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2024 Volkswagen Taos ReviewCritics’ Choice: Best Gift Hauler for Christmas
In the spirit of the season, our writers pick the best gift hauler for your next Christmas vacation.
Over the Hills & Through the Woods…
One of the most time honored of Christmas traditions is the proverbial trek to grandma’s house for seasonal festivities with your favorite (and sometimes not-so-favorite) relatives. Of course, you can’t be showing up to the family Christmas empty handed so having a vehicle with ample cargo space for presents, along with passenger room for kids and the dog/cat/Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, is essential.
So, this holiday season, we asked our writers to scour Carsforsale.com for the vehicle best suited to hauling family and gifts to Christmas celebrations. In addition to cargo and passenger space, our picks would need to withstand the rigors of winter driving, not break the bank, and, ideally, bring a little Christmas cheer all their own.
Chris Kaiser
1940 Oldsmobile Series 70 Woodie Wagon
Short List:
2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer
2021 Toyota Sienna
1972 Chevy El Camino
For this Christmas-themed challenge, I wanted to balance the practical with the sentimental for a vehicle that did not just haul gifts and kids but was also capable of making lasting memories. My first thought was something like the new Jeep Grand Wagoneer. This opulent SUV offers all manner of luxury features, and the plush seating and interior wood trim makes for a particularly cozy ride for passengers. The McIntosh premium sound system is perfect for family singalongs of your favorite Christmas carols (your teenagers will love this!). However, the lofty price tag of over $100,000 could put a dent in the family gift budget, so I nixed the Grand Wagoneer from consideration.
The Toyota Sienna, complete with all-wheel drive, is almost as well equipped for Christmas vacation driving as the Grand Wagoneer without the exorbitant sticker price. Rear seat entertainment means the kids can watch Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and A Christmas Story on the trip to grandma’s house. And the Sienna’s hybrid powertrain offers an incredible 36 mpg combined (!), leaving more money for gifts.
And yet, for all its practicality, the Sienna failed to conjure that particular Christmas spirit I was seeking. I realized, in my focus on family hauling, I was neglecting one vital component of the classic family Christmas, and that is the “cool” bachelor uncle with disposable income and questionable taste in both women and cars. Enter the 1972 Chevy El Camino, the official car of bow-hunting, Winston-smoking rascal uncles everywhere. With the copious amounts of cargo room afforded by the El’s truck bed, your mom’s ne’er-do-well brother is free to max out his ex-girlfriend’s credit card and load up on Christmas gifts for the whole family.
This fleeting thought aside, I returned to the task at hand, family and gift hauling. Finally, I landed on this one-of-one 1940 Oldsmobile Series 70 woody wagon as the most festive of Christmas conveyances. Loads of cargo room and capacious bench seating check the initial boxes, but the wood paneling inside and out, along with those white-wall tires, make this Olds a great Christmas vacation vehicle.
Is it ideal for the long highway drive from Toledo to Tuscaloosa? Probably not. But it is about perfect for a half-day’s jaunt through the winter wonderland of idyllic, pine-lined (and freshly plowed) country roads leading to grandma’s house.
This 1940 Oldsmobile Series 70 woody wagon also happens to make an ideal Christmas gift for the car collector in the family. Since all other Oldsmobile woodies for the 1940 model year were built on the Series 60’s shorter 116” wheelbase, this Series 70 woody, with it’s 120” wheelbase, is a singular precursor to the 1941 model year woodies, which moved to the longer Series 70 wheelbase with the advent of the car’s second generation.
This Olds comes equipped with a 230 cu-in straight six, the larger of the Series 70’s two engine options, with the other being a 215 cu-in straight-six. The 230 comes paired with a three-speed manual transmission and produces 95 reindeer/horsepower. This stunning, Harley Earl-designed woody wagon guarantees a memorable Christmas vacation for one and all. It even comes with a Christmas wreath mounted on the grille!
Jesse Batson
2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Short List:
2019 Toyota Highlander Hybrid
2020 Chrysler Pacifica
2020 Subaru Outback
I was looking for a couple of things in this challenge. My main objective here was to find a vehicle with enough space for people and items. A lot of my friends and family don’t live in the same locations, so I generally try to find smaller gifts that are cheaper to send through the mail. For relatives within driving distance, however, the gifts can be heavier, larger, and more fragile. I need the space in my vehicle to fit those items though.
One large, oversized vehicle for hauling presents every December won’t cut it. I also wanted to find a vehicle that has decent fuel efficiency and maybe even some decent features that come along with it. I looked at a few different vehicles, as you can see from some of those on my shortlist. Really, I could’ve gone with any kind of body style for this challenge.
Trucks have large beds that can be utilized, some sedans have spacious trunks, and, let’s face it, minivans are popular for a reason. They fill a lot of needs. Even a wagon could work. If a station worked for the Griswolds, it could work for me, too. However, I ended up going with a SUV, mostly because it’s such a versatile body style.
This 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, in particular, is big enough to fit a few people inside. It’ll fit seven people if needed, thanks to a split-folding third-row bench. Usually, the XLE comes with captain’s chairs in the second row, but this one has a bench so a kid could fit there if needed. If I don’t need to squeeze that many passengers in for this trip, an armrest can fold down in the second-row bench and I can always fold the third row down, expanding cargo capacity. I like the ability to change things up as plans change because of the weather, work schedules, and travel routes.
Cargo capacity in the 2020 Highlander Hybrid measures 16 cu-ft behind the third row. That’s not as big as some competitors, but it’s not bad for a hybrid. Plus, it’s a step up from the 2019 Highlander Hybrid models. They only had 13.8 cu-ft of room to work with behind the third row.
I think I’ll end up flipping the third row down anyway, if not entirely at least partially. Toyota offers the handy 60/40 fold-down split for third-row seats. That means someone could hop back there instead of sitting in the smaller third seat of the second-row bench, and I’d still be able to fold part of the third row down to make room for more gifts, luggage, or recreational items.
Fuel efficiency is next on my checklist. The 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid does well in that area, too. It can get 36 MPG in the city and 35 MPG on the highway with the combination of a 2.5-liter inline-4 and two electric motors. It uses a CVT, and it’s even AWD. Being AWD wasn’t a necessity for me, but I always appreciate that.
In terms of features, this 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid offers some of that as well. Since this is the XLE trim, the seats are made of simulated SofTex leather. Also included is a power tilt and slide moonroof, heated front seats, and a 10-way power adjustable driver’s seat. There’s Bluetooth, audio controls on the steering wheel, multi-zone air conditioning controls, keyless entry, a backup camera, and power mirrors. Plus, the 2020 Toyota Highlander is almost unmatched when it comes to the touchscreen. It measures 12.3 inches and is positioned nicely in the vehicle. There is no touchscreen on the dash, and there’s no head-up display, but I’m not going to be picky about not having those.
Jesse McGraw
2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali
Short List:
2021 Ford F-150 Lariat
2021 Ram 1500 Laramie
2021 Chevrolet Suburban LT
If we’re taking a road trip for Christmas, I want to make sure we get there. Winter weather can be a hassle for travel during the holidays, so springing for a minivan or wagon is out of the question for me. The real choice for hauling a bunch of presents along with a family is between a full-size SUV or a crew cab truck in my opinion. Both of these options come with substantial room for cargo and offer great ground clearance for traversing whatever the snowy weather can throw at them. Either body style will provide more than enough room for kid bikes, power wheels, or whatever various sized presents you may need to bring along to the Christmas gathering.
I looked at the big names for each body style to find my holiday hauler. Ford F-150s, Ram 1500s, Chevrolet Suburbans, Ford Expeditions – all the usual suspects. I could have gone for a relatively newer version of any of these models, but I stumbled upon a listing out of California featuring a lightly used 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali. It’s slightly dated to the rest of the bunch I had looked at, but it marries the full-size SUV and truck benefits into one thanks to that truck cap over the bed.
This 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali looks pretty clean given it’s about five years old and carries only 23,073 miles on the odometer. It has a5.3L V8 engine generating 355 horsepower and 383 lb-ft of torque connected to an 8-speed automatic. It is unfortunately a 4×2 for the drivetrain and sporting some Falken street tires, so it isn’t the readiest for snow cruising. However, throw on some all-weathers or snow tires and it’ll be more than capable enough to cruise on winter roads.
The real star here is at the bed area. A tall ARE truck cap has been installed and the bed area has been turned into a makeshift living quarter for camping. It can be a bed, couches, and work as covered storage. That last item is what I’m excited about. We have the full bed space covered so that the snow and wind can’t affect the nicely wrapped presents back there. With the truck cap being a taller version, there’s still plenty of room to fit larger presents and the camping additions allow for separated storage compartments in the bed. Throw the small presents in the bottom and toss the bigger stuff on top.
This is a holiday road trip we’re talking about too, so that’s where the Denali trim makes things nice for the family. Leather surfaces, luxury adornments, Bose sound system, heated seating, heated steering wheel, and a good amount of passenger space for up to five passengers. The infotainment is a little small in terms of today’s massive units, but it’ll still provide the features modern shoppers expect like a backup camera, Bluetooth connectivity, and navigation.
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