Help with buying a minivan

[a_smith]

I don't know much about recent cars and have no paid attention in a lot of years.
Our 17 year old car is having some issues and we're starting to shop for a minivan. Were thinking of Sienna/ Odyssey/Pacifica type. Any others to consider?

Maybe new, but most likely a few years old. Any good years/ models to get? Any to avoid?

At this point I don't need a car for looks or performance. We are going for purely functional at this point until the kids are off to college- another 8 years.


Any suggestions appreciated.

[CardsofSTL]

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/cc69 ... e745b36e4/

Do it

[CardsofSTL]

In all seriousness I have heard good things about the Odyssey but I have never driven a minivan for any lengthy period of time or owned one.

[IMADreamer]

You'll be great in either the Toyota or Honda. I've spent a good bit of time in the Honda and they are a nice ride. My sister in law has one and they love it.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

We just got the Toyota. It’s great. So much room. 65 thousand cup holders. Rear seats fold right in to the floor with no tools and give you enough room to run a nice little meth lab or maybe keep tons of soccer gear.

Also you are totally anonymous in a minivan. They aren’t visible to most human eyes.

Here’s a site that goes through the maintenance records of trade ins. You can search by size:

https://www.dashboard-light.com/

If you drill in you can see specific years by model. I think Toyota or Honda (maybe more selective on year) is the right approach.

[haltz]

We just got the Toyota. It’s great. So much room. 65 thousand cup holders. Rear seats fold right in to the floor with no tools and give you enough room to run a nice little meth lab or maybe keep tons of soccer gear.

I just bought a GMC Savana extended 3500, would recommend for a rolling meth lab, but ideally you'd probably want a high roof sprinter style van.

I could not talk my partner into a minivan recently and we ended up in a Honda Passport. Looked at a bunch, you're in really good shape with an Odyssey or Sienna but they definitely hold their resale value which is a two way street obviously. You could buy a Toyota Sienna from a dealership for more than double what you'd pay for an equivalent Dodge/Chrysler private party.

I'm more into the latter, just a cash deal rolling the dice a little on something with 100k, but having a newer Honda with another 80k miles on the warranty means I don't have to even think about the family car which is nice.

[AdmiralKird]

I drive a Honda Odyssey 2021 or so every few months around St Louis. It's not really a fun drive. The eco mode really makes it not want to accelerate when you put down the gas, and you sort of roll into intersections like a drunk weasel before it lets you get moving. Looping around Lambert with all the stops during pickups makes it a true beached-whale experience. On the plus side it has a lot of interior space, and the sliding seats in the center are nice for piling in. As far as entertainment goes it doesn't have wireless android auto or carplay. The lane sensor warnings are nice, but the auto lane centering is too aggressive for my taste (IE I want to be closer to the line when doing a heavy turn in light traffic yet it unnecessarily fights me). I'm not sure there's a way to put the headlights to automatically come on and go off - the owners always have it on manual - which I find very weird for 2024. In general it has some nice features, but it's nothing special IMO. If I was in the market for a minivan I'd just get an early 2010's variant rather than one of these new ones and upgrade the head unit. AFAIK, the gas mileage difference just isn't there with minivans from 2010->2020 to warrant the newer car pricetag. Maybe if you could get a Pacifica hybrid for a good deal it would make sense but I just don't see the value in the newer ones I've driven or been in.

[Popeye_Card]

Full size vans are where it's at. Find yourself a decent used conversion van, and ride in comfort for the rest of your life. Sure it'll still run you like $50k+, but think of it as an investment.

[Leroy]

[heyzeus]