Cars....

We've been realizing, now that spring has kind of sprung, that we should probably start thinking about a new vehicle. Why? Because we now have a boat...and no way to get it anywhere. So, unless Nate wants to spend yet another summer with his boat sitting in our driveway, we need to figure something out. The logical answer would be to put a trailer hitch on the minivan. There are 2 main problems with that though. The first is that we have to go to the UHaul store to have it done, during business hours, and it takes about 2 hours. So, I have to go sit there with 3 kids for 2 hours to have it done. That's not fun, but relatively easy to work around.

The second problem is that if Nate wants to tow the boat to the cabin, but I don't want to go, how do I get around with the kids while he's gone? This is a pretty likely scenario. I'm not a huge fan of the cabin. Ok...that's kind of an understatement. So, chances are he'll be there with the boat way more than with the boat and family. Even if it were possible to fit all 3 carseats in the back of his fancy little BMW, it is impossible to actually get them installed in their safety. I'm pretty sure I've talked about this issue before...those stupid leather bucket sportscar seats. But, if we get another vehicle for him, we feel like it needs to be able to seat the whole family (just in case I ever DO get talked into going to the cabin), not just tow the boat, so something like a pickup or smaller crossover SUV are out.

Just for the heck of it, we went to the autoshow this weekend. The Twin Cities Autoshow at the Convention Center. So, they had every car under the sun there. What I realized right away is this....if you have more than 2 kids that need carseats, you are really really limited on the type of car you can drive. This is because all these SUV-type cars have those "third row" seats....but getting to that third row seat when you have carseats installed in the second row is almost impossible because accessing the third row requires flipping one of the second row seats up. Which you can't do when there is a carseat on it. So.....then what? Not to mention that when you put the third row seat up, you have approximately an inch and a half of storage space in the back. I don't think I could fit my purse back there...much less gear for a family of five to go to the cabin for a weekend. What the heck is a large family supposed to do? Get a conversion van? In the words of Paris Hilton...oh that's hot!

Seriously? Not that minivans have all that much storage in back...but you can fit a few suitcases and bags in there. The only vehicles I saw, out of the hundred or so we looked at, that actually had storage with the third row seat up were the Suburban, and the Yukon Denali XL. Now...do you have any idea how HUGE those two vehicles are? I most likely would have to compare it to driving a semi. However, I must say...they have a new hybrid Yukon Denali. At 21 miles to the gallon, it seems like a gas sipper compared to other vehicles in it's class....heck, it's way better than my minivan. The only problem is the $75,000 sticker price. Yikes! I don't even want to know what the payment would be on a vehicle like that. Crazy.

So....those of you who know me know I'm kind of a tree hugger at heart. So...what do we do? We need a vehicle that is big enough to hold our family, some suitcases, and tow a boat. Some of these vehicles said 13 miles per gallon on the sticker! That's just insane. But we also don't have $75K to buy the fancy hybrid.....oh decisions, decisions....any ideas?