My wife and I have 4 kids and twins on the way. We finally conceded that there is no minivan or SUV that will work well for our family as we will have two infant seats, one convertible car seat, and two booster seats. Everything but a full size van requires that the second row be able to fold forward to access the third row. That doesn't work well with car seats installed there.

When it comes to full size passenger vans, it seems like the options are really the Ford Econoline/Transit, the Chevy/GMC versions, the Mercedes/Dodge Sprinter, or the Nissan NV (from what I can tell the Dodge Promaster doesn't yet have a passenger version).

Given that we are very new to this class of vehicle we would greatly appreciate knowing the pros and cons of these different vehicles. So far, all we know really know is that we appreciate things like backup sensors/cameras, headrests, airbags, reliability and gas mileage (although it will likely be driven about 10k per year). We are trying to determine the differences in costs as well (cost of vehicle, maintenance, etc).

Finally, we need to determine the vehicle before the twins arrive this summer.

Can you please help us determine the best vehicle for our family? Thanks.

 

you can get the E-150 seven passenger van or conversion with the captain chairs in the middle so that you don't have to fold them up with the child seats installed the older children can go in the very back row. as with any vehicle you may want to check out the estimated cost of maintaining and normal driving. most of your requirements are options that may not come as standard equipment so it may cost a little more than the basic models. you mar also consider buying one that is used as long as it shows the maintenance records