Well, this is my first post, I've spent the last many hours going through a lot of archives... and while I probably missed a bunch that were related... I figured I'd just post the questions I have and see what came back.

Anyway:

My wife and I have 4 kids to haul around, we currently own a 99 honda odyssey mini-van and a '03 Mustang GT Convertable... the van gets the whole family around, but put so much as a soda cracker in the back end and we're practically riding on the axles... well, it's independant rear but you know what I mean.

The mustang... well, it's fun, but not exactly a family car.

So, we're planning on trading both of them in on a new full size SUV. Here are the things that are important to us: (in no particular order)

Comfort
reliability
towing capacity (probably nothing huge, but we'd like to tow a travel trailer and/or a boat someday)
mileage (yeah, they're all gonna suck, but if I have to choose between 5mpg and 15mpg, I'm gonna have to have a REALLY good reason to go with the 5)
SAFETY (probably the #1 requirement)

I'm sure I"m forgetting something but that's the gist of it.

We have narrowed down the field to the following: (oh, all features are fully loaded except NO dvd, NO power running boards and NO navigation systems (personally think all of these options are silly wastes of money)

'04 Lincoln Navigator Ultimate with middle bench

'04 GMC Yukon Denali XL

'04 GM Suburban XL pretty much same as the Yukon but not quite as "nice"

'04 Expedition Eddie bauer with middle bench

'04 Excursion LTD with middle captians chairs (we'd get the Diesel for the mileage)

The Lincoln we like the best but at $52k before rebates, it's the most expensive

The Denali is nice too, but only about $4k less than the Lincoln and not as nice without some of the nicer features of the Lincoln

The suburban is also nice but I didn't like the 3rd row seats. you'd think that in a vehicle that big they could put decent leg room in!

The Expedition we also liked, but we REALLY don't like the color choices with the Eddie Bauer version! I am bewildered as to why Ford doesn't let you have a fully loaded Expy without limiting you on the colors you can have!

The excursion was about perfect EXCEPT for the #%#@# lack of 3rd row headrests! I am NOT going have one of my kids paralyzed because some dumb@@@ decides not to stop in time and rear ends me.

I noticed that resale value should probably be ignored when buying one of these vehicles as the price drops WAY faster than the payments will keep up, so we'll need to plan on keeping it for the life of the loan to avoid going upside down on values.

So, after all that rambling, I guess I'm hoping for some pearls of wisdom from those who've "been there before" This will be our first SUV purchase and it would also be our only vehicle for a while so it will do day to day driving of 12 mile one way to work for me... but all told no more than about 10k to 12k miles every year total.

Oh and on the Navigator... ther is only one Lincoln dealer in the entire state of Utah as nearly as I can tell, and they say that they won't go below 5% over invoice. Aside from the price... if I have problems with the truck, could I take it to a ford dealer for warranty work or would I always have to find a lincoln dealer? Any normal maintanance I'd do myself... I'm thinking when/if there are problems that need to be fixed.


Sorry for the rambling post, it's late, I'm tired and I'm REALLY tired of the wife going back and forth as to what we should get!

Thanks all!

 

I vote for the Ex... and I have twice with my dollars - I've had two...

more power than you will ever need STOCK - and wth a $400 programmer is more than MOST have,
with a FEW inexpensive tweaks is a better ride than my wifes lincoln ls,
enough room that we are going from DFW to memphis with 4 adults, two LARGE dogs and an 18 month old with all the "stuff" they need...
and will still get 17 to 20 mpg @ SPEED

and realistically here in DFW, I get 16 to 17 around town
(if there was EVER a period where I'm not flooring it from stoplight to stoplight would get better --- but what fun is that :-) )

And don't say that is BAD mileage...
that compares favorably with MANY smaller cars including my wife's lincoln ls v8...
and actually beats many smaller cars if the truth would EVER be told !

and are your kids actually TALLER than the rear seat ?
if so, rear headreast are a n easy enough modification... for your planned rear end collision...
I've only been driving for 40 years and in VERY bad traffic for 20 of them...
Still havent been hit from the rear... and in the Ex, it's not like they can't SEE you !

 

I can't believe with 4 kids you are not interested in the DVD. I have 1 child, and that is mom and dads #1 salvation on a trip. The miles fly by for her and mom while they enjoy movies. It will not take you but one trip to appreciate it!!!!!!! Then wonder how you ever got along without it.
Big Les

 

The programmer sounds great and 17-20mpg would be heaven, I'm hardly getting that with my minivan right now!

As for the kids and the rear seat, yeah, two of my kids are just getting old enough where their heads stuck above the rear seat and they'd need a headrest. As for not getting hit for 40 years, that's great... I was rear-ended about 7 years ago on a bright and sunny day with great visibility because the moron who hit me was looking at something off the side of the freeway instead of ahead of him where the traffic had come to a stop... he drove into the back of me at 50mph and I was at a dead stop. I don't PLAN on having another accident, in fact I haven't had another SINCE that one... but we don't wear seatbelts because we KNOW we're going to get into an accident do we?

If you have any information on where I could get the stuff or how to do the rear seat head rest modification, then I very well may go for the excursion... and I don't know that you'd even need the programmer to get that kind of mileage. My parents have a big 3/4 ton chevy pickup with a diesel and it gets 20mpg... even when towing a trailer!

 

Well, we don't watch much TV, in fact, although we own a TV, it's not hooked up to an antenna or satellite or cable or anything... we just don't like the idea of the kids growing up addicted to it.

Besides, paying 1500+ for a in-car dvd player seems silly when for $300 I could buy a portable dvd player... meaning that for about the same price as the one built into the truck I could buy a hand held DVD player for EACH of the kids! Or one laptop that I could get more use out of and still let the kids watch movies on it.

 

The headrests are important and should not be ignored when making this decision...don't let anybody sway you to the contrary.

 

go w the 04 excursion 6.0

i have 04 f250 c/c 6.0 and 02 ex v10, both will pull for you.

you might want to look for a used 04 ex 6.0, might take awhile, but like you said resale is not good. let somebody else take that hit.

i bought my 02 ex in dec 02 w/ under 15000 miles, returned from a coperate lease and have been very pleased.

 

Well, I'm bummed.... kinda.

I ended up buying a Yukon XL denali. The reason being that the Expedition just didn't have enough storage space behind the 3rd row (remember, I have 4 kids) and the excursion didn't have the 3rd row head rests, not to mention that the 3rd row even as it is sucks as a seat, really short and uncomfortable.

I really wanted to buy one of the fords, and if they made an extended lenght expedition THAT is what I'd be driving right now.

Oh well, thanks for your help everyone, see ya on "the dark side".