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Now Mom is no soccer mom....she is going to do some heavy duty hauling, though no towing, with whatever she buys but doesn't have a lot of extra money to throw into the vehicle once she purchases it and she will be purchasing within the next couple of days.  I would very much appreciate any opinions/experiences you could give me with the following vans (ads I could find locally within price range):

1.     2000 Toyota Sienna

2.      2000 & 2001 Nissan Quest

3.     2000 & 2001 Mazda MPV (under powered seems to be a common complaint)

4.     2002 Kia Sedona (gas mileage seems to be pretty poor on this)

5.     1999 Honda Odyssey

6.     1999, 2000, 2002 Chevy Astro (reliability seems to be a common complaint with these)

7.     2000 & 2001 GMC Safari

Thanks in advance guys for your opinions/experiences with these.

Paula

Thanks Mints

I wasn't impressed with the Silhouettes which were pretty much the same as the Caravans...and I hated our Caravan (94, I believe), handled terrible on the road.  The Pontiac Montana I have never heard of and I will definitely check on that one. 

New is not an option for her. 

Thanks again for the time and info.

Paula

The Olds and the Pontiac are just about the same.
The Safari and Astro are RWD if I remember.

Used is tough. A good, through pre-purchase inspection should be less than a $100. Without checking them out a 98 Freestar might be better than a 2003 Odyssey. Not much chance, but possible.

I still vote to at least look at the new domestic ones.So you can compare the employee pricing and finacing to the used ones. It will help you deal.

hey Paula...

it would really make my day to be able to help my new mother in law to buy a mini van .

now calm down and put the meatgrinder away.

seriously though i generally recomend to friends that they take the possible purchace to a service station or the dealer that sells that brand vehicle.(but not the one selling it to you)and have them do a safety inspection .costs about 15 bucks here and they will go over everything ,brakes, shocks , suspension tires ,exhaust lights and everything.

you would pay much more for this type of job if you just ask them to look it over.

only problem is your state may not have safety inspections.

they are real fussy about it here ,every year every vehicle gets one .

later chris  

Same for the inspections here. They don't have emissions, but I agree with safety inspections.  Astro's get poor gas mileage, but I like them because you can haul and tow with them.  It like the Windstar's have probelms, but 2002 and 03 look good with them.  I guess I'd have to recommend the Odyssey, Quest, and Sienna. 

snowshoveler wrote:

Shoveler

Hey...where's my ring?!! (And ring around the collar or out of a bubble gum machine doesn't count..LOL)  (thought I would try another tactic...scare the bejeebers out of you...)

And I NEVER put the meat grinder away...never know when it'll come in handy...

Wisconsin is only concerned that we will choke each other to death with fumes (car exhaust...Windy...car exhaust...)....not concerned if we kill each other off with unsafe vehicles (I am sure there is some logic in there somewhere...) so we do not have state inspections, only emissions.  My mom does have a good mechanic whom she has gone to for years and he will cut her a deal on checking out her vehicle (something to do with a 12-pack of wobbly pop ..hopefully AFTER he inspects it....) but I know from personal experience with my MPV that, even with a decent check by a good mechanic, there is no guarantee. 

I've been trying to read up as much as I can on the reliability and safety of the different minivans, using several difference sources for each make (epinions, MSN autos, cars.com, etc.) and the foreign just seem to fare better although the safety ratings are not always the best.

Mints

I know that new is generally better but she just cannot afford that kind of payment.  I was impressed with the Kias in terms of bumper-to-bumper warranty of 5 years or 60,000 miles and 100,000 drive train...I don't know of any of the other auto companies that offer that anymore...and that leads me to believe that they believe in their vehicles if they warrantee them that way.  However, on the other hand, I did read that Kia was tough as far as getting the actual service...not sure if they nitpick you to death on it or what. 

Ajace

I would throw Kia in there as well and possibly take out the Nissan Quest....heard a while back they had a few problems (can't recall what...I'm going to check them out more).

Thanks again for all your time folks!

Paula

Given those choices, I would pay the most attention to the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna. Be especially mindful that the Toyota has had regular oil changes. I would hesitate to recommend the Nissan, and I agree with previous comments about the Astro/Safari. I've never owned or driven any of those on the list, but my job is in automotive marketing research. If you've ever bought a car from a dealer or had one serviced there, they may have sent you a satisfaction survey. I read them...over the last five or so years many hundreds of thousands of them. At one time or another I've done GM, Nissan/Infiniti, Lexus, a few others and now Ford. This is not to say my opinion is better than anyone else's....I've just seen a lot of comments from a lot of people. And as with OPE, the quality of the service you'll receive is just as important, sometimes MORE important than choosing which product. I wish Mom luck in her search. Let us know how it turns out.

AZ  

Paula wrote:

Paula,

The vehicle safety inpection is just that:  a check that the vehicle is safe to drive. It doesn't check for mechanical fitness.

If you could get the maintenance history and see that the owner did the regular maintenance and repaired items, then you would at least have a warm and fuzzy feeling that the person cared enough to take care of it. 

A mechanic who works a lot (dealers for example) on the type of vehicle want to buy, with his knowledge of the repair history should be able to look for typical problems. However, it is difficult for them to tell what will go wrong with an individual vehicle and when.

 

Paula.
Is leasing an option?
Driving around the city (Detroit) all available storage lots are filled with new vehicles.
Most of my shop rat friends are laid off because of overstocking. (We got cars coming out of our butts around here.)
I have never leased....or know the pros and cons.....but I am hearing that it is a dirt cheap option right now.

Leasing, on this subject I will try to be brief (it's a struggle). Although there are exceptions, you are almost always better off to buy something you can afford and owning it rather than paying someone else for the use of a vehicle that you will not own. Please learn all the pros and cons before you consider a lease. There is a reason that leasing is being pushed so hard these days. It's because it's generally a good deal, for them...not for you.

AZ 

Thanks so much guys...this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.  I will post more in a minute after I get the munchkins in bed. 

Paula