Consumer Minute: Minivans marketed as 'dad-mobiles'?

3:16 PM, Aug 17, 2012   |    comments
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The last Jeep Liberty has rolled off the assembly line in Toledo Production started at the plant back in 2001. Workers will be temporarily laid off as the factory is re-tooled to make a new Jeep product. The workers will get a combination of state unemployment and supplemental pay from the company. Jeep hasn't said what the new product will be or what it will look like.

If you're a parent, you may already know how much it costs to send your kids to daycare. But a new report released now confirms that the price of childcare is going up. Last year, the annual cost rose about two percent, ranging from about $4,500 to $15,000 a year. Child care in a center for one child costs more than annual median rent payments in almost half of the states. And if you have two kids, daycare costs "exceeded" rent payments.

The technology nowadays with the doors that open on the side automatically are great for carpools, great for bags full of groceries, that kind of thing. You can put everybody inside and they don't have to touch each other. Ford and GM stopped making minivans but Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda still do because, often, minivans are cheaper to operate. Another bonus? A survey earlier this year also found minivans have some of the lowest insurance rates. If you're in the market for a new vehicle soon, how about a minivan? It might have been known before as the "mom mobile" but now it's making a comeback. The popular models have grown about 24 percent. Analysts say they're not only more fuel efficient, but offer a lower sticker price and are more practical. There are reports that some of the car companies are trying to market minivans to busy dads.

WKYC-TV