I never thought of the mini van as a gas guzzler either!

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

That's where we are right now. I'm pretty sure that we'll have to get something in the near future, since our van has about 211,000 miles. We'll just drive it until the wheels fall off!

We were actually going to trade in our 1998 Caravan for a new one but with prices rising everywhere and not having a car payment now we are going to keep it until we have to get rid of it. We are considering getting car when the van goes even though I love my van for when friends come along it may be worth it.

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~~Sonja~~

My 3lynns~ Ashlynn-8, Brooklyn-4 and Kaylin-3

we just got a newer van(ours died not bad for having almost 300,000 miles on it) it was not my first choice but we got the chevy uplander and were able to get it only 2 years old for 3400.00 bucks at the auto auction so it was a steal. no car payments and i have been averaging 26-28 on the highway to the next major town so not bad in my opinion.. we do however tend to drive our paid for saturn all 5 of us can fit and it get pretty darn good mileage at 34mpg so we usually will take that unless we have to get stuff that won't fit in the trunk of that.

we have just cut our driving way back..

We had to trade in my car (which I dearly loved) for the minivan over 2 1/2 years ago when DD#3 came along. We tried to make my car work, but for a family of five with the twins being 9 at the time and still growing, it was a tight squeeze. So when we're all together, we drive the van. Otherwise the 12 YO more fuel-efficient car is driven.
I don't care that much for the van, but it's a necessary item for the next 5-6 years at least.

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Michele
Member of the Welcome Wagon
http://mommysavers.com/boards/how-navigate-mommysavers/

We have an SUV (we inheirited it) and are definitely planning on buying a greener car. However, We (DH) decided to wait another 2 years if this thing can make it.

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It's not what you make; it's what you spend.

We have a Durango that is a super gas guzzler...12 mpg in the city which is all I drive. It is leased and when its up in the fall I am on to a minivan or wagon? Our other car is a Saab that is 5 years old....it gets awesome mileage at 35 mpg and it is paid for, so we will be driving it until it dies, which supposedly they are made to go 200,000 miles...we will see. Saab's are great green cars and b/c they are European (gas is more $ there than here) they are actually made to perform better on regular gas! We love it and thought maybe we might get a used 9-5 wagon when my lease it up?

We have a 2001 Chevy Blazer, two door so it only fits two carseats and no room for my oldest, it is DH's vehicle but in the summer he drives his motorcycle to work. My 89 oldsmobile got excellent mileage and fit all of us but it died so we bought a 2000 Chevy Venture that has 2 built in car seats and seats a total of 8. We paid cash for it and got a good deal. It is in pretty good shape and I love it. Now I don't feel so cramped and we can fit the family plus some. I just got it 2 months ago so I am not planning on trading it in, it doesn't get too bad of gas mileage but the gas gage doesn't work very well, so it would probably be better when it gets a new fuel pump assembly put in. It has a good engine 3.1 V6 so it should last awhile. The cool thing is that work isn't too far for me so I can walk.

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If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C.S. Lewis

We have an 06 Dodge Ram that is paid off and my 07 Durango. We have talked about trading one in but we wouldn't get the $ we need out of either one. Not to mention we need the room for all of us expecially if we have another baby in a couple of yrs. It's not to bad for us now that I don't drive much. It has been over 2 wks sense I put gas in mine and I still have half a tank. It's the same for DH's truck. He will be gone a lot this summer so a tank of gas should last him all month.

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I also have a Jeep Grand Cherokee that I absolutely love. My dh has a Ford Explorer. My Jeep gets better gas mileage than the Explorer, but not much!! I had a different Jeep Grand Cherokee for 5 years, but the transmission went out last summer so we ended up getting the new one a few weeks ago. We also have a Jeep Cherokee Sport (can you tell that we LOVE Jeep's...I would have a Wrangler, but it is not roomy enough for the family!) that my husband was driving until I got the new Jeep, now he is driving the Explorer 'cuz it has air conditioning & his Jeep did not. And, we live in South Alabama where it gets REALLY hot, so we pretty much must have air for the kids!
Well, a few weeks ago when we went to get a new vehicle we decided that we were going to get a 4-cylinder, 4-door CAR to save on gas since I drive 30 miles one-way to work & back. Well, it just did not work out that way. I have been driving an SUV for so long that I just could not go with a CAR...I was actually getting depressed & I started to miss my old Jeep. So, we ended up getting another. But, I am glad, I LOVE that Jeep!!!