I know this should be posted on the Excursion board but I'm from Georgia and I wanted an honest opinion. We just found out we will be having another child to bring our total family size to 5. So we are going to need a bigger vehicle other than our 2001 Taurus. We just went window shopping and found what we thought was a decent deal. We were just looking for something with a 3rd seat and stumbled across a 2000 Excursion limited with 93,000miles. We could get it for 12.9k at most and maybe a little cheaper. I was wondering if that seemed to be a good deal and if the Truck would hold up for another 6 years. It's going to be for my wife and she will be doing limited driving no more than 60 miles a week avg.

 

Mano- for a family that size, get a dodge Durango.
They are the only truck with a third seat option in that class.
We went thru all the makes and models and were only happy with the Durango, others whom have been in it agree, ford or chevy can't touch it.
Dodge Durango is the way to go for large families..

 

i just traded our durango before turkey day, it was an alright truck for a dodge. but we're expecting a new baby in april, and since my 3 year old is still required to ride in a car seat, plus the new born in a car seat we would have had to put one in the middle row and one in the thrid row which would have been very hard getting the one in back in and out. our new excursion allows us to put two car seats side by side in the middle row (drivers side middle row, and center middle row) and still have easy access to the third row.

 

We have the same situation. We have decided to pass on the X for now since we still have awhile before the new baby comes, but the wife has pretty much made up her mind that it's the vehicle she wants, that or a Suburban. She doesn't like the body style of the older durango's and the newer one's are not in the "budget" that she says she will spend for a vehicle at the moment. So, for the next few months I guess we're going to be keeping our eyes open for a lower mileage X. With 3 kids, 2 in car seats, we definitely need a bigger vehicle and she's adamant that we're not getting a minivan yet. Congrats on your new addition and thanks for all the info guys.

 

When we were looking, we found only 2 vehicles that had a 3rd seat and a reasonable amount of luggage room behind the 3rd seat; the Excursion and the Suburban. The Excursion has a little more room in the back. I looked at the Suburbans first since I'm a former GM employee with employee discount privileges. I've owned 2 Suburbans in the past but the new ones were a disappointment so I took a look at the Excursion. It has comfortable room for six adults on a trip with enough luggage for a week (my kids are 21 & 25, one is married). It will tow a house! Both the V-10 and the diesel have design life cycles in the hundreds of thousands of miles so we bought an '01 Excursion Limited V-10 2wd (used). So far it's gone 50k in the last 2 years and we couldn't be happier. I've never been a fan of the twin I beam front suspension but a slight toe adjustment has it tracking fine. My wife was adamant that she was never driving a minivan and she hasn't (2 Suburbans & a Grand Wagoneer before this). We keep it mostly for traveling and it's great for trips, hauling kids back & forth to college, and towing anything I need to. I put over 100 pressure treated 1x6's in it one day and it didn't even flinch. The only weak point I've heard of is the transmission and most of the complaints come from owners with "chipped" diesels putting out an extra 100 hp or so. If you can live with the fuel mileage (12-13 local / 16hwy), which I think is pretty good for a vehicle that weighs over 7,000 lbs empty, then you'll enjoy it. I think the interior will fall apart long before the chassis will.

Lou