To be honest it was not much different, and anyway it was worth it for the battles it avoided.

I just took a quick look on Budget for you, June 10th 2010 for 7 days. A 12 seater van (Ford E350) comes out at $1279.99 for the week, and the 7 seater (Dodge Grand Caravan) comes out at $613.99, so almost no difference at all. You have two cars to fill with gas instead of one, but the 7 seater gets almost twice the mileage too.

In my view, a no-brainer as long as you have people prepared to drive