Current fleet - what should stay, what should go?

Looking for some opinions on my current fleet - I have 10 month old twins that have made cars I really like a LOT less useful.  Miata is not always the answer to kid transportation 

Current fleet:

1999 Ford F350 Dually, 7.3L 4x4 - for towing the fifth wheel on camping/dune trips; this probably sticks around 
1997 Mitsubishi Montero - this is the 4 wheeler and winter-time vehicle (we get snow during the winter); I love this thing but at 260k miles it's tired and with the tires/armor it's NOT a highway machine.  I am working on an off-road trailer build and I'm not confident it has enough power to make it on highway trips at 75 with a (even though it's lightweight) trailer. 
2001 Mazda Miata - low miles and pretty nice, this is my excuse to go to Flyin Miata Summer Camp and otherwise just gets used around town/on fun drives.  
2008 BMW 535XI Touring - recent acquisition that has involved a LOT of fixing to get it in decent shape.  On our last trip to LA it started leaking a quart of oil ever 50 miles.....nice.  I need to dig in and see what happened, suspect Rear Main.

Future Addition: 
2017 Nissan Frontier - my parents are getting rid of this and offered it to me for a very good price.  I probably wouldn't have picked this as a vehicle to purchase on my own but if the price is right....

Other Thoughts: 
Just give in to the minivan and buy a used one for 15-20k (probably prefer AWD which limits options, although AWD minivans don't have much clearance which is a problem when it snows 2' overnight) as the family rig and sell the BMW? 
Keep the Frontier stock-ish and use it as the family car? MPG and premium vs regular fuel means it's probably similar fuel costs as the BMW.
Lift the frontier/put bigger tires on it and sell the Montero? It's a pretty new car to beat up offroad and the Montero is much more capable (lockers front/rear, center diff lock, beefy rock sliders and armor) with the bonus of not being worth much when it hits rocks/trees offroad. 
My wife doesn't like large cars, she got used to driving an NA miata for 10 years, but has accepted that two kids (with a possible 3rd at some point), stroller, 2 dogs, etc really takes up space. 
I keep shopping suburbans and excursions as a base to start building something offroad-oriented but so far have managed not to pull the trigger :D

TLDR - 
Kids (or more specifically, twin strollers and carseats) and BMW reliability has me rethinking my vehicles. 

Pics: 

I mean this with no offense, but as someone speaking from experience with twins, but the answer is this-

None of it matters because your lives are completely over for a couple years anyhow, haha.  You will wake up when they're 3 and you'll swear the prior 2 years were Men In Black mind erased from you due to sleep deprivation and exhaustion...  So drive whatever is cheapest to get by that fits the mountain of stuff you need to keep life sustainable, haha. 

I wish you all of the luck and sleep.  The phase when they're walking but not yet able to fully communicate their emotions is the toughest... Full zone defense and baby leashes.  

Bmw sounds like more trouble than it's worth, Ford truck and Montero sound like a good fit for what you use them for, I'd say a AWD Toyota Sienna van (you can even lift it and put more aggressive tires on it), then either keep the Miata or sell it and get a little bit bigger fun car so it would be more useful. Nissan Frontier seems better to flip unless you really like it.

The Miata looks nice. There are alot of Miatas out there, but many have old car, previous owner  issues. You seem to enjoy yours, I would keep it.

Don't listen to Golfduke. Take the kids with you. They'll have fun too. The family that plays together, stays together. We were camping, boating, autocrossing, and off-roading with ours before they were a year old. A car seat works in a 4x4 just as well as it does a minivan or a boat. 

That said. Buy the minivan. It is the right tool for the job. We went through 3 of them while we had kids. 

Dump the BMW and the Nissan. You don't need two trucks, you use the F series to tow the camper, and the minivan will do everything the BMW will do. 

Keep the Miata. Take it for drives early on Saturday and Sunday mornings before the kids wake up. And take the kids for a spin on occasion as well. They will love it and remember those trips for the rest of their lives. 

Keep the ford and Miata. Ditch the others

golfduke said:

I mean this with no offense, but as someone speaking from experience with twins, but the answer is this-

 

None of it matters because your lives are completely over for a couple years anyhow, haha.  You will wake up when they're 3 and you'll swear the prior 2 years were Men In Black mind erased from you due to sleep deprivation and exhaustion...  So drive whatever is cheapest to get by that fits the mountain of stuff you need to keep life sustainable, haha. 

 

I wish you all of the luck and sleep.  The phase when they're walking but not yet able to fully communicate their emotions is the toughest... Full zone defense and baby leashes.  

 

I also have twins.  They just turned 17 a few days ago.  

Minivan is the droid you seek.  Period.  If you want to keep the Ford for camping, great.  Everything else goes.  Trust me.  BTDT.

My vote is on the F150 and the Miata.

Sell everything else and buy the best minivan that money brings.

I've got a 2.5 year old and twin 1 year olds, buy the van. Sell BMW, montero, and probably Frontier also or use it towards trade in on van.

No one is in favor of keeping the BMW so that tells me something   

I'm disappointed in the lack of Astro Van/Suburban answers but I guess that just means a (modern-ish) minivan is that much better.  

I appreciate the input - alot of this echoes thoughts that I've had but sometimes you need someone else to confirm and push you in a direction.  

That's also 3 members who had twins so I guess I can come here for twin parenting advice too, perfect!  I'll reply to some of the individual answers in a few - bedtime is soon and that means I get 2 hours or so of "free" time

Toyman! said:

Don't listen to Golfduke. Take the kids with you. They'll have fun too. The family that plays together, stays together. We were camping, boating, autocrossing, and off-roading with ours before they were a year old. A car seat works in a 4x4 just as well as it does a minivan or a boat. 

That said. Buy the minivan. It is the right tool for the job. We went through 3 of them while we had kids. 

Dump the BMW and the Nissan. You don't need two trucks, you use the F series to tow the camper, and the minivan will do everything the BMW will do. 

Keep the Miata. Take it for drives early on Saturday and Sunday mornings before the kids wake up. And take the kids for a spin on occasion as well. They will love it and remember those trips for the rest of their lives. 

 

I totally agree on the "still do things" - we're doing our best but BOY does kids and dogs add stress to trips :D

What would your approach be for a wheeling rig? We used to do a weeklong wheeling trip with inlaws/freinds that I'd like to start again next year - along with weekend trips to all the cool public land in AZ/NM/CO. 

My angle was make the camping/cooking part of the trip easier with an offroad trailer that's easy to setup (gonna build 2 with my Father in Law, one for him one for me) but the Montero is underpowered and I don't fit well with the carseat behind me.  So the Frontier is a possible replacement (right price) but worth more than most of my other cars combined and isn't really THAT much bigger inside than the Montero's seating area. Plus much less capable offroad. 

johndej said:

I've got a 2.5 year old and twin 1 year olds, buy the van. Sell BMW, montero, and probably Frontier also or use it towards trade in on van.

I could be the inverse of this (2.5 YO twins and a 1 year old) if my wife still thinks she wants more kids in a year.  hopefully we don't then have twins AGAIN :D 

 What vehicles do you guys have as your "answer"?

golfduke said:

I mean this with no offense, but as someone speaking from experience with twins, but the answer is this-

 

None of it matters because your lives are completely over for a couple years anyhow, haha.  You will wake up when they're 3 and you'll swear the prior 2 years were Men In Black mind erased from you due to sleep deprivation and exhaustion...  So drive whatever is cheapest to get by that fits the mountain of stuff you need to keep life sustainable, haha. 

 

I wish you all of the luck and sleep.  The phase when they're walking but not yet able to fully communicate their emotions is the toughest... Full zone defense and baby leashes.  

 

No offense taken - so far the first 3-4 months were BRUTAL but once we got them sleeping in cribs through the night life improved drastically.  I don't know yet how twins who can walk but not really communicate is though....We have Y-leashes for the dogs so maybe the quesiton is do you do twin/twin and dog/dog on the end of each leash or mix it up and do dog/twin and dog/twin and hope that helps?

Tk8398 said:

Bmw sounds like more trouble than it's worth, Ford truck and Montero sound like a good fit for what you use them for, I'd say a AWD Toyota Sienna van (you can even lift it and put more aggressive tires on it), then either keep the Miata or sell it and get a little bit bigger fun car so it would be more useful. Nissan Frontier seems better to flip unless you really like it.

Thoughts on a little bigger fun car? I had a similar thought (as much as I love the NB, get something that can seat 5 so it has the capability of doing family stuff even if it's cramped) but the vehicle gets big FAST and I kind of enjoy smaller/lighter for something that is fun. 

I'd sell everything except the Miata, get a non-dually that can handle the 5fth wheel, and a minivan. Or if 4 vehicles are ok, keep the frontier, Miata, and F350, and get the minivan. 
 

Brokeback (Matt) said:

No one is in favor of keeping the BMW so that tells me something   

I'm disappointed in the lack of Astro Van/Suburban answers but I guess that just means a (modern-ish) minivan is that much better.  

I appreciate the input - alot of this echoes thoughts that I've had but sometimes you need someone else to confirm and push you in a direction.  

That's also 3 members who had twins so I guess I can come here for twin parenting advice too, perfect!  I'll reply to some of the individual answers in a few - bedtime is soon and that means I get 2 hours or so of "free" time

The first year of the twins life was absolutely brutal.  Non stop changing, feeding, etc...  I wouldn't plan on any big trips.  From there take it one step at a time.  

Oh, not to start a firestorm, I'm just very strongly against leashes on kids.  They're for dogs.

mtn said:

I'd sell everything except the Miata, get a non-dually that can handle the 5fth wheel, and a minivan. Or if 4 vehicles are ok, keep the frontier, Miata, and F350, and get the minivan. 
 

 

 

Parking space is not an issue - we have had 8 vehicles at once before (including 3 Miata's) but ongoing costs of insurance/maintenance/registration/time to maintain is probably the bigger factor. I don't mind paying extra within reason (if we still use the car enough or it gets used sparingly but it enables fun trips etc) but if I start to think about the $300/year/vehicle insurance cost when I only drove it 2k miles it makes me wonder 

In reply to Brokeback (Matt) :

So I've always bought and sold vehicles with a fleet of up to 6 at most at once I believe, had 4 miata at one time. When we found out we were having more and they were twins I was sitting with an 88 325is (good driver condition, too nice to track too many little things to restore), 92 miata (high miles HPDE fun car), 99 miata (auto, bought cheap with a hardtop so wife could autocross), 05 manual accord coupe (my daily), 09 Mazda CX9 (token crossover with 3rd row), and 10 Fit (auto, back up baby hauler), wife drove the fit and cx9 mostly. All but the Fit (commuter without full crew, dog hauler), and NA stayed. Picked up a 2020 Odyssey (primary kid hauler) and 2010 Highlander (previously my brother's who upgraded to full sized truck, back up kid hauler but can tow 5k (aka miata on uhaul trailer)). We're a bit crazy and drove the whole family VA to Iowa when twins were 4m and to middle of Tennessee at 6m maybe.

Brokeback (Matt) said:

No one is in favor of keeping the BMW so that tells me something   

I'm disappointed in the lack of Astro Van/Suburban answers but I guess that just means a (modern-ish) minivan is that much better.  

That's also 3 members who had twins so I guess I can come here for twin parenting advice too, perfect!  I'll reply to some of the individual answers in a few - bedtime is soon and that means I get 2 hours or so of "free" time

I don't have twins and I won't claim it's the same experience, but I have 3 kids under 3.5.  We have an X5 and an older (2000) Expedition and we do 3 across in both cars. We frequently load kids + dog + cargo for big trips.
 

We did one long trip in a minivan, and it was fine - but hit road debris due to lower ground clearance. The cost to replace AC lines/underbody panels would have paid several years of gas price differences.

In the next week or so I'm planning to replace my Expedition with a newer Expedition Max. It just works. 

If it were me, I'd be trying to streamline and simplify as much as humanly possible. Having a bunch of vehicles takes a lot of time, money and mental energy that could probably be better used elsewhere for this season of your life.

Minivans are great for multi-kid duty, but they're not going to offroad or tow much at all. So if you want to continue those hobbies, that would mean you'd still have more vehicles to feed and maintain.

Does your camper have to be a 5th wheel? It seems small enough to be a bumper pull, which would open up several good choices in BOF SUVs. The right BOF SUV seems like it could combine the jobs of the dually, Montero, BMW, and Frontier (if you can flip it). Then you'd only have the Miata for the rare fun drive/commute and the BOF SUV to manage. It's going to cost more to drive than a minivan, but the savings from not registering, insuring, fueling and maintaining a fleet of vehicles should pay for any extra gas used by the BOF SUV of your choice.

If the camper cannot be changed to a bumper pull style, then I'd just use the dually for all truck/utility/family haul stuff and sell everything but the Miata. Or trade the dually in for a modern half ton to handle those tasks.

If the truck and trailer are known and good, keep them.  Switching to something "better" will likely cost money in the long run and leave you with unknowns that may become problems.

I would absolutely keep the Miata.  Clean, low mile NBs are already fairly rare and only going up in price.  It's only going to appreciate.  Put it on a stated value, 'classic car' insurance policy (usually cheaper than regular coverage), and drive it when you have time.  It can also be a great 'date night' car when you're able to get a sitter and have time to get away for a few hours.

Everything else is fungible, probably ditch the Montero and BMW for a minivan.  I've never had a minivan, but it's probably the droid you're looking for... many of them are capable enough in snow, and it looks like that truck can be a backup for snowy days if needed.

Brokeback (Matt) said:

Tk8398 said:

Bmw sounds like more trouble than it's worth, Ford truck and Montero sound like a good fit for what you use them for, I'd say a AWD Toyota Sienna van (you can even lift it and put more aggressive tires on it), then either keep the Miata or sell it and get a little bit bigger fun car so it would be more useful. Nissan Frontier seems better to flip unless you really like it.

Thoughts on a little bigger fun car? I had a similar thought (as much as I love the NB, get something that can seat 5 so it has the capability of doing family stuff even if it's cramped) but the vehicle gets big FAST and I kind of enjoy smaller/lighter for something that is fun. 

Depends on how much money, but a Focus ST, GTI, WRX, or something like that.  

Also I wouldn't sell the Ford, it's one of the last years of diesel truck that won't be mechanically totalled by some emissions issue well before the rest of the truck is worn out, so it would be hard to replace with anything better later.

I would sell it all, convert an astro van for a 5th wheel connection by removing everything behind the back seats, lift it for offroad capability, and then buy a BiTurbo for fun 4 seater to replace the miata. 

My thoughts:

-I would ditch the BMW yesterday. Get that thing outta there! Wagons are cool and all, but that one has trouble written all over it. 

-Ditch the Montero. Also has trouble written all over it with 260k mi. 

-If you want to do 4x4 things, get the Frontier to replace the Montero (assuming it's a 4x4). Also works as a weekend dump/home improvement store runner better than your other stuff. Then again, the tow rig can do that too, so maybe get it if it's dirt cheap. 

-Keep the tow rig. Do family camping things with that. Family camping things are fun. 

-Wild card is the Miata. Might be nice to take a break from kid duty every once in a blue moon and scoot around in that for an hour here and there. But, I'd only keep it if you have the room to stash it for a while. This is a total frivolity and you have to be OK with it sitting for long periods of time. Plus, you will want this when things get back to some semblance of normal. 

-Minivan with AWD idea is a hell of a thing when you have kids or have to just haul people. It may be more room than you need, but they are comfortable, quiet, and useful. I would see if you can find a last-gen Sienna in your range. We have a family member who has one and it went everywhere with everyone in it with zero issues for about 10 years. She recently traded it in on a new hybrid AWD one.