Saw My 1st 300C on the Road Today

May 06, 2004 66 Replies

All very low-volume cars compared to their 4-door siblings (except for the econo-boxes like the Acura- yes 2-door cars are still popular in that size class), and not a single domestic large car among them. Heck, even a pocket-rocket like the Neon SRT-4 sells better as a 4-door these days.

Exactly, and I'm quite a fan of the full-sized coupe.

Now THAT is an unqualified generalization! You won't find any minivan in

*my* garage, and I spent a lot of formative years riding to grade-school in a '66 Plymouth Satellite coupe :-)

But as a generalization, it is all too true.

We started out riding in the back of my Mom's '66 Tempest coupe. My dad had a VW fastback, not sure of the year. Late 60s. He later got an early '70s Maverick coupe. Probably a '73. So I've done family time in the back seat of mid-size coupes. They were truly a pain in the ass. From '77 on, they only bought sedans, they were the better tool for the job.

Today, I've got a sedan and a minivan. The minivan's the better tool for the family hauling job, hands down. I'd rather lean easily into the big, wide open slider of my Grand Caravan to put one of the little ones into their seat than bonk my head on the roof of my Intrepid. The stroller doesn't fill the luggage 'compartment' of the minivan like it does that of the Intrepid. And I can go off to Costco and come away with a boatload of stuff without even considering how to rearrange the load in the van. In the 'trep, big as it is, sometimes you've got to be careful to consider that.

Bigger is better when it comes to hauling kids, plain and simple. I'd be doing things in a Durango, but even at $1.00 a gallon, 12MPG would get on my nerves. And they're not as big inside.

Maybe when both kids are out of car seats we'll lose the minivan.

It depends on how many kids you have, and what their ages are.

--Geoff

'Tis the exception that proves the rule, I guess.

--Geoff

To be pedantic, it's the exception that TESTS the rule (widely misquoted)...

...but your point still stands...

:-) DAS

Jack Baruth wrote: [snip]

[snip] In my case, it was a '68 Buick Wildcat. But they didn't have mandatory car seats back then for little kids--and the hassles of working a late 1980s car seat for my eldest while contorted convinced me to sell my '79 Scirroco coupe and get a Jetta sedan. Then replaced by a Grand Caravan.

I believe there was a concept Charger but it was shown in 4-door trim

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