Colt Vista. Unfortunately it was the fwd with automatic version, not the stellar 4WD model they had (still wouldn't mind one of those...) For how small it was, it was really versitile - 3 rows of seats. Seats layed down very easily. Got great gas mileage. I bit later on, we went with a '88 Ford Aerostar Eddie Bauer. It was the original 'short' version with the small (2.9 or 3.0...?) V6. I remember one trip i took with the girls, who were then about 2 1/2 and 4 years old. Mom had to stay home. Drove up to San Francisco to visit my sister, then across to Carson City to visit mom & dad. On the open road, when there was little traffic, I folded the back of the middle seat down to meet the bottom cushion of the third seat - made a big, soft 'playpen' for the girls. Allowed the girls to pop out of their safety seats from time to time. They loved it. When i told them to, the jumped back into their safety seats all by themselves and buckled up. Aerostar was a good size, and handled pretty good. Had a '93 Chevy Astro LT a bit later too.

 

always like the look of the old aero stars!

the short one


the long one



i think it was nicer in the longer style

 

Um, 82.......have you looked at your post? The short one you pictured is longer than the long one by at least 10 computor screens!



Myself, I was never a fan of the Aero, but I will give Ford a thumbs up that it was a rear wheel drive van. Hey Krash, were they a full frame van like your Astro and our Saffari, or were the Aero a unibody?

 

I must admit that the minivan has its uses. My parents had a ford aerostar, smooth ride but when two of the same vehicle break down with the same problem just a couple of miles apart on intersecting highways... A year or two before my dad died my mom got a 98 voyager. It was good and reliable, driving like a charm even after my brother wrecked twice; BTW he is nine years older than me. He had a 94 or 95 voyager, also tough considering what it went through. And a Safari/Astro(?) that got passed around the family... So yah they are useful and practical and all that but for me and my wife, no they aren't going to be a part of the family. We have some pretty specific tastes and most of that revolves around my ability to keep our vehicle running and how useful it is in our daily lives and the future... Van don't have the style that you get with a wagon, esp. the older ones. And my wife doesn't like riding in vans because she feels like they could roll over too easily... All that, some more, but, basically, we just want a wagon. For us they are the best. We love the design and.. well we are just wagon people...

 

Our Aerostar looked exactly like that blue/gold one that Caprice posted.

On a side note, I was driving around for my job one day in early 1985 and I saw a preproduction prototype Aerostar driving around with a lot of that camoflage covering the manufacturers use. Didn't know what it was at the time, but was able to figure it out after doin' some investigatin'.....

 

A novel, by Mark Ervin:
(Buckle your seat belts, all 9 of them...)
My move into the mini van segment was in '94 when my son Ian was born. I had boughten my first brand new car,
well a 1992 Dakota extended cab , just about 2 years earlier.
(Yea, do the math...) (... and, may I add, I added a lane topper, one that ran flush with the roof for that "long roof" look
I was jonesing for. It helped on trade in by the way.)
As it truned out, the van was a good thing because #2, Abby, was to come along 13 short months later.
I had lobbied hard for a station wagon at the time but was curious about the mini vans potential versatility.
The wife wanted something smaller and thriftier on gas, score 1, Dodge Grand Caravan (Teal.)
(I had tried to convince my wife an 8 passenger '94 Estate wagon would get 17/24 mpg just like any mini van, by the way
but I digress...) score 2, Dodge. The space with all the seats gone was great, the space in the rear with seats in,
great for double stroller and other stuff.
Well for Christmas of '97, another little package arrived, Noelle. The 3 car seats would never work in even a
full size wagon; score 3, Dodge.
Well, within a year of that, one more bean to count, Matthew, made his presence known. The wife was growing weary of the
performance of the van and she wasn't feeling as safe on the freeways (score 1 wagon??? Oh yea, those baby seats...)
She also wanted a vehicle that would fit all those babies and their seats, us, and a pair of visiting elder parents, all with enough
power to pull the hills at freeway speed and 1 more caveat; it also had to carry lots of stuff and a triple stroller, the station
wagon of the "rubber-baby-buggy-bumper" world.

Good buy trusty Dodge, hello Storm Grey 1999, K1500 Suburban "Station Wagon."

Point is, their both good at what they do best depending on your needs but, sometimes you buy a car for what it is and not
for what it does. Score 100 1990 Buick Esate Wagon.

 

PS, I really like the Chevy HHR, just wish it was segmented as a larger cross over... (and that Obama hadn't boughten the bow tie...)

 

Yup...that's the long one alright!

 

Since I had one, I always liked the short one better. Unfortunately, you could not get the larger 4.0 V6 in the short one.

 

i know i know LOL i found it pretty funny afterwards too, i tryed to resize it but i dont have a clue how too !! so i just said "oh well , they'll laugh"

 

hahahaahah , i didnt know how to resize . so its more of a joke then a statement anymore LOL