Not the Hemi, I'd probably get the 250hp V6. My wife dragged me out to test drive a Toyota Sienna, the lexus of minivans. My opinion is that you give up too much performance, handling, and style in a minivan. Sure you get room for 8 or a whole lot of crap but....

So I saw a Chrysler Pacifica today and it looked nice. We want room for the baby and all the gear and the dog too. Right now the dog no longer gets to come with us.

I don't want an SUV because they roll over too easily and the station wagon is the new thing.

Even though its a Dodge that's better than a Ford in my book and it should score higher on performance, handling and style than the minivan.

 

You'd consider needing an SUV when you have ONE kid and a dog??

(there, I needed to get that out of the way...I know that you've already dismissed the SUV)

In no particular order, my advice would be:

1) If you're going to get a Magnum, get the hemi. Why the heck not? To me, that'd be the whole point of the Magnum vs. something entirely more practical like a Subaru Forester, Volvo wagon, etc. (I know I've quoted disparate ends of the price specturm, but you get the point).

2) The Pacifica may have 3 rows of seats, but try to use that rear row regularly for kids, and I think you'll regret it. If I had one, I'd take out the 3rd row and let the dog ride back there. But you only have 1 kid...so unless a set of twins is in your future (in which case, everything in your life will change, so there's no sense in worrying about the stupid car at this point), you don't need something that seats 6 or more.

3) The Pacifica is (IMO) butt ugly. But then again, so is the Magnum (IMO). I want my cars to look like cars (not rolling pounds of butter with wheels drawn on by a 13 year old boy ) and if it's going to be a van, what's wrong with looking like one? Being too proud to drive a minivan is just dumb (see below)...but paying more to make your minivan look like an extra fat car is even dumber.

4) The Siena is a very nice minivan. As a compromise between size, safety, and practicality, a minivan is very hard to beat if you have a lot of kids or stuff. Of course, I don't think that 1 kid and a dog is "a lot"...so I think you'd do fine with the station wagon.

So, what have you looked at besides the Magnum and the Toyota van? How about a Highlander or a Pilot? Those are sort of SUV-like (not a positive for me, but...), but seem more reasonably sized and probably safer than SUVs.

 

minivans... arrrrgggh! lumbering livingrooms... I can't stand those things.

The Magnum though, is one very cool car... if I was in the market for something with more capacity that's exactly what I would go for. It's a station wagon, yet it looks like a hot rod! :smile: Reminds me of the classic Chevy Nomad after a trip to the custom shop. I also think the hemi will keep it's value longer, look at what a 60's hemi will bring these days!

 

You might be able to score an insane deal on a very lightly used Magnum. Great car!

 

i had the oppurtunity to take a Magnum R/T (read: Hemi) out on a made up AutoX course at the Pontiac Silverdome a few months back, and i can't begin to say how impressed i was. the thing is incredibly fast for what is essentially a station wagon, it handles fairly well also. the stability systems were great, i was trying to kick the tail out and get a bit of a power slide and i couldn't. regardless of rear wheel drive, this is a car i would drive in a Michigan winter without too much worrying. but it also turns out that an All-wheel drive Magnum will be coming out soon (i think it uses an older version of Mercedes 4matic AWD). the interior is beautiful, i almost didn't believe it was a Dodge. it's not quite as elegant as it's cousin the 300C, but it's darn close. bottom line, it's a very fun car to drive (doesn't even compare with a MINI tho ). it would make a great family hauler, but would allow you to go from point A to point B much faster than the Sienna with almost as much luxury.

 

A stranger was telling me about his Magnum and he said everything is very cool except the fact that there is very little side and rear visibility while backing up.

So you might want to investigate that while on a test drive. :smile:

 

Initial impressions of the Magnum have been pretty good. Handling that is rather amazing for such a big car, decent build quality, better than expected mileage with the hemi engine (which drops 4 cylinders when cruising to save fuel). Complaints have arisen about the visibility because of the thick-flanked body and smallish windows though.

Wagons are cool, and for most people tooling around in minivans and SUVs, are a better choice for everyday driving, especially over SUVs. The car will out handle any SUV or minivan, and with that fact in mind will tend to be safer in an active sense. The Magnum has anough macho attitude to keep some people from skipping over a minivan to an SUV for family hauling duties. Hopefully this will be a hit in the showrooms and cause other manufacturers to come out with appealing 'real' station wagons and concentrate less on big, inefficient SUVs.

 

I am liking the Magnum especially in Dark Silver. I don' think I need a Hemi or 20" wheels though the Hemi would be nice just not worth the extra $5000 or so. I'm going to have to test drive one this weekend. If the wife wants a Sienna and I want a Magnum wonder if we'll end up in a Passat wagon?

 

It can't be any worse than my MINI with 5% tint on the back three and 20% on the front. I can't see a thing when I back out of my driveway.

 

Yeah but the windows are really small in the Magnum/300 platform. Drove a 300C last week and it was difficult getting decent visibility with those small windows and the rakish, small windscreen. The MINIs are picture-variety, in comparision :smile:

Besides, it's a Dodge. I hear there are some great incentives to buy Jimbo