Our First Minivan! Wow!!!

We bought our Montana with 9K miles on it. It's a 2001 with gray leather seats. I have to say that this is our very first minivan, and that back in the day, we swore up and down that we'd never be caught dead in one! Ha!

We were SUV people. Our lease on our beloved '96 4-Runner was up last year, and we drove a 2000 Excursion (company car) for a while, but surprisingly the Montana is the best all around for a busy family!

We have a ton of space in the passenger compartments. The passenger compartment and the extended wheelbase allows us so much room in the back! With the easily removable back seats, we're left with a huge cargo area, as long and wide as the 4-Runner (with the back seats folded down)!

The dual sided sliding doors allow passengers to get into the back two rows easily! Based on our SUV experience, these doors and the layout of the passenger seats provide much easier access to the third row than in other vehicles!

It's a much more comfortable ride too, and don't even get me started on the Gas Mileage! We have the four captain seats and a 50/50 split third row. The two captain chairs are great for keeping our kids separated enough so we can avoid the "Don't touch me" and " Get away from me" arguments that can get really annoying! Gas-wise the most we ever got on one full tank of gas in our Montana was 530 miles on a recent trip from Tahoe...and with today's gasoline prices, that saves us a lot! Although the Excursion could travel the same distance on one tank it would cost us twice if not three times as much. There are air vents for all three rows as well to provide a comfortable trip.

One last thing I'd like to mention is the way this van handles. While driving up some icy and snow covered mountain roads, our Montana never felt unstable. The traction control activated often and gave us a smooth and steady ride to the top. It reminded us of the Corvette that we used to have. And the suspension on the Montana is similar to what our SUV's had. It's taken us up some rough and rocky "roads" with no problems.

Someday when our kids are grown, we hope to be able to find ourselves back in a Corvette... perhaps a '94 ZO7 Vette like the one we used to have. But until then, the Montana works for us! When you have a family, it's the best of all worlds whether you're traveling across country or down the street to the grocery store!