Grand Caravan or Odyssey?

[teacher100]

I bought an Odyssey today!!

 

[bigbabyblues]

Congrats to you!!!

 

[Stinasmom]

RIGHT CHOICE!!

I too love my 2002 Odyssey and have NO problems, just new tires, brakes, battery, the usual.
We had two Chryslers before that and YES, they were in the shop WAY too much. Paid more for them in the long run than would have to pay some more upfront for a Honda.
Congrats on your new car!

 

[mjaclyn]

We LOVE our Odyssey. DH and I did a LOT of research before buying a minivan. We test drove them all and are so glad we made the right choice!

 

[LuvOrlando]

If you want to really figure out which is better for you put the time aside to visit both dealers and drive both vehicles in the same day. Years ago, when I wanted a minivan, I was convinced I wanted a Chrysler, which was rated #3. But, since I am faithful to Consumer Reports I made sure I gave the Odyssey & Toyota a try too, because they were #1 & 2. Well, all I can say is while there wasn't much difference between #1 & 2 when I got to the Chrysler later in the day the difference was night and day. Now when I went by myself and drove the different vehicles on different days I didn't notice the differences so much, but in the same day it was staggering. I don't know that this is still the case but considering how much money vehicles cost, I think a side by side is worth the time.

PS- I loved my Odyssey (got rid of it for a SUV) and have to say that the Accord we got at the same time in 2002 (DH's commuter car) is now 120,000+ miles and has never needed more maintenance than oil changes, one set of tires and some kind of bracket for the muffler... we don't even keep up with all the recommended maintenance. As for my Odyssey, I had it for 3 years, never did more than oil changes and never had a single problem. As much as I hate to say it and would prefer American, the car is undeniably good quality.

FYI, now I have a Jeep and totally love it... yes, it really is a Jeep thing

 

[mom2boys]

We just bought our second Ody. We kept the first one for our teenagers to drive. The first one is a 1999 with 240,000+ miles on it.

 

[imtheproof]

caravans have lots of small problems, so probably the odyssey.

 

[mrodgers]

You couldn't pay me to drive a Chrysler product.

I test drove an Odyssey back a few years when the kids were younger. I was amazed at the thing. We ended up waiting a few years and got a small SUV (Mazda Tribute, couldn't pass up the price.)

I had always been a Toyota truck kind of person. I've owned 4 of them between the truck and the 4Runner. Nothing could stop the Toyota 4x4 with the 22RE 4 cyl. I've had almost 500,000 miles on my 4 Toyotas, one of them I only had for 6 months because it became too expensive in insurance (right after an accident.)

They all ran fantastic including the 189,000 mile 4Runner, better than any other vehicle I've driven. That is until I received a hand-me-down through the family 94 Honda Civic that I'm driving now. I acquired it 4 months ago with 179,000 miles and a blown headgasket. I'm now on 185,000 miles and even with the blown headgasket, it is the best running vehicle I've driven to date.

I'm a driving enthusiast, not just a point a to point b driver using a vehicle as a tool for that. I wouldn't even go look at anything else today if I was in the market for a new minivan. I would just go and buy the Odyssey without the need for even taking it for a test drive.

Oh, and if you find yourself getting bad fuel mileage, check your driving. There are constant complaints all over the net about the Mazda Tribute/Ford Escape getting bad mileage in the 16-19 mpg range (EPA 19-24 mpg.) As I said, I'm a driving enthusiast, not just someone who uses the vehicle as a tool. I don't exactly take it easy on my vehicles and I get 24 mpg opposed to my wife consistantly getting 19 mpg with each of us driving nearly the same route to work. She doesn't exactly drive hard and rarely exceeds the speed limit. I put the hammer down and get 24, she takes it easy and gets 19. Obviously the difference is in the driving since we run down the same road to get to work.