Purchasing a used van, need advice

[Lisa71]

Honda or Toyota !! We love our 2005 odyssey..we have to put about 1700 in it this year but all the other years almost nothing. Runs great and very easy to drive.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We are on our second Sienna. We had a 2000 that we wound up giving to our son. It had about 105K on it when it was totaled in an accident. We got about $9K from our insurance for the 10 year old van. We also have a 2006 with 104K miles on it right now. We did have the timing belt replaced recently. We thought about getting a new car now before my husband retires, but we still love our 2006 Sienna. We figure we'll keep it another five or six years.

The salesman we bought it from told us we could get 200K miles on it easily.

From Consumer Reports - Cars to Avoid:

Chrysler

Town & Country ’03-12

Dodge

Caravan ’03-07

Grand Caravan ’03-12

It did recommend nearly every year of Sienna.

 

[badiggio]

Run the numbers on the used vehicle with financing and also a new vehicle with financing.You might be surprised.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Run the numbers on the used vehicle with financing and also a new vehicle with financing.You might be surprised.

As PP mentioned, the days of automatically saving money by buying used are over. It's still true of SOME models, but not all - especially once you factor in different interest rates and rebates. Poor new car sales over the past several years plus Cash For Clunkers has really driven the price of used cars UP. It pays to do the math

 

[MillauFr]

I would go for the sure thing, a Honda or Toyota. If you like gambling buy a Dodge or Chrysler.

 

[kimnmiah]

My sil had a 2012 caravan and had it in the shop more tiles than I can count. It was nothing but trouble. It was out of warrenty and she was paying a lot of $$$ for major problem. She just traded for a honda and couldn't be happier.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My sil had a 2012 caravan and had it in the shop more tiles than I can count. It was nothing but trouble. It was out of warrenty and she was paying a lot of $$$ for major problem. She just traded for a honda and couldn't be happier.

Why would a 2012 be out of warranty? That's at most a 2.5 year old vehicle.

 

[PGHDisneyfan]

Why would a 2012 be out of warranty? That's at most a 2.5 year old vehicle.

Over on mileage I would guess?

 

[tvguy]

Over on mileage I would guess?

Since the basic warranty is 100,000 miles for that year, this person does some serious driving which may be part of the problem.

 

[ferrarimomof3]

We just bought a Toyota Sienna. I was a SUV driving mom. I said I would never drive a minivan. Then, we took three vacations in a SUV. I started looking at the mini van's more. The Sienna is huge. I unfortunately got rear ended two weeks after purchasing it. I had to get a Town & Country rental. I was amazed at the difference of the room in the Sienna and the Town & Country. I love my "Swagger Wagon" also known as the Toyota Sienna.

 

[midwestdee]

We got our Toyota Sienna LE in Aug. of 99 - it is a 2000 model. Around 130,000 mi - had our first major repair spring 2013 (engine) - if we had been on top of things - we would have caught on that there was a small oil leak before things got bad - but DH works a lot of hours and it just got ignored. We did buy a 2013 Honda CRV EXL AWD for me in June, but still have the mini van too - maybe we'll sell this summer. I just knew that with our winters and the van being 14 years old - it was time for the new one. DH has a 2004 CRV - we are totally a Toyota or Honda family.