And the funniest thing? Apparently, there is something irresistibly drowsy-making about that big purring van because, almost inevitably, when we come home from the gym in the evenings, all 6 of my children will have fallen asleep. They don’t even mind the loss of the DVD player that we employed on a semi-regular basis in the Odyssey to kill car naps and distract over-tired toddlers. They love the extra space, the feeling of being higher than everybody else on the road, the awesome sound system (seriously, it’s pretty decent), the fact that we have zero trouble finding our car in parking lots, and the fact that I let them pile into the (seatless) back for dance parties if we ever need to hang out in the car and wait for a bit. (It really does have remarkably smooth handling and braking, though). Oh! And, as you can imagine, I’m not the only one who thinks that driving an ark on wheels is just the coolest thing ever. It’s not too bad with gas as affordable as it currently is, but I cringe to think of when it (inevitably) jumps back up to $4/gallon. But, at an average of 15 mpg, it’s downright scary how many times I’ve had to fill up since we’ve gotten her. I knew we were going to take a hit (we averaged 21 in our Odyssey). Not quite as thrilled with the gas mileage. (Why very small children have such a propensity for spilling/dropping/throwing food is a mystery to me, but I love it…clearly).ĪNYhoo, because of the new seat configuration in Nina Cleana (Shaun suggested the second name as a motivation for keeping her “cleana” that the Odyssey) and the amount of space BENEATH the seats, I’m happy to report that we have been driving Nina for over two weeks, and she is still as spick and span as the day we bought her (well, except for the mud that we inevitably track inside because country living). Especially with the need for at least one of the twins to be in the back row for all of our car seats to fit. Honestly, I still have no idea why it didn’t sell…except maybe because she had accidentally left off the last digit of her phone number on the ad and had not yet relisted it? Or the Lord was having mercy on my poor bent-back-by-awkward-belt-buckling fingernails? (I kid).īut in the Odyssey, it was just too easy for something to get dropped, roll up under a seat, and then never get seen again (cueing multiple episodes of: “Um, what’s that smell?” Yeah, I know. And, as it turned out, it was still available–even after being on the market for over 2 weeks (which is kind of unheard of because these suckers go fast, y’all). Which…is what I figured had happened for sure when I stumbled upon a listing for a navy blue 2014 NV 3500 south of Waco, Texas with only 10,000 miles on it and all of the fancy bells and whistles for a really great price. Each time a deal would pop up on Craigslist, we’d check it out and discover that either a) it really wasn’t that great of a deal or b) it was a moot point because it had already been snapped up.
#Nissan 12 passenger vehicle full#
And by “a while,” I mean for the past 18 months or so.īut they’re hard to find used, y’all, and we’re not into paying full price at the car dealership. Which is why we’d been eyeing the Nissan NV 3500 passenger van for a while (it’s a 12-seater). There are a couple of nine passenger options and then–BOOM!– you’re up to (gasp!) 15 in no time flat. But we also are open to the prospect of more kids in God’s timing, so we’ve been–shall we say–keeping an eye open for something a teeny bit bigger.īut the thing is that there really isn’t much in the “teeny bit bigger than a minivan” category. Because, since we live in a first world country and stowing your children on the luggage rack is highly frowned upon (as opposed to, say, Central America where you might just see an entire FAMILY hanging off every surface of a motorcycle as they buzz through town), having MORE bottoms than will fit in seats just won’t work. And–honestly–every single one of those “issues” I mentioned is a #firstworldproblem.ĭo you know what is a completely legitimate problem? Having MORE bottoms than will actually fit inside a vehicle.
#Nissan 12 passenger vehicle for free#
Rage-inducing when the big kids weren’t in it, and Mama had to contort herself into circus-worthy positions to buckle 3 car seats? Amen and bless it.īut it was also paid for free and clear. Thankfully, our Honday Odyssey (“Ophelia”) had 8 seats. I mean, there just aren’t THAT many options out there that can accommodate 8 bottoms in one ride. But, when you think about the fact that there are 8 of us who need to travel together at the same time, the question makes a little more sense.
Which, on the surface, probably sounds like a funny thing for people to wonder about. I’ve actually lost track of how many times we’ve been asked what we drive.
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