so - girls weekend is coming to me in DC! Friends and family...hot!

BUT there will be 7 of us so I want to rent a vehicle that fits 7 adults.

Can anyone give feedback on if the Dodge Grand Caravan can fit 7? or the Dodge Durango?

I am looking at car rental sights and they are not too helpful - but the Dodge on one sight says 6, another 7; the Durango on one claims 7.

Thank you!


8-)

the grand caravan will seat 7 but you won't be comfortable

I own one, so I can say that it is doable, but not comfortable for long trips. The other consideration is how much luggage the "girls" will have. You might need two trips to get from the airport to your hotel, and be all right for running around town w/o luggage.

I drive an older Dodge Durango which is smaller than the new version. I keep the 3rd seat folded down. I've never wanted to torture anyone by asking them to sit there. The new version is much larger. Prior to my Durango I had a Grand Caravan. As long as the 3 in the third seat are nimble, the rear seat isn't that bad. Leg room is decent but not for a 6' person. DIL has the version with a middle "aisle" between the middle seats. Mine had the aisle by the door which meant a lot of scooching for the first person in. However, my older Caravan was before they had two sliding doors so getting in and out is much easier for passengers.
But I don't think you'll have enough room for luggage unless you ask everyone to keep luggage to a carryon size ... and then you can't do a lot of shopping. I would go with the Caravan but it has to be the Grand Caravan. You can tuck shopping bags under the seats. The desire and fun to be together outweighs slight lack of comfort. You'll be a little cramped but not uncomfortable. Give person who needs most amount of space front passenger seat as long as they can read a map. I am serious. On last girls weekend driver proudly showed off GPS gizmo. With all the conversaton, driver usually didn't hear driving instructions from gizmo. Fortunately I know the difference between north and south. Have fun!

There is no way on this earth that luggage for 6 women (plus driver for 7 people) will fit in either of these vehicles. Without luggage you could cram uncomfortably into a 7-passenger vehicle, assuming no one is huge, but even if everyone had just a 21-inch carry-on suitcase, it will not fit.

Car rental co's never guarantee an exact model - the Caravan and Durango are merely representative vehicles for the class; minivan & large SUV.

You could just as easily end up with a Ford, Chevy, Kia, Hyundai, Mazda or some other model, depending on the inventory they have at the time.

In my experience most mini-vans avail for rent have seats for 7 (2+2+3), but not necessarily large SUV's - some have 2+2+2 seating Even if the mfg offers a 2+3+2 seating option it may not be what the rental car co has in stock. At the time of pickup be sure there are 7 seats. Caveat rentor.

A caravan is barely even comfortable for 7 7-year olds; it definitely isn't for 7 adults. I think you need one of those 15-person vans to actually be comfortable with 7 people.

You can seat 7, but no room for luggage, even if everyone brought only a backpack and no pillows or other items people might want to bring. I would go for the Chevy Suburban (or largest possible SUV the rental car companies offer) to allow people to bring the clothing/items they would like to bring. Also, they would need to be majority of individuals weight of about 150 lbs for it to be comfortable, only the driver and front passenger could be more than 200. I am not sure costwis if it would be better to go with the big SUV or 2 small cars.Have a fun time!!!