It drives like a dream

After having our sixth child last year, we realized our beloved minivan was just not going to cut it any longer. We shopped around for months testing the Ford, Dodge, and Chevy passenger vans. For several reasons, we ended up opting for the 2003 Chevy Express 3500 15 passenger van with the LS package.

One of the features that sold us on it was the extended wheel base option. It was actually a Dodge dealer that told us to go get a Chevy with the extended wheel base. He said the ride would be much smoother. He was right! Although, the van still has a lot of bounce in it over rough roads, it gives a smooth ride overall.

It took me a few weeks to get used to the much longer length, but I hardly even notice it now. I highly recommend getting a backup lens (available anywhere where camper supplies are sold) for the back window. Two days after bringing my brand new van home I slammed into a mailbox I never saw while backing up. A grown man standing directly behind me was also totally invisible to me. Good thing I knew he was there. After I got the lens for the back window, I was able to see much more of what was behind me. I also installed a convex mirror on the passenger side mirror. That helps a lot while changing lanes in traffic.

Getting in and out is a bit of a task since the Express is quite high off the ground. Most people would get used to it rather quickly. When our elderly parents come to visit, we have to keep a step stool in the van to help them in and out.

One thing I am unhappy with is that I was not offered the option of having shoulder belts throughout the van. I asked and would have been willing to pay extra, but according to the dealer, it was not available that way. That was almost a deal breaker for me. Fortunately, for now, we are doing fine with the number of shoulder belts we have.

We bought the upgraded sound system with the cd player and cassette player. It has some really cool features (according to my very smart 16 year old! hehe) We can set the volume to get louder as the engine noise gets louder and softer as we slow down. Really cool!

The air conditioning system is a big plus. We had a little quirk in ours, but the dealer got that ironed out in one visit. Once that was fixed we were able to enjoy a really well designed system. Each row of seats has a row of AC vents in a bump-out in the ceiling that the passengers can adjust for themselves. This is a nice feature when you have car seats or picky passengers that want the air "just so".

The seats are very comfortable with tons of leg room. The salesman who sold it to us was actually a Dodge dealer who just did us a favor by ordering a Chevy for us from a sister dealership. He was quite impressed with the amount of leg room up front when he first saw our van.

We keep the very back seat removed so we can have massive cargo room. I bought two long plastic bins that I keep back there now. It works great to keep my groceries from rolling around in that huge space.

I'm getting 11-12 miles to the gallon with it (mostly city driving) It is definitely a gas hog, but it's a price we knew we were going to have to pay when we went up to a 3500.

All in all, we are very happy with our purchase. I don't have any regrets that we opted for this choice.

***Updated on April 28, 2005

We have now owned the Chevy Express for over 2 years. We are still very pleased with the purchase.

We took it on a long road trip (4200 miles, in all) and were pleasantly surprised by how comfortable we all remained throughout the trip. We also were pleased with the better gas mileage we achieved during the trip. With air conditioning on, we got about 17 miles to the gallon. With it off, we got about 19 MPG.

Since my first review, I have had another baby. It was quite interesting to see me get in and out of the van while I was in my larger months. It was do-able, but required me to figure out a whole new way of getting in and out.

We are having an odd engine issue that they can't seem to figure out. At times, after I sit in park for a period of time with the engine running, the engine will seem to lose it's ability to rev up for the first few minutes after we put it in drive. It gets very sluggish. After a few minutes, it seems to kick in and will run fine again.

Also, occasionally, the driver's seat make a slight popping noise that we can't figure out either.

Overall, we still highly recommend this van. Two of our friends have since bought the same van after seeing ours in use.