a good minivan for my family?
 

My family is a family of 7(including me in that)

so a minivan may be the right choice for us for good gas

is there one that sits people comfortably and gets atleast 22 MPG or more?

some body with a mazda gets great mileage with his minivan i dont think it can sit that many people tho

Have you consider a Ford Freestyle, I have one with Awd have gotten 32mpg with it and Fwd version would even get more. We replace our 2000 Mazda MPV minvan with the Freestyle(now called Taurus X). It seats 7 adults fairly well.

Mazda 5
 

I hear good things about the Mazda 5 (available with a 5-speed manual).

Thread.

By the way -- welcome!

RH77

Wow, those words were refreshing to read. Most folks now-a-days in your situation are asking which SUV they should purchase.

Like rh77 said, the Mazda5 is really nice....my Dad has one. It can comfortably fit 6(4 adults, 2 children)...but 7 might be pushing it. Maybe one of the 'minivan gurus' here could make a more logical & educated suggestion.

I would say that even if you managed to find a 7 passenger Eur-Asian version of the 5, it would definately be a tight fit with 7 people. I honestly wouldn't even recommend it for a family of 6 barring at least 2 small children not requiring a booster or car seat - making the rear most seat of very limited use. A single child or young adult would likely be perfectly happy back there alone however. And with all seats full, cargo capacity is about 5 cubic feet!

We really like the Odysee and Sienna, but I think the Kia is worth a good look as well given the price savings. Anybody who's paying attention knows that mini-vans don't hold value well no matter what, so it's worth evaluating if you are really getting what you are paying for. I doubt it matters too much which you pick in terms of fuel economy however. They are all pretty close.

Kia has crappy mpg, the 3.8 motor is really thirsty. I would get the Honda because it has cylinder deactivation on the engine and rated 28mpg on the highway. BTW we test drove all the minivans mention so far. The only thing I didn't like about the Honda is the quality. On newer Hondas the quality has gone down hill. That's just my 2cents

I had a 95 supercharged Toyota Previa that got 23mpg consistently, even better at higher altitudes. It was a great car when our kids were smaller and we were driving all over the US. I had the second seat captains chairs and it still seated 7 with no problem.

Wish I had a scangauge back then because to get the best MPG out of that thing took a lot of trial and error. You have to accelerate quite quickly and get into the higher gears for best MPG. Another interesting thing about that car was it got 10% better MPG on premium gas than regular, enough so it was actually cheaper to run premium gas.
Still see lots of Previa vans on the road around here, but most of them are taxi cabs. Thats got to tell you something about there reliability.

Our '99 Ody is awesome. Room for 7, 28 mpg on the highway. In town, the mileage is not as good, but I can't really say what it would be for you. For my wife, who drives 2 miles at a time, and is always either on the brakes or gas, it gets 17 mpg. But the poor thing is never even really fully warmed up...

I would expect a newer Ody to do better since the transmission has more speeds, so it is probably taller, and it has the cylinder deactivation thing.

I would look at the pricing also. The Big 3 usually offer good rebates. I got a 5500 rebate on my 06 Grand Caravan. The Stow-N-Go seating is really good for the strollers and groceries. Good luck on the search.