Families with more then three children and someone who commutes...

[3 ladybugs]

My husband and I drive older cars. Both cars we are the only owner of and they run great. We baby them and always have. However since our older car turns 17 this year, we have been thinking we may need to get another car in the future. Here is our dilemma.

 

The older car (2000 Toyota Camry) is what DH drives to work right now. It gets about the same gas milage as our other car (2007 Honda Odyssey). DH commutes 40 miles each way for his job. We are in the process of being licensed to foster and will likely be licensed for 2 children (in addition to the 2 children that our our bios). I thought we would be licensed by now, so I would imagine this would be soon that we would be licensed. We are open to getting 2 children as we have the room. Our goal for the future is to get a camper that would ease us with visiting family (all about 1000 miles away). 

 

So would you get a small car that would have good gas milage for DH then later upgrade the van to something that would be able to tow, with any times that we needed to repair the van, we would rent a car (van) that would fit us all in it? Or would you have DH drive the van and get a SUV that would have towing sooner that way if we needed to get anything repaired we wouldn't have to worry about renting a van, not to mention that we would always have a car that everyone could fit into for extra activities?

 

I should also state that ideally, we will not foster a kid we wouldn't be willing to adopt from the onset. This means that the oldest child has to be younger then my youngest (who turns 4 this July). Ideally a year younger. So we are talking 3 carseats, likely 4 as my oldest hasn't outgrown his carseat and is still 5 pt harnessed at 8.75 years old, though we do let him ride without a carseat for limited times.

 

Thank you for the help. :)

 

[Guest]

We decided to go ahead and get the bigger car and have dh drive the old car.

 

It was a good thing when the old car was broken down for three months!

[Anne in CA]

I wish I was good with that sort of thing, It seems to me that financially it would be better for your DH to have the dependable car with good gas milage to take to work. 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Since I have the space, I would keep the Camry as a back-up car, and get an SUV.  I'd let Dh choose whether to drive the Camry, the SUV, or the van to work, or alternate depending on the activities of the day.  That way, we'd be able to have our camping trailer sooner and be able to enjoy it while the kids are young.  We'd have the Camry on the rare occasions when the van is in the shop, or when a smaller car is warranted.  Dh would get to drive his shiny new (or new to us) SUV to work, if he likes.  I'd have my van, which I prefer for carting kids around.  

 

ETA: We did something similar, and ultimately ended up with 4 cars.  Dd now drives the '92 Subaru.  Ds took the newest car, the 2010 VW with him to college across the country.  Dh drives the '97 Subaru, and I still have my '07 van.  All the cars, except the VW, have well over 200,000 miles on them (though the VW is close).  If you have truly babied your cars, especially changed the oil regularly and performed recommended maintenance, they may run for many years yet.  My dh never wants to sell anything, especially if it runs well, so we have a sizable collection of old cars that run beautifully.  It's been good to have enough cars for all our drivers, since *everyone* commutes to school and work (we live in the country).  

 

 

Edited April 16, 2017 by Suzanne in ABQ

[3 ladybugs]

Keeping the Camry isn't really an option. We have a tight 3 car tandem driveway (live in NJ, not a state known for excessive room) so if we got another car we would get one that would replace what we already have. Once we get a RV, we will have to play around a bit with our driveway to get things to fit... on paper it will work but we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it. 

[prairiewindmomma]

A 2007 Odyssey is like brand new 😂. It is great for car seats. I would keep saving until life becomes a bit clearer as to what precisely you need. Depending on the size of what you're pulling, it may be very difficult to find something to accommodate all of the car seats...you might have to custom extend a truck cab or get a class A.

[KungFuPanda]

Get a late-model used mini van or an SUV that can haul a camper, and keep both old cars. Hopefully the van is paid for before DH kills both older vehicles on his commute and you can replace it in the future without having two car payments.

[MistyMountain]

With a 40 mile commute each day I would want a fuel efficient car for that.

[Guest]

I'd absolutely get DH the commuter first. It's the most practical option. Deal with the van only when you absolutely have to and be on the lookout for good seas on them used.

 

Signed, the person with an ancient commuter and a new van, who only got the new van when the ancient suburban wasn't reliable enough to drive.

[heartlikealion]

I would focus on what you need now. What you need now is something reliable for commuting. You might change your mind about the camper all together. I don't know how easy it is to find a car that car tow a camper and handle 4 carseats. That might be tricky.

[3 ladybugs]

I wrote a nice response to this but had to walk away when my 8 year old shoved his brother into a bookcase playing a game... boys! My younger son is okay and was AMAZING through the process. Tough as nails that one is!

 

This is what I was going to say:

Okay I measured the driveway and with room to walk around the cars, we only have 166 inches before the sidewalk for another car (as I have already said, when we get a camper we are going to have to go into the back yard a bit but that is an issue for another day). This rules out getting the SUV that I would want for towing. Ford's largest SUV has the ability to be configured to tow 9000 lbs plus (just over I think) so that is what I am looking at for a tow vehicle. Not because I want to tow 9000 lbs but because I want to tow 5-6K lbs and that would give us a cushion. No minivan, nor most full size vans can touch that. Sad too as I prefer sliding doors for children in cars. This Ford-O-Saurus (as DH calls it) is 204 inches roughly. So I would either have to put cars bumper to bumper (not good) or get rid of the Camry. Having 2 cars that wouldn't fit all of us (even if they are several years paid off) isn't practical either. 

 

I don't see us changing our mind on a camper. It really is the best option for us for when we travel to see family. My mom is 1200 miles away, and my in-laws are moving (closer then they are now) about 24 hours away... seriously I am calling it Siberia because I am a city girl and they are moving to the middle of no where. At least hotels are cheap there. :) I also have camping in my blood as there are family stories about my mom's 2 older sisters not being able to play on the floor in a camper when my grandfather was out panning for gold. They later sold their house and moved into a motor home and did the snow bird thing. So it is in my blood!

 

Thank you for all of your help.