Ttma Nissan pathfinders

[dizzycooks]

Tell me your stories. I found a deal and we need an upgrade. I am IN LOVE with my rogue. It's basically this or a sienna, but I hate hate hate the idea of a mini van and I like how high I sit I the pathfinder.

[nicolewi]

I lloooooooooove my minivan.

Just sayin'.

[auroraloo]

I HAAAAAaaaaAAAAAAaaaAATED having a minivan, but our Sienna was a good one to have. It was a little less minivanish.

I know nothing about the pathfinder, but I echo your Rogue love. So you should probably not get a minivan, because clearly we have similar car tastes.

[lala]

I also love my mini van and would not choose an SUV over it period. But obviously, there are a lot of opinions on that!

Is the Rogue 3 rows?

[dizzycooks]

Aug 27, 2017 19:46:00 GMT -5 lala said:

I also love my mini van and would not choose an SUV over it period. But obviously, there are a lot of opinions on that!

Is the Rogue 3 rows?

It can be, but it's not a viable solution. Basically you give up having any trunk space for the seats. The pathfinder is the next option.
I read horrific reviews of the sienna in snow. I can't imagine e having a car that cannot handle snow. I actively choose not to drive our Elantra in the snow. Dh will take it one mile to the bus stop and that is it.

[penguingrrl]

I absolutely hated my Sienna. It was just too big and too low and I was never able to get comfortable driving it. I also hated having captains chairs because it meant always having to use the 3rd row and losing the storage space. I went back to a Pilot after 18 months and never looked back because the minivan was seriously the worst car I've ever owned.

[dizzycooks]

Aug 28, 2017 7:58:58 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I absolutely hated my Sienna. It was just too big and too low and I was never able to get comfortable driving it. I also hated having captains chairs because it meant always having to use the 3rd row and losing the storage space. I went back to a Pilot after 18 months and never looked back because the minivan was seriously the worst car I've ever owned.

Any experience with the storage space? I'm worried about getting groceries or putting a double stroller in behind the third row.

[penguingrrl]

Aug 28, 2017 8:00:10 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

Aug 28, 2017 7:58:58 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I absolutely hated my Sienna. It was just too big and too low and I was never able to get comfortable driving it. I also hated having captains chairs because it meant always having to use the 3rd row and losing the storage space. I went back to a Pilot after 18 months and never looked back because the minivan was seriously the worst car I've ever owned.

Any experience with the storage space? I'm worried about getting groceries or putting a double stroller in behind the third row.

With the pilot or the Nissan? I have no experience with the Nissan. But with my pilot I can fit a week's worth of groceries behind the 3rd row, but not a week's worth of groceries and a stroller. But I generally keep my kids in the middle row and only use the 3rd row for carpooling or otherwise bringing extra kids somewhere. Otherwise I usually keep the 3rd row down.

[dizzycooks]

Aug 28, 2017 8:02:07 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Aug 28, 2017 8:00:10 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

Any experience with the storage space? I'm worried about getting groceries or putting a double stroller in behind the third row.

With the pilot or the Nissan? I have no experience with the Nissan. But with my pilot I can fit a week's worth of groceries behind the 3rd row, but not a week's worth of groceries and a stroller. But I generally keep my kids in the middle row and only use the 3rd row for carpooling or otherwise bringing extra kids somewhere. Otherwise I usually keep the 3rd row down.

Maybe this is where I emphasize that we will *need* the third row for our own passengers...

[penguingrrl]

Aug 28, 2017 8:03:41 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

Aug 28, 2017 8:02:07 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

With the pilot or the Nissan? I have no experience with the Nissan. But with my pilot I can fit a week's worth of groceries behind the 3rd row, but not a week's worth of groceries and a stroller. But I generally keep my kids in the middle row and only use the 3rd row for carpooling or otherwise bringing extra kids somewhere. Otherwise I usually keep the 3rd row down.

Maybe this is where I emphasize that we will *need* the third row for our own passengers...

That may make a difference. My least favorite part about the van was that while there was a lot of storage, everything had to pile on top of everything else because it was tall and narrow. But if you need to use the 3rd row no matter what it may be a better option if you can get comfortable driving it.

[lala]

I keep strollers & other crap in my van & always have plenty of room for groceries. We use the middle & third row 90% of the time. Storage is deep vs.wide but it's still way more than any regular SUV I've ever seen. I would hate having 2 captains chairs too - but ours has 3 independent removable seats in the middle row. I do like the odyssey better than the sienna, but we don't need awd. If I did, i think I'd be stuck with a sienna because it's the only minivan with it. Someone might have mentioned to me that the new Pacifica has awd?

I think the love/hate for minivans has a lot to do with which one you have + trim level and how you use it. For us, it's perfect & you can pry my auto sliding doors out of my cold dead hands.

[penguingrrl]

Aug 28, 2017 9:39:55 GMT -5 lala said:

I keep strollers & other crap in my van & always have plenty of room for groceries. We use the middle & third row 90% of the time. Storage is deep vs.wide but it's still way more than any regular SUV I've ever seen. I would hate having 2 captains chairs too - but ours has 3 independent removable seats in the middle row. I do like the odyssey better than the sienna, but we don't need awd. If I did, i think I'd be stuck with a sienna because it's the only minivan with it. Someone might have mentioned to me that the new Pacifica has awd?

I think the love/hate for minivans has a lot to do with which one you have + trim level and how you use it. For us, it's perfect & you can pry my auto sliding doors out of my cold dead hands.

I definitely think what trim level you have has a lot to do with it.

We had the absolute stripped down model because it was what we could afford. No auto sliding doors and the girls had so much trouble opening and closing them (we constantly had to pull over once we cleared the school drop off area because the door wasn't really shut). No ability to put all three in the middle, so very restricted storage compared to having all three in the middle row and the whole back of the pilot. No AWD and I didn't like how it handled in the snow.

Basically mine had all the dorkiness of a minivan without any of the cool features that makes people love them.

[auroraloo]

Aug 28, 2017 7:51:21 GMT -5 dizzycooks said:

Aug 27, 2017 19:46:00 GMT -5 lala said:

I also love my mini van and would not choose an SUV over it period. But obviously, there are a lot of opinions on that!

Is the Rogue 3 rows?

It can be, but it's not a viable solution. Basically you give up having any trunk space for the seats. The pathfinder is the next option.
I read horrific reviews of the sienna in snow. I can't imagine e having a car that cannot handle snow. I actively choose not to drive our Elantra in the snow. Dh will take it one mile to the bus stop and that is it.

I had no issues with my Sienna in the snow. 

[nicolewi]

I have an Odyssey (I know, this isn't what you are looking at, but since the other mini-van people are posting...).

We have benches in the middle and back. You can remove the middle of the second row if you want to, I think, but we never have. I kept three kids in the middle and one in the back all last year. Currently I have two car seats in the middle and two boosters in the back. I love the flexibility of seating and storage options, the automatic doors, the back-up cam, DVD player, blind spot indicator thingy. I really love being able to all jump in when it's raining or whatever and then I can buckle the kids from inside.

I am in snowy WI but didn't get the Sienna despite the AWD. I haven't had a problem with the Odyssey. It's not the greatest ever in snow, but it's okay.