Mini Van, 4 Car Sedan, or Crossover?

I would personally stick with a regular sedan, but to each his own. Have you looked at the new Prius V? Spacious, great (compared to the minivan competition) mileage. I don't think you can get it used but it retails for 26K.

http://www.toyota.com/priusv/

I have a 2 door sports coupe (has a back seat) and don't plan on replacing it because I have a kid.

Our 2000 Dodge Caravan is still going strong. We often take it on road trips and camping. If you carry a lot and plan to have more kids, get a minivan, IMO. Friends got a Crosstour and they realized (with me and DD in the car) that 2 carseats back there is about it. No other passengers unless they feel like being a sardine. Not as roomy as it looked. We can easily fit a couple of carseats plus adults plus some tweens and teens in our 7 passenger van. We are a family of 5 when everyone is on board.

Toyota, Honda, and Kia all have major manufacturing plants in the U.S. Any car you buy will have been "Made in America."

I recommend you look at a used minivan if your budget is $20K. That's about what we got our Honda Odyssey for, used but only 3 years old, plus with our trade-in, we paid less than that.

I love it. We have two kids in car seats (a 3-year-old and a 16-month-old) and are hoping to have a third in the next two years. We will easily be able to fit 3 car seats in the van.

Bonuses to minivans: Sliding doors. If you get the right model, you can open and shut the doors with the keyfob, meaning you can carry a baby, a couple of bags, hold your child's hand, and still open the doors! Other pluses: usually better gas millage than SUVs, 3-rows of seats AND trunk space (you don't have to trade one for the other like you do with crossovers) and most car-seats fit in them. We will have plenty of room for a family of 5 plus our dogs plus luggage for road trips.

My husband has a sedan. It is very nice, too, plenty of room for the four of us plus luggage or a dog, but not both, and unfortunately, no room for any forthcoming children. So this will make a difference. We looked into crossovers when we were car-hunting originally, but ran into the same problem. If we got one with three rows of seats, there was not really room for luggage and a dog, and if we didn't, there wasn't any room for a third child. That is how we ended up with our minivan.

We chose a Honda because they last forever.

Good luck make a decision!

P.S. I'm from Bloomington! What a great town!

My Honda CRV is made in Tennessee. I love it!

You will find most cars you buy in America were made here as well regardless of where their corporate headquarters are.

Get the minivan. The sliding doors are AMAZING. We paid 27k for our top of the line Odyssey, it had 27k and was only 2 years old. We had to drive to Wisconsin for it, but Chicago prices are high. Since you are in In, you should have better luck. Honda's never need to be repaired. Gas mileage is decent for a van. I love my van, and so do the kids!

We have always had minivans for the sliding doors, luggage space behind the third row of seats, room in the middle for food and/or cooler, and the feel of a car. I never have liked the feel of driving a truck or SUV. Some people would never be caught dead in a minivan but we always had to drive halfway across the country every summer to visit family (too expensive to fly) and we were VERY comfortable. If you make long drives, it is so nice that the kids couldn't touch each other and had space on the side of them for a variety of toys and other possessions. And I will point out, since you vacation a lot and camp, that the room behind the 3rd row of seats is bigger in some vans than others.

Consumer reports puts out an annual book that should be at the library for specific models. I have heard that buying a car 2 - 4 years old is ideal. The worst depreciation is over and yet it is not too old to get your money's worth before you have to start making repairs.

I have a crossover. Hubby has a minivan. No way could we use my car for the family vacations, especially camping. Go with a minivan for the extra $$, it's well worth it.

Do not get a Town and Country. They are a nice vehicle, but they just do not last without investing lots of $$ when they get older.

We have friends with a older Honda and they love it. Well over 100k miles and still going strong.

Am looking for a new car. Mine has big problem and only 128,000 miles. Not happy. Not sure how much I would want to spend to fix a 10 year old car. I have looked at used cars with less than 40,000 mi. and nothing under
$20,000. Good luck in your search.

I'm driving a GMC Acadia loaner right now while my Yukon is in the shop. For what it is, it has quite a bit of room. Me, my husband and four kids fit semi-comfortably, with not much room left over. I would think it would be plenty of room for a family of 4. I'm not sure the gas mileage, but I can tell you that its A LOT better than my SUV (11/17)! I'm also not sure that you could get one in that price range, even used. It is a nice vehicle, if I had a smaller family I would definitely consider it.

We have a Chevy Traverse that we bought used (I guess they are often used as fleet vehicles). I don't know if it's just the one that we have, but it has a huge differential between city (13 or 14) and highway (usually over 20) miles. If you don't need the AWD, the mileage is much better. We bought it because we definitely needed the third row, and it has the most room behind the third row (I checked them all). I will tell you that it was a big adjustment from my Volvo wagon (loved it!), but it is the best for the whole fam... If you are considering one, don't hesitate to message me with any questions...

We are currently a family of 4 and drive a minivan.
We love it!

We LOVE our GMC Acadia! It is similar to the Chevy Traverse. I'm not sure if you could get either new for $20k, but maybe a certified pre-owned.

If you live where there is a lot of snow, vans typically do horrible. Get something with all wheel drive...probably a crossover.