9’s the limit
I recently mentioned that I feel like now is the time to say goodbye to my 2016 Kia Sedona and move onto another new-to-me vehicle. This is largely because I’m now part of a larger family with my fiancĂ©. My new family has 9 people – my 3 children (6,4,3)and my fiancĂ©’s 4 kids (10,8,6,4) – and we need a larger vehicle to get around, if we want to take 1 vehicle.
This is the first post in a series about my experience purchasing and living with a 9 passenger vehicle. A series I’m calling 9’s the Limit.
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic took over, we went on a family trip to the West Edmonton Mall. This normally isn’t a big issue for me. I pile the kids into the van and away we go. However, my van seats 8 and there were 9 of us. We needed to take 2 vehicles. Ugh. The drive was fine, but I really wished I would have been able to have everyone in the same vehicle. Not only did we have to fill 2 cars with gas, but it was just inconvenient for parking, going to restaurants and coordinating stops for the bathroom.
Before we left we had decided that we would need to get a bigger vehicle, but we didn’t have time to find one. We started writing down our requirements for what the new family vehicle needed to have. I’m trying to have an open mind about what vehicle will meet our needs to keep my options open, however it’s hard when I already have an idea of what I want. The list of what we came up with so far is: Needs to fit 9 people, ideally be able to haul a travel trailer or a boat, gets decent fuel economy, pretty well equipped with features and tech, good cargo capacity even when we’re all in the vehicle together, ideally an SUV and has a power tailgate.
After doing some initial searching, it turns out that there aren’t many vehicles on the market that seat 9 people. At least not that I would consider buying. Neither of us want to get a 12 or 15 passenger van so we’re limited to 2 options; Chevy Suburban or GMC Yukon XL (or their smaller versions, the Tahoe and Yukon). All other SUVs on the market only seat up to 8.
We’ll be starting our search for a vehicle right away. To follow the journey, join the team on the right and you’ll get an email on Monday mornings with the latest from At the Apex.
