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My SIL and family have been experiencing 'vacation packing' creep for years.
When it was just the 2 of them and a dog or 2, everything could fit inside his Explorer.
Then a couple of kids came along, although 1 dog went away.
Somewhere during that time period I gave them my 20 cu/ft rooftop Thule(25 years old now).
Last year, he added a hitch mounted cargo box, too.
He really wants something bigger.

I think one reason some people love minivans is because they don't have to think about packing efficiently- they just throw half of their home's contents into the thing and hit the road.

My SIL and family have been experiencing 'vacation packing' creep for years.
When it was just the 2 of them and a dog or 2, everything could fit inside his Explorer.
Then a couple of kids came along, although 1 dog went away.
Somewhere during that time period I gave them my 20 cu/ft rooftop Thule(25 years old now).
Last year, he added a hitch mounted cargo box, too.
He really wants something bigger.

When we did the "Griswold" road trip in Dec '23 I had the entire bed of my truck filled. Not sure how we would have done it in anything smaller. I know our XC90 wouldn't have handled it... maybe the Enclave if we cut back a bit.

We definitely overpacked for that trip, but to be fair it was nearly two weeks.

The minivan was a problem. Wife got so used to it that she couldn’t recalibrate to something smaller.

I had no problem transitioning at all. Once the last kid left the house, my minivan days were done. Terrific vehicle for those years, AND time to be adults again. That said, now that we have grandchildren, I traded in the Volt for the Blazer EV. Gotta have somewhere to put those car seats when they visit!

This could be tempting:

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If this was @breld posting that would be in his garage by sunset today.

jmonroe

Interesting article on the Subaru. If they came out with a manual trans crosstrek WRX I would have to seriously consider that.

Speaking of Amazon, the brainpower over there astonishes me sometimes. I got 4 boxes today with 1 roll of vinyl wrap in each, while each box could easily fit 6 or 8 rolls.

Since someone will ask: this is for the Suzuki. I chose a red copper metallic.

Nice size, and imho the styling has aged pretty well.

Daughter is in Corsica now and today sent ths pic of a 2CV. Friend told me they built these til about 1990!

Who says the French were behind-the-times, automotive-wise? 😀

Has she seen any of these?



And indeed the 2CV soldiered on into the 1990 model year.

We used to go shopping Saturday morning when we arrived for our week at the shore. But my wife got tired of that so now buys everything she can think of for the week and expects me to pack it somehow. Plus way too many clothes and too much bedding and random stuff we have never used. Kids can move to college (or their first apartment!) with less stuff.

Even with just the 2 of us the Acura would be jammed to the roof. Forget about any chance of a rear seat passenger. So we take the truck instead.