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Is there a hybrid minivan out there?
With 137,000 miles on my 2000 Toyota Sienna minivan, it's going to be time soon to get a new car.
I want to get a hybrid so I can use less gas and feel less pain as it climbs past $4. But as far as I can tell, there are no hybrid minivans out there.
Toyota may be releasing a hybrid minivan next year, but according to Hybridcenter.org, a project of the Union of Concerned Scientists, they may not, even though they have some in Japan. I was intrigued to read Toyota received 18,000 signatures on a petition asking the company to bring a hybrid minivan to the U.S.
So if I can't get a hybrid minivan, what is the biggest car I can get with the best mileage to shlep the kids around town?
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
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Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
I have read that the mileage difference between a hybrid and a non-hybrid is not enough to offset the initial price difference. We average 22mpg in our Toyota minivan, and it's not even a hybrid - that's not bad for a big roomy vehicle of any sort.
Posted by: Jeff | June 4, 2008 2:30 PM
Recently my wife and I had our third and with that blessed event we traded in our Prius Hybrid. Unfortunately, the answer is there are new hybrid minvans out there. If there were we would have bought one in a heartbeat.
Your choices are go conventional minivan, go Toyota Highlander SUV (with third row), or look at a crossover like a Dodge Journey or Mazda5.
The Highlander is expensive and not a minivan.
The crossovers definately are not minivans either.
Posted by: Emmett | June 5, 2008 12:50 AM
We looked at SUVs before we bought our second mini-van. Not only did they get worse gas mileage, they had much less room. There's no shame in driving a mini-van.
As for the hybrids, not too many people think past the immediate or the gas price du-jour - all you are doing is pushing the energy cycle further upstream - you have to make that environmentally dirty battery to start with. It takes energy to charge it, and when it dies in 4-6 years - what do you do with a now exeedingly toxic 1200lb vat of chemicals ? It is not the panacea it is made out to be.
Posted by: Jeff | June 5, 2008 11:47 AM
There's an interesting campaign to get more automakers on board with selling more hybrid minivans. Toyota already makes one in Japan but hasn't said when it will distribute in the US. Check it out:
http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/let-s-bring-hybrid-minivans-to-the-suburbs
Posted by: stephanie | July 29, 2008 5:10 PM