What kind of family vehicle

Now I will start by saying I am a Ford person all the way BUT I would never buy a Taurus, had one and it was worthless. We put a fortune in repairs and still was not right. We also went through the 'need better gas mileage' phase. We traded in a Ford F 150 extended cab with a big V8 for a Ford Fusion with a 4 cyl. care ran great, never gave us a problem and got 34 plus MPG. With that said you could not haul with it and you fell into it and crawled out of it. That was traded in for a Ford F-150 with a standard cab and a V6, gets decent mileage, comfortable ride not a bad truck. But whe the big truck took a dive we also added another F-150 but a Crew Cab with a V-8 and we love it. While the mileage may not be the best it is decent and it does anything we ask. None of these however will be to comfortable for 7 people.

If you are happy with the Suburban stick with it or try an Escalade for Ford Excursion - none of them are cheap and none are on any list of economy cars. If you want to consider van I have a friend who works for a company that sells vehicles for handicapped people. He says they only use Honda or Toyota vans because of their quality. Good luck on your hunt.

__________________
Judy Peters

We have a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country minivan. It has a 3.8L v6 and front wheel drive. We got it last summer for $3,000 with about 150,000 miles. It's been great! It can seat 7 and all the back seats easily come out. We love the van. It's decent in snow. We can haul a lot of feed in it. We've also gone on a few vacations with it, and even took a dog cage to pick up a goat along the way 2 times. I was skeptical of a van, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. In a mix of town and rural driving we get about 20 mpg. On the highway we get 22 mpg. It's my wife's daily driver. We do have an extended cab 4x4 truck also if needed, but the van is our go to vehicle.

What year is your suburban? I have had a few of them and love that they can haul us all around (also needs seats for 7) and pull a trailer. There are a few things you can do to improve gas milage, especially if it is one of the old central port fuel injected models. We have a Pontiac Montana with 60,000 miles and I have to replace the head gasket already. Hope you find something suitable soon.

The Suburban is a 2000 so it has the newer 5.3. I really love the truck and it doesn't get horrible gas mileage for what it is, but 17 mpg vs. 27 mpg can really add up. It's unnecessarily big and powerful for most of our trips (church, etc.) but we definitely need it around here for pulling trailers and camping. About an hour ago I paid the mechanic $630 for wheel bearings and a few other odd things. That's the real killer of owning the old beast.

We had two gm minivans and they got good mileage (25ish average) but they both blew head gaskets so I'm not doing that anymore.

I'm really intrigued with the Freestyle. On paper it might even pay for itself in gas and repair savings. On paper.