Mini Van rental sizes

[w.bob]

I am looking to rent a mini van to seat 7 people. Most sites list a Dodge Grand Caravan as seating 7 adults and 5 bags but Budget states 4 people for the same vehicle. Does anyone have any experience with the Grand Caravan? If I go up in size of the vehicle the prices triple.

Thanks

 

[tschwa2]

Dodge Grand Caravan will definitely seat 7 but using all the seats will leave very little space for storage. I think a full size car would have more trunk space than a Caravan with 7.

I would check to see Budget has other mid size SUV's that they consider to be in the mini van category. All minivans should seat at least 6 if not 7l

 

[DeniseM]

Maybe they remove one seat for more luggage storage.

 

[moonstone]

Maybe they remove one seat for more luggage storage.

That's exactly what happened when one was rented for me to use in Calgary in 2013 for a month. The slightly shorter (to make it easier to get into the 3rd row) middle seat had been removed and the 3rd row seat was pulled forward in its tracks as far as it would go. That gave tons of leg/foot room for the back/middle seat passengers as well as a huge space in the cargo area for luggage.

Since I needed to occasionally carry 4 adults and a 10 yr old we chose a van that had 4 captains chairs (if thats what they're still called) and the full 3rd row seat. We didn't need to carry luggage around so it worked well. When it was just DGS & I touring around he loved sitting in a captains chair in the back.

~Diane