What Car? "I Know There's No Answer" Edition

Dave M (Forum Supporter) said:

What about a PHEV Pacifica? Those are really really nice inside too.

I should go look into what these are like. That's a big box that we could drive most of the time on the electric range. Probably the biggest knocks on these are that they're pushing the upper limit of what size we want to deal with, and that they're pricey for something that we probably aren't going to fall in love with (i.e. for something we're not unlikely to replace in 2-4 years). But it's still a really compelling suggestion. I wish the PHEV thing came in the tidier Grand Caravan wrapper.

Aw, foo. The Pacifica hybrid doesn't have Stow 'n Go seats. If they remove easily it might not matter, but it would be awesome just to have everything flat most of the time and be able to pop up some seats when we have more than two humans...

Jesse Ransom (patron/dork) said:

Aw, foo. The Pacifica hybrid doesn't have Stow 'n Go seats. If they remove easily it might not matter, but it would be awesome just to have everything flat most of the time and be able to pop up some seats when we have more than two humans...

Yup, we have one.  The seat backs fold flat to provide a flat spot for loads, etc. or they can be removed by lifting the latch.

They slide forward and back to allow for some extra room and the front seats slide forward and up at the touch of a button (open the sliding door and hit the button at the bottom of the pillar near the floor)

They are much more comfy compared to the stow-n-go's, but they are a bit heavy.  I've had ours out a couple times and it's just a bit awkward by yourself, but totally doable.

With the center seats out you can still use the rear seat and that just flips up/down pretty quickly and easily and there's a lot of cargo space in the middle compared to behind the rear seat.

All of the hybrids are pretty loaded, with dual sunroofs, etc. we have the S trim which has all of the chrome blacked out and black leather interior.  With the gray body color it looks pretty good, IMO.  They do have a couple of neat color options, but the wife wanted the gray.

BTW, we get about 30-32 miles on a charge and about 480 miles on a tank/charge.  The CVT is smooth and it just pulls cleanly and without too much fuss all the way up to 100 (and easily further, but we didn't want to push it any further on the street).  No real wind noise or complaints.  Pretty impressive for a box on wheels.

It feels smaller and easier to handle in some ways than the Highlander that it replaced.  The parking sensors and cameras really help.  It also can parallel or back into a parking space for you (if you feel so inclined).

Oregon has a $2500 DEQ rebate on them and the Feds have a $7500 TAX rebate, so effectively $10k off the asking price isn't bad for a pretty much top of the line people mover/cargo box.

Jesse Ransom (patron dork) said:

What gets MPG like our '16 Mini but has a bunch more cargo room?

Note that the Clubman and Countryman, apart from dragging the MPG down a bit with mass, don't actually have appreciably more cargo room. They seem to give almost all the extra volume to the rear seat passengers; some of that would be welcome, but it's not the central problem. Dog gets the back seats, everything else we want to take goes in the cargo area, rear footwells, glovebox, armrest, clenched in our teeth...

I've got a bunch more thoughts/constraints/etc, but I think it's worth seeing whether anybody has any clever ideas for this simpler version of the question. We certainly could, and possibly should, just keeping driving the Mini 'til... I dunno. Lease return Volvo hybrid wagons? Used Model Ys?

2016 Mini with a Thule cargo box on a roof rack?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

And we already have the roof rack...

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

I had no idea there were incentives on those. Interesting... Thanks for the highlights!

In reply to Jesse Ransom (patron/dork) :

The PacHy comes with the roof rack integrated and the crossbars unscrew from the rails and you swing them across and screw them in.

We used it on a road trip from Portland to San Diego, to Scottsdale to Las Vegas and back.  We had two kids in car seats and 4 adults plus luggage (lots of baby supplies) and a Thule XL on the roof.  Damned van just shrugged it off and still clicked off decent mileage.

Jesse Ransom (patron/dork) said:

In reply to OHSCrifle :

And we already have the roof rack...

I picked up a used Sears xCargo** 20 for $70. A lot cheaper than a new vehicle. 
 

**Made by Thule and adds a huge extra trunk space, freeing up space inside for things you need to be able to reach. That's a huge box and I got it for golf clubs and beach chairs mostly. 

The Pacifica hybrid sounds great!

I had the thought, what about a Ford C-Max? Basically a box on wheels and you probably fit some fun Focus ST stuff on it.

In reply to CyberEric :

We looked at the C-Max last time we were shopping, and the outward visibility was so bad we didn't even test drive it; we just got in and then got back out. I think they're dorkily neat, but they're right out. That requirement kiboshed a number of cars, including the Volt. It was actually possibly the only thing about the Leaf we disliked nearly as much as the short highway range. The Leaf sort of showed us how much we care about visibility.

Another detail of this search is that this is The Household Daily Driver Appliance That I Do Not Touch Unless Maintenance And Maybe Not That. My wife is incredibly understanding and encouraging of all my automotive mayhem, but she wants one vehicle that's just stone stock, in excellent condition, and reliable.

The F31 328d wagon seems to tick most boxes for you.

 

2016 Mini with a Thule cargo box on a roof rack?

I was going to suggest same.  If you only need occasional extra cargo this is the way.  A 16 cu.ft. box costs me about 1 to 2 l/100km on my X3 depending on speed.  Takes about 10 minutes to set up.  Cost about $400 for an off brand box 10 years ago and works a charm.  Would be super easy to load on a MINI.

For a used cheap vehicle I'd say Scion Xb. They are like a Tardis....

New, Toyota Rav4. There even the standard model gets great mileage and then there is the hybrid. 

G_Body_Man (Forum Supporter) said:

The F31 328d wagon seems to tick most boxes for you.

It's true; we've both driven and liked the sedan variant when it was available here in the Reach Now car share service. I think the prices are on the high end of what we're inclined toward for a given year/mileage, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared of an already-pricey used BMW diesel.

I'm still having tons of fun agonizing over this. It's always ebb and flow, and I think I've pretty much talked myself to a standstill.

It turns out my wife's crush on the Rav4 isn't as pronounced as I thought, and that was a big part of being willing to consider something SUVish. I mean, on pure numbers, the Rav4 Prime is pretty spectacular. The only other thing with similar numbers is the Clarity, which lacks a hatch and AWD. We really prefer hatches, and would like AWD although it's certainly not necessary. I think at this point, especially where it's wet so much of the time, AWD is just a better way to put down modern levels of power/torque.

I'd say the leaning right now is toward paying off the dregs of the Mini's loan and enjoying having no car payment while we get some non-automotive ducks in a row, and see where we are in a year or so. But I'm going to keep thinking about how badly I'd die of Adventure-KTM-at-the-Starbucks syndrome with some Rally Armor mud guards on the Rav4, or whether the Clarity is weird enough to be interesting and neat, or whether we should just go full Tesla and get a Model Y, since that gets us a hatch for little more than the long-distance 3...

Honda Fit?

In reply to eastsideTim :

Reasonable suggestion. More usable space inside than the Mini, but probably not as much as we'd like. Moreover, I don't want to road trip one. They feel like they're giving everything they've got by freeway speeds. Really neat cars, though.

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

Yeah, while I took my second gen Fit on some road trips, it was definitely not ideal for that.

Kia Soul suggested yet. There is a turbo might be dual clutch. 

Civic hatchback is something that shouldn't be overlooked. Cuv levels of space and pretty much the same mpg as the mini.