I hate to admit it, but now that I've got 3 kids I'm considering a minivan with ever-increasing seriousness.

In addition to my small fleet of vintage Jeeps, I drive a Cummins-powered 4x4 Dodge Megacab pickup. It fits my family of 5 well, easily tows the boat or trail Jeeps all over, and will probably remain in my stable of vehicles for a long time to come. But my wife's car is another matter.

We bought her Dodge Durango brand-new back in '04 shortly after our 1st child was born. With a 5.7L Hemi and seating for 7, it smokes the unsuspecting poser off a red light and can tow the boat or Jeep if need be. But the non-MDS hemi can be a bit thirsty around town. It's only on extended freeway trips that I ever see the overhead read better than 20mpg. Plus, with almost 100K on the odometer, the exhaust manifolds are ticking again. The gaskets blew out and the manifold studs broke about 20K ago and I had it fixed under warranty, but now it's back. And fitting 3 car seats across the middle row is a pretty tight squeeze, so my oldest has taken to sitting in the 3rd row. No problem, only if we want to bring along the stroller or more than a few pieces of gear it's a really tight fit trying to squeeze it all in with the 3rd row seating not folded flat. Plus, it's an American car with nearly 100K on it, so naturally the interior plastic trim pieces are starting to fall off and the squeaks and rattles are getting pervasive.

Then, there's the ingress and egress. In the Durango, you gotta open the side door, hold it open so it doesn't hit the car beside you in the parking lot, fold the rear seat forward, get the kid in the back, belt him up, fold the rear seat back up, put the baby and the other kid in, belt them, (all while holding the door), and then close 'er up. In a minivan, you push a button on the key fob remote and both sliding doors open automatically. You do your business, and push the button again to close the doors. There's more room behind the rear seats for strollers and crap, more versatility on the interior layout, and mileage in the mid-high 20s on the freeway is standard.

I dunno. On the one hand, the Durango is paid off and it accomplishes the goal of getting the whole family where we need to go. On the other hand, I don't need a second family vehicle with a thirsty V-8 that can tow a trailer or boat and I would like a little more user-friendly family machine.