Minivan reviews

[stevenpensacola]

:
Again translates to "your transmission will fall out, and you will buy a new one." That's one of the early warning signs of a transmission gasping its last gasps in a Dodge product.

I'm almost ashamed to admit, before we got the Odyssey, we had a 95 Caravan...it did give us 8 years of mostly trouble free service...but that was the last vehicle I bought based on price.

As I said earlier, you usually really do get what you pay for...and you only pay for quality once...

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I didn't like the Toyaota because it, at least the one I looked at didn't have Stow and Go.
If I was goint to get a big mini van I would want Stow and Go.
Out of all of the ones we tried we liked the VW best.
If we decided to go with the van we were leaning to the VW as we liked the most and the Chrysler/Dodge as the deals they were offering were so good you could replace the transmision three times and still be saving a lot of money.

 

[dissy_dee]

What is a stow and go?

 

[stevenpensacola]

Out of all of the ones we tried we liked the VW best.

You do realize that the VW is a Dodge with a facelift.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I said I would never drive a minivan but just bought the 2011 Sienna...I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! I had an H3 Hummer but with a 12 yr old that is already 5'10", a baby and a stroller, we quickly grew out of it.

The Sienna drives like you're on a cloud, the room in it is great, love the automatic doors and the blue tooth. It also drives like an SUV and is so comfortable. My husband just drove it from Pittsburgh to NJ and got about 22 - 23 miles to the gallon.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I said I would never drive a minivan but just bought the 2011 Sienna...I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! I had an H3 Hummer but with a 12 yr old that is already 5'10", a baby and a stroller, we quickly grew out of it.

The Sienna drives like you're on a cloud, the room in it is great, love the automatic doors and the blue tooth. It also drives like an SUV and is so comfortable. My husband just drove it from Pittsburgh to NJ and got about 22 - 23 miles to the gallon.

DON'T FORGET IT HAS "SWAGGER" - Has anybody watched the youtube video. It's pretty funny.

 

[stevenpensacola]

What is a stow and go?

A marketing gimmick, which gives you a little extra storage space, at the expense of seating comfort.

The two middle seats sort of fold into the floor without having to be removed. In order to accomplish this, the seats are much smaller and less comfortable than the ones found in the Honda or Toyota.

I could count on two fingers of one hand how many times we ever removed the middle seats from our Odyssey...by this I mean that any "convenience"gained by the stow and go is not worth the loss of middle seat comfort for the passengers.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

We just bought a Quest after a *ton* of research. I love that thing. I know they're not making a 2010, but a 2011 is right around the corner. I've had a Nissan Altima before that, and it drives like a big 'ol Altima with a Maxima engine.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

DON'T FORGET IT HAS "SWAGGER" - Has anybody watched the youtube video. It's pretty funny.

I haven't seen it but that is all my husband talks about...I have to go check it out now!


Did I say how much I love my Sienna???

 

[mamajoan]

ok... I know many of you do not like Chrylser .. but I have to say that my 2002 Chrysler Town and Country LXI has been great.

I needed a van to transport my powerchair and fit my VMI lift. The T&C was a perfect fit.

No problems, regular maintenance, brake repair, and new tires. the regular stuff.
Today it has 131,500 miles.

I will need to purchase another van .. altho I would rather have a yellow VW convertible!!

 

[bigbabyblues]

I have a 2004 Sienna, and I love it! We looked at that and the Odyssey (used), but the guy at the Honda dealership was a jerk, so we went down the road about two miles and bought the Toyota.

We're planning to get another Sienna when we're done with this one, hoping to get another two years out of it, though. It has about 85,000 miles and no problems at all. My issue with the new Sienna and/or Odyssey is that they're both too long to fit in our garage. With my current van, there is about 6 inches behind the back bumper and the garage door. The new style of Odyssey wouldn't fit, and I'm thinking the new Sienna won't either, as it looks to be about the same size as the Honda.

DH's family has had several Caravans, but I don't like the way they drive or the feel of the seats. Just my personal pickiness.

 

[kacaju]

A marketing gimmick, which gives you a little extra storage space, at the expense of seating comfort.

The two middle seats sort of fold into the floor without having to be removed. In order to accomplish this, the seats are much smaller and less comfortable than the ones found in the Honda or Toyota.

I could count on two fingers of one hand how many times we ever removed the middle seats from our Odyssey...by this I mean that any "convenience"gained by the stow and go is not worth the loss of middle seat comfort for the passengers.

Now see, it all depends on why you want the stow and go.

I just bought a 2007 Town and Country with 13,400 miles on it to replace my aging 2001 Ford Windstar with 135,000 miles.
I wanted the stow and go because I figured it would be great to have since we show dogs.

We were at a 4 day show this past weekend.

Friday I *stowed* all the seats and had plenty of room for the 2 dogs (collies big dogs), the two crates, grooming table and tack box.
We left the crates and table at the show.

the next day a friend came with us so I flipped up a middle seat for my dd.

Sunday I had to bring my two other dd's so I flipped up the two middle seats so my 3 dd's all had a seat, plus there was still room for the dogs.

Monday I had 2 dd's plus hubby with me. We had 1 less dog and had to lug all the crates and table back home.

By Monday night I had the two middle seats and the one split seat all back up and the crate back on the 3rd row stowed double seat.
It was just so easy and nice, I LOVE my stow and go seats!!

I never could have easily done that with the seats I had to take out of the van. To me, the stow and go seats are so worth it!!

btw, even though Ford is no longer making mini vans I LOVED my Windstar, I never had problems with it until recently and with the high mileage we opted to buy the T&C instead of trying to fix it.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Now see, it all depends on why you want the stow and go.

I just bought a 2007 Town and Country with 13,400 miles on it to replace my aging 2001 Ford Windstar with 135,000 miles.
I wanted the stow and go because I figured it would be great to have since we show dogs.

We were at a 4 day show this past weekend.

Friday I *stowed* all the seats and had plenty of room for the 2 dogs (collies big dogs), the two crates, grooming table and tack box.
We left the crates and table at the show.

the next day a friend came with us so I flipped up a middle seat for my dd.

Sunday I had to bring my two other dd's so I flipped up the two middle seats so my 3 dd's all had a seat, plus there was still room for the dogs.

Monday I had 2 dd's plus hubby with me. We had 1 less dog and had to lug all the crates and table back home.

By Monday night I had the two middle seats and the one split seat all back up and the crate back on the 3rd row stowed double seat.
It was just so easy and nice, I LOVE my stow and go seats!!

I never could have easily done that with the seats I had to take out of the van. To me, the stow and go seats are so worth it!!

btw, even though Ford is no longer making mini vans I LOVED my Windstar, I never had problems with it until recently and with the high mileage we opted to buy the T&C instead of trying to fix it.

Stow and Go seats have gotten better and a little bigger feeling. What I don't understand is why the a combany does,t do the back row as a stow and go and leave comfortable seets in the middle. What I really like about Stow system is the compartments would be so nice to have. Right now whenever I purt soemthing in my van it rolls everywhere, and can be seen. The compartents allow you to make stuff not viewablre like a trunk.

 

[kacaju]

Stow and Go seats have gotten better and a little bigger feeling. What I don't understand is why the a combany does,t do the back row as a stow and go and leave comfortable seets in the middle. What I really like about Stow system is the compartments would be so nice to have. Right now whenever I purt soemthing in my van it rolls everywhere, and can be seen. The compartents allow you to make stuff not viewablre like a trunk.

the only problem with the compartments is you need to make sure the front seat is all the way forward to acess those compartments. So it can be a pain to move the seat all the way up, store the item, move the seat back, then repeat once you get home.

it really depends on what purpose you want for it. Like I said, for me, I just love the fact I can flip these seats so easy. My purpose was not to store things other then the seats in them. I like the flexibility I have in arranging the car on a moments notice, that is important to me.

 

[Holly]

You don't always get what you pay for.


I paid for the 2006 Sienna and then I paid, paid, paid for the constant repairs (including a bad transmission and defective door mechanisms). I did read that the transmission issues were addressed in newer models.


I traded it in for a Grand Caravan which I haven't had issues with other than the fact that the gas mileage isn't anything near what they claim.

 

[Scurvy]

I have a 2005 Sienna with 100,000+ miles on it and I love it. No complaints so far - the only thing we've had to do is routine maintenance. Unless things have changed significantly by the time I'm ready to replace it, based on my experience (and the reviews from Consumer Reports and edmunds.com) I will be getting either another Sienna or an Odyssey next time.

 

[Minniemouse07]

We purchased a 2008 Sienna used last summer and it!

We are a VW family...had two Jettas until dh's finally died at 14yo and 170K and we needed a new vehicle.

Dh and I looked at VW's van, but as someone else already mentioned it is just a reworked Dodge. I felt that the interior fell FAR short as compared to my 2007 Jetta and in total the van is just not up to VW's other vehicles.

After looking at both the Odyssey and the Sienna we went w/ the Toyota for a few reasons:

Driving - Love it! Dh is into performance driving and he preferred the Sienna over the Oddy hands down!
Comfort - The seats in the Oddy just weren't comfy at all.
Run Flat Tires - I did some research and those things are pricey and don't ride well. Didn't want to buy a car and have to replace the tires from the get go!
Room - Our 8 passenger Sienna has three FULL seats in the middle row. I can fit two LARGE car seats in each of the outboard locations and seat an adult in between them! Maybe not for 2 or 3 hour rides...but great for when we want to haul more people than just us!
LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) - The Sienna has lower and upper tether anchors in each of the middle row positions and two of the three third row positions.... more than any other van. I like having the flexibility when moving the kids around or driving with other families.

I had no hang ups getting a minivan but dh REALLY would have preferred another VW sedan (either a Jetta or Passat). The reality though was if we were doing anything other than regular day to day driving (work, grocery shopping, etc) we needed more cargo room. Heck our last trip to WDW before we got the van we had to tie two suitcases to the roof to get to the airport!

We now have the room to toss the kids bikes in the back (ours are on the roof) along with suitcases and other paraphenalia we need for 4 days at the beach...no problem.

After all his hemming and hawing over "settling" for a minivan, he loves being able to haul what we need to...and he has changed his mind about it being "uncool."

If we had to buy a minivan tomorrow...I'd go w/ the Sienna again in a heartbeat.

 

[PrincessMomto2]

The top 2 vans are Honda Odyssey(1) and Toyota Sienna (2). We brought a new van 2 years ago and I test drove both vans. We ended up with the Honda I personally felt it had a better ride. We got a good deal (the Toyota dealership would not budge and annoyed us). Both have great track records. We love our Odyssey and we are not sorry about our decision.

Previously we owned a Ford Windstar. It had a lot of problems especially after the first two years. One thing to remember as well is that both the Odyssey and Sienna hold their value much better than other vans. Our Windstar was in pretty good condition only 5 years old with below average mileage and we did not get much for it at all.

Good luck on your new purchase!