The biggest thing to look at is power to weight ratio and gearing. A modern mini van is heavy enough that a 4 cyl engine would be about maxed out with just the weight of the vehicle and passengers and would get poor mileage. To the best of my knowledge none of the current minivans get much more than about 25 MPG. A lot of the Chrysler mini's had tranny issues. In the last few years they seem to have gotten that fixed. Most of them have little of no cargo space when all the seats have got someone in them. My son had one that had about 6" of cargo space behind the rear seats. His new one has about 18".
If safety is a concern then steer clear of the minvan market. About 3 years ago none of them passed so they created a "new" set of test for them. Just like the "in the class" rating for cars. 5 Star in a little car is not the same as 5 Star in a full sized car.
Now I know that you are concerned about mileage and don't need 4X4 (few people really do) but I would not discount the bigger SUV's. We have a 98 Suburban with the Vortech 5.8. It gets about 20 at 55 and 18 at 70. Even with the 3rd seat the cargo area is about 4 feet deep. With the rear seat removed and the center folder up it will carry 4x8 sheets of plywood. Now I will admit that ours is having mechanical problems......at 260,000 miles. We are going to replace it in the next couple of months.
As far as the Trailblazer and like sized SUVs they really don't get much more in mileage than the full sized ones. It's really only 2-3 MPG at beat and some get less than that. We traded a 2000 Explorer on the Suburban. It got 21 at 55. 1 MPG better.
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Today's Featured Article - Earthmaster Project Progress Just a little update on my Earthmaster......it's back from the dead! I pulled the head, and soaked the stuck valves with mystery oil overnight, re-installed the head, and bingo, the compression returned. But alas, my carb foiled me again, it would fire a second then flood out. After numerous dead ends for a replacement carb, I went to work fixing mine.I soldered new floats on the float arm, they came from an old motorcycle carb, replaced the packing on the throttle shaft with o-rings, cut new ga
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