“I’ll never own a van.” – Women in their 20s desperate to outrun their future midlife doom.
We all said it. I still say it. I’ll never own a van. (Our household human number doesn’t hit a size that necessitates one…thank God.)
But damn it. I recently rented a Chrysler Pacifica for a girls’ weekend up in wintry, cozy Michigan, and it was literally…a dream.
I have driven a van here or there in my adulthood. The last rental option Hertz had in a pinch or the vehicle supplied by an employer to transport supplies of some kind, but I hadn’t truly taken such a chariot on my own trip in midlife.
We initially wanted the storage room for all of our cute and puffy snow bunny wardrobes for the weekend, but we ended up loving so much more than some extra cargo space.
It was a smooth ride, smoother than our moms’ Astrovans from the 90s. Speaking of smooth, the doors alone, with their seamless glide, had me thinking in red of all the times I (sternly) remind my 8-year-old not to ding the cars next to us whenever he slings open our SUV doors normally. The impending dings give me nightmares.
Upon our arrival and the usual grocery haul, the deep back hatch storage was a total shock of the positive kind to my gal pals, none of whom have children, on this particular trip, so their exposure to “van life” was that of their childhoods.
Don’t even get me started on the digital console. It was a dream, and I was happy to stay in bed on this one and keep dreaming.
Also, in closing on this gushing review, I want to give a five-star review of the Turo app. Suppose you are a family considering a trip but want a larger vehicle for comfort or storage. In that case, I highly recommend trying Turo for some larger options that are within a close mileage to your own home in most cases and none of the red tape that comes with a brick-and-mortar rental provider.
Overall, I give the idea of the minivan as a whole a higher rating than I would have a month ago. When I compare it to a large third-row SUV, I think the van is the way to go, for all those times you are carting adults around that do not want to practically climb a wall to take a cozy seat in the back. For a trip, I can’t even imagine taking a sedan or a single-row SUV for any more than three people to enjoy.
Some might even call the experience…VAN-tastic!
