Last night as I was watching TV there was a commercial for the new Ford Freestar, with all its one-touch folding up and down seats and such. And I found myself thinking... "They really are a good idea, you know. Safety and space and all."



Something has happened to me. I've spent the last ten years swearing up and down that I will never own a minivan.



Ah well. Instead it's turned into "I will never own an SUV." And be honest. Of the two, a minivan just makes more sense.



I like the parking sensor feature on the new Mercury one... but, my current method of "never parallel park" works just fine too. So I probably would not be inclined to pay extra for the beeping noise.



Not entirely sure about the power sliding door. On the one hand, convenience. On the other hand, lots of things. An automatic door has to open and close slowly as a safety default, since the door can't see if anyone is there; waiting for the stupid door gets old pretty fast. Plus how often are your arms really so full that you can't open the door? I mean honestly. You have to open the door to the house in order to get to the car, no matter what you're carrying. So yeah, I think the automatic sliding doors are kinda pointless and more annoying than useful.



And there won't be a DVD screen. Dead-set against that one.



In the end I think it will come down to safety rating, fuel economy, and of course, which one's seats are easiest to rearrange.



I frighten myself sometimes, I really do. Especially since at this point I'm really not even close to having the small army that minivans are made for (and I'm certainly not one of those people who'll have a minivan without kids to put in it -- I still have my principles). I think my biological clock must be ticking. ;) *hits the snooze*