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Thread: The fleet grows...

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    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    The fleet grows...

    As the potential of a kid grows this year, and neither of the other vehicles particularly great at transporting a child and their gear, we bit the bullet on a 2022 Honda Passport. She wanted a flat passenger floor - which kills a whole lot of vehicles. My main concerns were: reliability, offroad-ability, and cooled seats.

    Stock 2022 Passport Elite:
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    1st Mod - Passport Trailsport wheels + Falken Wildpeak A/T:
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    Fleet:
    2014 Audi TT
    2014 Mirage
    2022 Passport Elite
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
    As the potential of a kid grows this year, and neither of the other vehicles particularly great at transporting a child and their gear, we bit the bullet on a 2022 Honda Passport. She wanted a flat passenger floor - which kills a whole lot of vehicles. My main concerns were: reliability, offroad-ability, and cooled seats.
    That's a very nice fleet of vehicles. It's really nice to have a larger, quality vehicle when hauling the family, & the Honda Passport seems like an awesome choice! I remember the days of child seats, taking a folding playpen along for longer trips, etc.... It's easy to fill up even a larger vehicle when you have kids.

    Having a nice vehicle like that is why I also would like to own a Mirage at the same time. I don't need to rack up daily drivers miles on my nicer, newer vehicle. The Mirage will save a lot of wear & tear on the new Passport.

    We all know a Mirage is cheaper to replace than a Honda Passport. Take care of the Honda Passport, and it will serve your soon-to-be family for a very long time!

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    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    Thanks for that, Mark.

    TBH, I would prefer a minivan for baby duties. But I didnt want to get a minivan and jinx the baby making. The PP is sorta a stop-gap until we do get a kid. While the passenger door is wide enough and opens pretty much close to a 90*, it's still no match to a mini van's sliding doors. I'd never thought these words would come from my typing, but minivans are simply the best for transporting kids.

    I'm hoping the whole covid-era supply issues have resolved by then because I want a Toyota Sienna Hybrid AWD. Maybe add a 1-2" lift kit and it may be able to replace the PP for the mild offroading I'll be doing.

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    Ares - Forget the minivan until you have 3 kids. Yes, they are great. But they are WAY overkill. I actually think your Mirage is almost perfectly acceptable to haul you the wife and a baby. The caveat is that, a larger vehicle is going to crash more safely. It's illogical to save money and lose a life, especially a child's life. So, large car, Passport, whatever. But there's no sense in a minivan.

    Unless you are cooking a 2nd kid, and know you're not going to be able to stay out of it after the 2nd kid is born. Then, you might as well minivan it up.

    I should park my fleet up together and get a picture.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.9 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
    Thanks for that, Mark.

    TBH, I would prefer a minivan for baby duties. But I didnt want to get a minivan and jinx the baby making. The PP is sorta a stop-gap until we do get a kid. While the passenger door is wide enough and opens pretty much close to a 90*, it's still no match to a mini van's sliding doors. I'd never thought these words would come from my typing, but minivans are simply the best for transporting kids.

    I'm hoping the whole covid-era supply issues have resolved by then because I want a Toyota Sienna Hybrid AWD. Maybe add a 1-2" lift kit and it may be able to replace the PP for the mild offroading I'll be doing.
    A young couple with two young boys that are a part of our annual fishing trip in North Dakota fill up a Chrysler Pacifica, and that vehicle has a huge amount of cargo room. The boys watch movies as they travel. They fill up the Pacifica on that trip, & I fill up my Mirage!

    Now that you have the Passport, you can buy a boat next. All the coolers, fishing gear, & other large items can be hauled in the boat!!!!

    Even when I didn't have a small boat to tug, my 4' x 8' trailer would come along any time we went to my former in-laws cabin on the lake. Bikes, fishing gear, coolers, canoe, kayaks, & whatever extra filled things up fast.

    I think loading a kid in a child seat is easier with a SUV or wagon verses mini-van. You can only reach so far. If the van only has one sliding rear door, loading two kids in a SUV is way easier.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7milesout View Post
    Ares - Forget the minivan until you have 3 kids. Yes, they are great. But they are WAY overkill. I actually think your Mirage is almost perfectly acceptable to haul you the wife and a baby. The caveat is that, a larger vehicle is going to crash more safely. It's illogical to save money and lose a life, especially a child's life. So, large car, Passport, whatever. But there's no sense in a minivan.

    Unless you are cooking a 2nd kid, and know you're not going to be able to stay out of it after the 2nd kid is born. Then, you might as well minivan it up.

    I should park my fleet up together and get a picture.
    Agreed what you said above.

    My G4 to my surprise is capable of hauling 3 small children in the back with boaster seats. Good emergency transports, that is. They wouldn’t complain about discomforts anyways. 2 kids can be accommodated easily back there.

    I for example wanted minivan as well however it is illogical to trade in my 05 Highlander 5+2 cramped seaters and then lose more $ so yeah.

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    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark View Post
    A young couple with two young boys that are a part of our annual fishing trip in North Dakota fill up a Chrysler Pacifica, and that vehicle has a huge amount of cargo room. The boys watch movies as they travel. They fill up the Pacifica on that trip, & I fill up my Mirage!

    Now that you have the Passport, you can buy a boat next. All the coolers, fishing gear, & other large items can be hauled in the boat!!!!

    Even when I didn't have a small boat to tug, my 4' x 8' trailer would come along any time we went to my former in-laws cabin on the lake. Bikes, fishing gear, coolers, canoe, kayaks, & whatever extra filled things up fast.

    I think loading a kid in a child seat is easier with a SUV or wagon verses mini-van. You can only reach so far. If the van only has one sliding rear door, loading two kids in a SUV is way easier.
    We only had a single sliding door on our 2010 Caravan, IIRC, and putting kid in was a breeze, and her 2 two brothers scrambled into the remaining 4 seats and Mom and I filled out 2. We STILL had lots of room for a playpen and suitcases, backpacks and trip snacks. I personally don't think anything beats a Grand Caravan with folding seats. When I needed to gig it was a breeze to drop the seats and load in TWO full Marshall stacks. For those that are unaware of Marshalls they are the de facto standard used by every rock/grunge/metal band on earth. They consist of two cabinets loaded with 4 12" speakers. These stand about 6 feet tall. Then you drop a 100 watt tube amplifier on top. My two stacks would easily trip 118 db in an average club. I usually had to turn them down a bit so not to deafen the front row peeps. Aw, I miss those days....
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    Senior Member Dirk Diggler's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 7milesout View Post
    Ares - Forget the minivan until you have 3 kids. Yes, they are great. But they are WAY overkill. I actually think your Mirage is almost perfectly acceptable to haul you the wife and a baby. The caveat is that, a larger vehicle is going to crash more safely. It's illogical to save money and lose a life, especially a child's life. So, large car, Passport, whatever. But there's no sense in a minivan.

    Unless you are cooking a 2nd kid, and know you're not going to be able to stay out of it after the 2nd kid is born. Then, you might as well minivan it up.

    I should park my fleet up together and get a picture.
    You really should 7miles!

    I could care less about SUVs though. I'm minivan all the way, they do everything a large SUV can do and more IMO.

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    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler View Post
    You really should 7miles!

    I could care less about SUVs though. I'm minivan all the way, they do everything a large SUV can do and more IMO.
    Dirk for the win. Though I own a crossover I should have a 2010 Grand Caravan in my drive. Grrr. stupid ex of mine.
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    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
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        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Dirk Diggler (01-22-2023)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler View Post
    You really should 7miles!

    I could care less about SUVs though. I'm minivan all the way, they do everything a large SUV can do and more IMO.
    I should clarify my post. Ares, forget about a minivan. However, I'd take a minivan over ANY SUV, any day. However, you already have an SUV, so ... you'd just take a bath to trade to a minivan at this point. I will add, a minivan is a helluva lot more useful / valuable than an SUV (in my book). But women have to have their images upheld. Why an SUV does that is beyond me.

    I had a 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring from March 2006 through about 2018. I bought it 11 months after my 3rd son was born. So we had it until my oldest was 17 and pretty much out there driving himself around. It was a helluva vehicle. There was nothing that van couldn't do. The ride was better than an SUV, higher mpg, lower insurance, 2 sliding power doors, held gob loads of luggage behind the 3rd row (no need for a roof or hitch carrier you see on SUVs) yada yada yada. It was the best option for hauling 3 small boys around. But when it was no longer needed, out the door it went. Of course, it had 170k miles on it, and the transmission was just starting to have light symptoms that others had before the transmission took a dump. So I dumped it before it dumped me. Great vehicle though.


        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2020 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.4 mpg (US) ... 18.0 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.9 mpg (Imp)


  12. The Following User Says Thank You to 7milesout For This Useful Post:

    Dirk Diggler (01-23-2023)

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