Chevy suburban owners....

[crazyme5kids]

I have an old 1989 suburban. My husband called me tonight (he is away, has been for a few weeks now) and told me to start looking at new vehicles to purchase and if I see one I like get it. He said he would feel better knowing I am driving to Florida in a newer car. I was saying to myself "Hey what's wrong with my truck?!? So what if I had to replace the transmission and about 900 other things in the last 6 months." Then I said "Well if it will make him feel better, who am I to argue?".
So I decide to go and start looking. Now the only things I really care about are:
1: Leg room. I need it, I want it.
2: Must seat 8 (alright I will settle for 7).
3: Must have plenty of room behind the 3rd row of seats to throw junk or in a good month suitcases.
4ower stearing,windows, and cloth seats (no I don't need leather).
5: Airbags would be nice.

Any how, I start to look, and is it my imagination or is there not much legroom between the 2nd row and 3rd row of seats in the newer Suburbans? Now I am thinking that maybe I should look at vans or other types of trucks/SUVs.
Is there less leg room? Can anyone recommed a vehicle that is larger that they have that meets my requirements, which as you can tell are pretty no frills?


'

 

[we3luvdisney]

How about a Ford Excursion? I think they stopped making them last year, but I'm sure you can still find one. A friend had one and it was great. The pedals (gas & break) moved forward and backward. Keeps the driver away from the steering wheel, just in case of an accident. There are other options, but I don't remember them. Take a look.

 

[aahmom1]

I just bought a Suburban Z71 a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely LOVE this vehicle. It has a good amount of leg room, nothing irritates me more than feeling squished, and there is a TON of luggage space. This is without a doubt my favorite vehicle of any I've ever had.

 

[luvindisneyworld]

I have a 2003 Expedition and i LOVE it.You may also want to look at the Excursion.But my personal preference would be the Expedition.This is my 2nd expedition and definetly will not be my last.They are very roomy.

 

[crazyme5kids]

I have toyed with the idea of an Excursion, think I'll look at it also. The front seats in the newer models (suburbans) have enough leg room, it looks like even the 2nd row has enough. What I am trying to find out is the leg room in the 3rd (bench seat) row. It just looked to me like there wasn't any leg room, well no more than in a small car.

 

[aahmom1]

There's not a whole lot of extra leg room in the back seat. My 11 year old sits back there most of the time and he is very comfortable though.

BTW, I got it with the TV/DVD in it, my kids love that feature.

 

[aahmom1]

BTW, Ford is discontinuing the Excursions.

 

[RNMOM]

Have you considered the Honda Odyssey van? That sucker has loads of leg room and tons of cargo space in the back too.

 

[crazyme5kids]

aahmom1, isn't it easy to fall in love with a suburban? I also thought , "Heck he wants me to spend money on something new, why not just take it and really fix the old bucket of bolts(my nephews term for my truck) up? I could get some body work and have those rust spots, well ok holes fixed and have it painted and looking all fancy and new." I love my truck. I know every sound and feel of it to the point I know if something just seems wrong with it before my mechanics even can. I love my mechanics almost as much as my truck LOL. At this point I think they want to run and hide when they see me coming.
I know Ford is discontinuing the Excursions. Hmmmmmmm...... You think I could get a great deal on one?

 

[aahmom1]

I sent you a PM


I REALLY love it, I can't believe how safe I feel in it.

 

[bsnyder]

Originally posted by RNMOM
Have you considered the Honda Odyssey van? That sucker has loads of leg room and tons of cargo space in the back too.

I'm a new owner of a Honda Odyssey, and it's wonderful! Very spacious and the back cargo space has a huge well (for the third seat to fold down into). I fit two big camp trunks in there and still had room on top of them for luggage, without blocking the rear window!

It also comes with the built in DVD player and the cordless headphones to go with it. Which means I can listen to the radio or CD's instead of whatever DVD the kids are watching!

 

[crazyme5kids]

I'm going to look at mini vans too, I have heard good thins about both the Toyota and the Honda. I know this is going to make me crazy. Are there any services like the better dept. stores have, you know personal shoppers? I could sit with a cup of coffee and my personal shopper could just bring me different cars to look at. Once he or she knew my taste they could just choose the one for me.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I am actually looking for an older suburban. They are tough to find without rust and in decent shape. But I love them.

 

[ByTheSea]

We have a 3/4 ton but without the third row. I think we can fit a mattress in the back (I know we were able to haul a complete dining room set) It's been very reliable. We tow an RV without any problems (unlike towing it with our old mini-van when we had to deal with sway)

But on the con side, it's huge. Sometimes I feel like I'm driving a bus, and sometimes I have gotten in a parking ramp that I can barely navigate. It's nice to have our second car a nice small car.

 

[Karista]

This thread makes me miss my Suburban. We had a '96 and a '00 which I loved, but then I got the bright idea that I would like a TrailBlazer EXT better. WRONG! They are redesigning the Suburbans for 2006, which will be available in 2005, so I'm counting the days until I can get rid of this and get back into a Suburban.

When car shopping I did notice that on the Tahoes and Yukons that offer the 3rd row seating, it's directly over the rear wheel well, which makes the floor higher up than the rest of the back seat. Basically it leaves very little leg room, so only a child or small teen could sit back there comfortably (part of the reason we went with the TrailBlazer).

 

[Cindy B]

I'm looking for an old Suburban as well... Would love to have one in decent shape.

 

[rbuzzotta]

We boght the Suburban in 2001. There is sufficient leg room for my girls in the third seat. The don't all sit there together and are young (12,7,5) and I have never heard them complain. The only time I am back there is to vacuum it.

We looked at the Expedition, Navigator and Land Cruiser. DH opted for the Suburban because of the extra leg room in the 3rd row!!

 

[Girls Scout Leader]

I have a 1990 Suburban, in pristine shape with only 60,000 orriginal miles. It was a Florida vaehicle from an elderly Aunt-in-law. I absolutly love it, so I understand your pain. It has seat belts for 9 and comes in real handy for scouts, both boys and girls.
It only has two drawbacks.....the backs of the seast are old-fashionedly low, and it takes about $60 to fill a low gas tank. But I love it. Trying to keep the body in perfect shape (hard to do in Michigan) so I cannot imagine trying to fidn a replacement. Friends have newer ones and I do not likethe leg room, or lack of. Wishing you good luck on you quest.

 

[4greatboys]

We have a 2003 suburban and I love. The is decent room on the third row. My oldest--who 6 foot fits back there fine. Of course it is not quite as roomy as the other 2 rows but still not bad.
I had a mini van before this and while I loved it, resale values on them go way down. We got a decent price for ours but it was only 2 years old....any older than that and they really dont want to give you anything for them. Whereas the suburbans hold their value pretty good. Ours holds 8 and there are 6 of us--2 in carseats. I recently bought a couple pf portable dvd players--the hand held kind--and a holder that you strap onto the headrests in the car so it hold the player where the kids can see it. I plan on keeping mine for a long time.
To me the Excursions are just to big--no offense to owners of one--and I dont think they are quite as nice looking as the suburban.
Tahoes with the 3rd seat have NO leg room, its like the seat is mounted right on the floor--we didnt like that at all.

 

[dmfuru]

We have 4 kids and recently bought a new car. We had (and still have) a 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan, and we sold our old sedan.

I looked at all kinds of minvans and SUVs to replace our old car--I wanted seating for 7 and lots of trunk space too. The midsized SUVs were out--even with 7 seats, the 3rd row is so close to the rear of the car that there is little trunk space.

I narrowed it down to a Suburban/Yukon XL or another minivan.

I don't tow a boat or trailer, and we rarely deal with inclement weather, and we never go off road, so the minivan won out. (plus, the van was cheaper and costs $900 less per year to insure).