How fun. Minivans! Sorry but I don't know of many European minivans. I have a relative that owns an Odyssey and I like it. NAV, DVD, 6 CD changer etc. so I voted Odyssey.

My vehicle has all those goodies. My kids play the PlayStation2 on the rear entertainment system. They want a PlayStation3 for Christmas, so I guess I will be getting them that. But it will probably end up in the Expedition like the other one, when we take trips.

Here these vehicle category is not so "mini" van C8 / 807 are large "monospace" as we call these in French. The compact "monospaces" and most popular ones are like Renault Scénic, VW Touran, etc.
In that category (of large minivans) I prefer the style of the Renault Espace rather than the Peugeot/Citroën and others. Here the japanese and US ones are quite rare so I do not really know these.

Wow, very rare. If I heare right though the price has been deducted. I have a Nintendo Wii. Nothing you'd want to take on a road trip especially with the Wii sports game .

Monospace. Interesting. I think that these European vans are neat because they can have manual transmission, unlike us with only automatics. The only reason why I know the European vans is that I looked them up before posting the poll. btw does your Peugeot have a manual or automatic?

Having the High Definition Rear entertainment option has turned out to be quite nice, by my kids being able to watch DVD movies and play games they are more at home on the road. Having dual Captain’s chairs keeps them far enough apart to discourage fighting. Which is good for me (and them) They know if dad has to stop the car for roughhousing, someone is in trouble.

Manual, like most of the cars.
Automatic is usually chosen only by old people

Does that mean we're old? No one seems to know how to drive manuals these days. Of course you drive stick because you have smaller cars and the roads aren't so long and wide. My dad is the only person I know that has a manual.

You mean no one in America knows how to drive a manual, or "stick-shift" as you call it. Most people in the UK (and in most other European countries I'd imagine) learn to drive on a manual, very few people take the automatic-only driving test, which only allows you to drive an automatic if you pass, with the normal (manual) test you can drove both. This limits you as to what cars you can buy as many smaller (and cheaper) cars aren't available with automatic gearboxes.

Actually it really doesn't make any difference, plenty of European cars are automatics (usually the bigger ones), and it doesn't make it less easy to drive down twisty, narrow roads, the only difference is with an automatic you don't have to push a clutch pedal and change through foward gears yourself. So automatics are "easier" to drive, but then once you master a manual gearbox it becomes second nature anyway. And the advantage of manuals is that they accelerate faster.

I mean here


As G-MANN said, here you have to pass your exam on a manual car, else your license if valid only for automatic cars, which is annoying since these are much less common.

I voted for the Chrysler Town & Country (in the UK it's called a Voyager), but I just want to point out I would only EVER get a minivan if I ACTUALLY needed the amount of seats they have, eg. if I had a wife and 4 kids, not just 2 kids or 3 kids (you can still fit 3 in the back of most non-minivan family cars. As cars I find them even less attractive than SUVs, I hate nearly all SUVs but I can understand how people are taken in by their size and image, I don't hate minivans as much, but I just don't understand why people would want them unless they really did need the extra seats, which leads me to conclude that minivan drivers who don't need all the seats have no real taste in cars. I mean would a single person ever drive a minivan? A single person might have an SUV (for the right reasons or the wrong reasons) but it make no sense at all for them to have a minivan (unless they drove lots of friends around or used it as a taxi), it would be like a man wearing a bra. I see some families with minivans who don't have more than 2 kids, but they've just been suckered into buying them because of their family friendly features, those people are daft. And I've never liked those smaller MPVs that don't have more than five seats, like the Renault Megane Scenic, why want would you want one of them instead of a four door family sedan or wagon which has the same amount of seats? They are such a mum's car.

I raised a family and didn't own a van so I don't vote for any of them.

I once had a station wagon (estate car) and was uncomfortable with it for the same reason - luggage. Can you imagine having an accident with 4 or 5 people's unsecured luggage piled behind you with nothing in between? Having my wife's suitcase hit you in the back of the head at 60 or 70 MPH would not be fun. I like something with a separate space for luggage and other heavy stuff.

Well you could have put a cargo net between the back seat and the cargo area, my parent's car has one. Maybe a dog guard would work as well.

The same reason as what?

Three separate rear seats, which means that it is easier to have one baby seat fixed on one of the seats + the two other kids. And usuall you can carry more luggage than in a "normal" car of the same length.
So these can really be useful. But again, not for 1 or 2 kids. For 3 kids I really think that a Scénic is better than a compact car (take in account that the Scénic is less than 4.2m...)

I still would never dream of owning a Scenic. Yes, it's better than a compact car eg. Renault Clio, Renault Megane, but it is it really better than a medium-sized family car like the Renault Laguna? Yes it's shorter but I could live with the extra length. I'm sure a Laguna would have just as much space and you could still fit a baby seat in one, that's what I'd rather drive. When I was a baby, baby seats and push chairs (or strollers as they are called now, were much smaller, yes they were flimsy looking but they still did the job. The ones made nowadays look like something you could go to war in.

Okay I wouldn't say no one know hao to drive a manual, but a lot of people I know have more automatics, many of my friends have only automatics and no one in my family except for my dad has a manual. My mother may know but right now she has automatic. Here it is not required to know how to drive stick before you get your license, in fact, my driver's ed car was an automatic. I remember my grandparents telling me that manuals were common in the 50s and 60s, and they didn't like it. It was either "Three on the Tree or Four on the Floor", Three on the Tree means that the shifter is like a column shifter but it has to be shifted into different gears while driving. Four on the Floor is a four speed and you shift it like a normal manual car. Manuals are becomming less common here and most people do not have manual transmissions. When I was younger I tried looking for a driver's school that provided stick shifted cars and I couldn't find one. It's not required to drive a manual here but I believe that it would be great if it was. Some of our sports cars have automatic transmissions like the Corvette has an optional one, A Ford Mustang V6 has auto, but if you want the GT with a V8 you'll only get a 5 speed manual. The Infiniti G35 now G37 has an auto or manual, same with the Nissan 350Z, but with the automatics you get less horsepower and slower acceleration. Some of our Ferraris have semi-automatics which do not have the clutch. But the point is, why can't we learn or at lease try driving a manual car like a lot of the Europeans? We would have more experience with driving different types of cars probably and with manuals we would have better performance, better gas mileage, and maybe not as many transmission problems except for wrong shifting and replacing the clutch every few years. If you guys have a lot of experience with manual transmissions, why can't we?

Also just to say, those "compact monospaces" but here it'd just be a "mini" minivan , There is only one car in the US that is like that that I know of. It's the Mazda5 and they don't even sell too good here!

My parents have a minivan. I really don't see the point because:

1. They never take out the seats.
2. I have two younger siblings that live with them (and one of them already has a car).
3. They don't buy a huge amount of items or carry a ton of stuff.
4. The rear bench is scooted all the way back leaving minimal floor space in the back (probably less than their Focus).

Their reasoning is that they need it when they need to shuttle people around for our family get-togethers (which happen about once a month). Personally I think they should just get rid of that POS van and buy a large sedan or something. They're starting to take trips with their other car (Ford Focus) so I guess they're starting to finally see the point that the van is pretty useless.

BTW, if you've ever had your doors dinged by some parent's hyperactive children in a parking lot, you'd know sliding doors have to be one of the best feature of a van.