Over the last 25 years or so I've been asked dozens of times which vehicle I recommend for transporting trikes. My answer has always been: a conventional mundane midivan.
ASIDE: MIDIVAN? Is that a typo for minivan? Nope, the original Dodge Caravan of forty years ago had about the same footprint as a Ford Mustang; the four most common vehicles in current production in that sorta nebulous category are all about two feet longer, mostly in the cargo bay. Potentially most importantly, that big cargo bay will even readily accomodate two very long tadpoles like a Catrike 700 or ICE VTX set up for a 6'6" rider.
The vehicle shown in the photo above is a great example. We bought that bottom trim level Toyota Sienna almost 20 years ago, and over that time it has intrepidly trucked trikes some 2000 times – ten trips to TaterTot totaling 30,000 miles, plus lots of less lengthy local rides from CycLAvia to Sacramento. We added a bumper hitch, alloy wheels and a touch screen 'radio'; otherwise, the van only required routine maintenance and a couple of soft rubber doodads. I scraped a rear panel on the corner of our garage and in stop-and-go freeway traffic one afternoon it was shockingly slammed HARD from behind by a huge SUV. We expected the result to be a contorted mess of plastic and sheet metal, but the only evidence was an almost imperceptible downward tilt of the rear bumper.
But anyway... why the title 'The Last Dance'? That photo almost surely depicts the last time a couple of tadpoles will be loaded into our deservedly well respected 2008 Toyota Sienna CE. We're replacing it this week with a much newer, more high tech alternative. Why would a pair of octogenarians replace such a faithful flivver with a potentially somewhat less reliable but much more expensive alternative – one that will almost surely outlive us? Well, our stone-age Sienna is overdue for a whole gamut of services: engine, transmission and chassis lube, tires & TPMS, battery, that minor fender repair, wax and polish, plus a thorough interior cleaning and completing the long-neglected installation of a rear view camera. Okay, to be somewhat more – if not necessarily perfectly – honest, another reason is that we've simply gotten spoiled by the upscale amenities and useful new tech built into both the Mazda hatchback and roadster that share our driveway.
I'll spare you readers my opinions, personal preferences and/or even an objective list of the incomparable assets and advantages of using a modern midivan as a conveyance (and often a storage unit) for two tadpoles. I'll only say that the vehicle we chose to replace our somewhat senescent Sienna is basically very similar, only about 2" longer. Realistically, we can only hope that it serves us as well and faithfully as its predecessor, and although Kay and I aren't likely to be loading trikes into it twenty years from now, that it's making someone somewhere happy for it to be still just trucking along.