[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by slowmover

The choices today between van & SUV are impressive. As a topic title it slides right into what I consider as most important: The Family Vehicle.

Baseline decision on a family car, in my strongly-held opinion, is that it be able to carry all of us with luggage. That moment comes it is necessary and one has failed in proper vehicle specification is going to be shattering. It’s When, not If as a decision.

One of the reasons I became more favorable to vans over SUVs was their increased capability either to haul more passengers, cargo, or a satisfactory amount of both. The problem here in Brazil is that most options in the 1.0L-engined "people's car" class are small hatchbacks, which are somewhat limited to perform in a satisfactory way all the tasks required from a vehicle that is often the only one available at a household.

I went into this at length in another thread using the example of Why an adequately-sized sedan had been the choice for 80-years in this country.

Either an adequately-sized sedan or a station-wagon. Well, the popularization of the automobile in Brazil is somewhat more recent, with the VW Beetle and its derivatives playing a more important role than anything else. So many families have carried kids in that hole behind the backseat, with roof racks bearing loads and luggages.

In some other places, rail is the expectation to travel cross-country. Cars are primarily for metro areas. A different relationship than in a continent-sized Union of States.

In Brazil it's quite similar to the United States on that matter.

Focusing on FE numbers is not primary, but secondary. Reliability, longevity, highway-stability, crashworthy size, etc, all factor higher.

Take a crashworthy size out of that equation and you'll figure out why the Chevrolet Onix and Chevrolet Prisma are strong sellers here and in some regional export markets. Well, they're at least wider and most likely also slightly longer than a Toyota Etios, which actually seems to be more crashworthy.

As does an insulated garage.

No wonder the Citroën 2CV and the VW Beetle were so popular before anti-freezing radiator fluid became widespread. Plus their basic engine designs were also fitted to some cars roughly 40 years more modern than them such as entry-level trims of the Citroën Visa and earlier versions of the Volkswagen Gol (not Golf).

Buying “used” may have its place. But if the goal is longest-term ownership — the Grail of Economy — getting vehicle spec right the very first time is critical (but, let’s face it) NOT when it has blue velour seats under a lime-green paint job. New, or closest, is the path. “New” with attendant higher cost may be best. I’d say that if it’s motivation to do right by the vehicle, it’s value-received.

Some folks look at a brand-new car as a more fail-proof option than an used one, which is not always the case. It's not uncommon to pick the stripped version readily available on stock, and then having to fit some accessories to suit better the preferences and occasional needs of the buyer, so in the end it may become more expensive than waiting a little more for the vehicle with the right spec. Believe me, sometimes even something as fool as a cigarette lighter could be missed even in a non-smoking household, and it happened 21 years ago when my dad got a brand-new Opel Corsa (locally rebadged as a Chevy) to replace a totaled Fiat Uno. The cigarette lighter was often used as a power outlet for an electric air compressor, so in order to use it in the Corsa the plug was removed in order to allow the wires to be connected directly to the battery poles.

Don’t pull these devices out of their web. A van might be better than an SUV (I’d say it is), but much will come down not to use, but specific design differences (fully independent suspension is a giant tie-breaker, for instance).

My point to claim that a van is often better than a comparable SUV is exactly based on design differences, considering models with a similar external size.