Buying a minivan... inform me

We have almost 3000 km on our 2020 Odyssey.  Random comments:

Power sliding doors are more convenient than I expected, but they close the doors more slowly than I would. 

I'm not a fan of toggle-switch e-brakes.

On two occasions the left wiper has failed to actually wipe anything in the middle of its travel for a while, then fixed itself.  No clue what that's about, and everything looks perfectly normal. 

Noobs who get into the car while still holding the keys look like morons, because you don't need the key to start the car.  This is apparently extremely hard to figure out if you've spent 50 years doing things another way.

And the coolest thing so far: admittedly a sample size of just one time, but we drove 100 miles through a typical Ontario nasty slushy dirty post-snowstorm, and the airflow management kept the side windows and the headlights remarkably clean.  All the dirt stayed low on the doors.  Impressive, as well as safety-conscious.

Ian F said:

1988RedT2 said:

Sienna. 

If you're a gambling man, there are those that speak highly of the Chrysler product.

I know too many people who have problems with Honda and Toyota vehicles to place much trust in that old trope.  

I think the problem with the Honda and Toyota van owners is simple. They have this notion that "they'll run forever." They perform bare minimum maintenance if the van is lucky and in turn all these problems are reported down the road. The Odyssey torque converter issue and "air in brake" system issue was a circus. I still have nightmares about changing all the torque converters. With that, my time as a Honda tech, 80% of Odyssey owners would only bring their car in for a discounted oil change, a recall, or to fix their tire light. The other 20% were on top of their maintenance game. 

So if you're looking for a used Odyssey, make sure they have maintanence records. In Florida I was finding EX-L and Tourings with over 100k miles for less than $10k on the 2011+ models. 

Siennas aren't bad either.

The new Pacifica looks the best IMO but I would rather gamble that money away in Vegas than an FCA product. 

DirtyBird222 said:

Ian F said:

1988RedT2 said:

Sienna. 

If you're a gambling man, there are those that speak highly of the Chrysler product.

I know too many people who have problems with Honda and Toyota vehicles to place much trust in that old trope.  

I think the problem with the Honda and Toyota van owners is simple. They have this notion that "they'll run forever." They perform bare minimum maintenance if the van is lucky and in turn all these problems are reported down the road. The Odyssey torque converter issue and "air in brake" system issue was a circus. I still have nightmares about changing all the torque converters. With that, my time as a Honda tech, 80% of Odyssey owners would only bring their car in for a discounted oil change, a recall, or to fix their tire light. The other 20% were on top of their maintenance game. 

So if you're looking for a used Odyssey, make sure they have maintanence records. In Florida I was finding EX-L and Tourings with over 100k miles for less than $10k on the 2011+ models. 

My anecdotes: My cousin put 200k abusive miles on hers over 13 years. It held up shockingly well to 5 kids. My aunt put 277k well cared for miles on hers, and they got a stupid amount of money on the trade in on a newer Oddity. 

We couldn't get any Oddities into our price range, so went with the Kia and are happier for it. We only ever considered the Kia because my uncle (married to the aunt with the 277k oddity) said he liked it better but his wife wouldn't consider anything but a Honda. We agreed with that assessment.

I think what this and other threads are showing us is that all the minivans have their fans and generally it is hard to go wrong with one, except.....no one is defending the Nissan Quest.  I had one of the stylized ones and it was okay but it too is hard to recommend over the other models.  

Certainly, the last Quest was a dog.  It got poor marks in every print comparo-test coming in last every time.  For the last couple of model years it was only sold to fleets (rental car companies.)  I'd be sure to avoid one of these Quests.  

In reply to John Welsh :

I had an Uber driver pick me up in a Quest. I wanted to give him 1 star for owning a Quest; however, he was an extremely nice gentleman and couldn't do that to him. 

Thanks, all great information so far guys. Trying to get out to test drive the different models to see which one fits me best. 

A van is the correct answer, my wife already brings the whole house when we go to the in-laws.(The cat and guinea pigs)  We have a newer CRV and when we arrived for Christmas I pointed out the fact that we didn't have any extra space for a child or their accessories. Yes, we could get by for a while with a slightly bigger vehicle or packing better. Why avoid the inevitable forever when I already admire the space and comfort that a minivan can provide?

I might even get rid of my Ranger because I'm sure the minivan will be able to handle lots of mulch in the spring. The challenge car will "never" get done. 

In reply to Andy Neuman :

I cant tell you how many bags of mulch our vans have carried over the years.

In reply to Andy Neuman :

Funny you mention getting rid of the ranger, turns out it's a horrible excuse for a family vehicle. Even without putting her in the car seat, my kid has never fit in the "back seat", so it's either me and her or me and someone not her. Trying to take the 4 of us? Impossible. 

If I didn't have a need to carry fuel or gravel, I would be looking hard a minivans, and could see one as a secondary vehicle in the future. 

We all made fun of one of my dads friends for years for his eggplant purple chrysler van, but I can see the benefits of a vehicle that can keep 4x8 sheets of whatever DRY while also being able to haul the family around. He now has a relatively new chevy truck and has expressed missing the van, despite his only child being in her 30s and not living at home. 

Andy Neuman said:

I might even get rid of my Ranger because I'm sure the minivan will be able to handle lots of mulch in the spring.

ebonyandivory said:

I cant tell you how many bags of mulch our vans have carried over the years.

That is specifically why I mentioned 'dirt' in the 'bulk commodities' comment above.

Just make sure you have a tarp to put in the cargo hold before you start piling bags in there, especially if you are using darker-dyed mulch.  Ask me how I know.

Had a 2006 Odyssey for 10 years.  Nice to drive, comfortable and well designed.  Had a surprising number of issues for a Honda, expensive maintenance required for power doors, motor mounts, various cracked components in the cooling system.  Once gobbled up a spark plug tip and sent it through the motor, leaving us stranded.  Amazingly the motor ran fine after replacing the spark plug.  Never had the dreaded transmission issues, but heard plenty of stories.

Have had a 2015 Sienna for five years now.  Other than a binding caliper slider in the front brakes, has been bulletproof so far.  Feels high-quality and is decent to drive, although not as nice as the Honda.

Both the Odyssey and the Sienna burned through tires quickly, something about the suspension geometry would kill the outside shoulders.  I never got more than 30k out of a set.

I've had the Pacifica and Grand Caravan as longer-term rentals.  The Pacifica was pretty good and the Caravan felt pretty cheap.  Stow and Go is nice, but the seats aren't as comfortable for long trips.

The one thing that would dissuade me from buying another minivan is this:

In reply to ShinnyGroove :

The Pacifica Hybrid has better 2nd row seats because the batery pack is where the seats used to stow.  They are removable, but they weigh a decent amount.

Its too bad minivans are so damned ugly though.  Right?  :)

In reply to Stefan :

For much more of the same cool van pics, see VanKulture

In reply to John Welsh :

Yeah, that's where I got the pics.  A bit too low and gaudy for my tastes, but I do have a spare set of 20" wheels for the wife's rig.

I do like that blue color, wish we'd gotten that instead of grey.  She probably knew I'd call it a blueberry.

In reply to Stefan :

There's always this type of low and gaudy approach...  

I think there's an element of beauty to all minivans as I am a firm believer in "Form follows Function," and there is much beauty in the way a minivan is so superior to a sedan for family-hauling duty.

I fully plan to take the mustang to all my test drives and ask, "Do they make a supercharger kit for this van?"

In reality a sienna has a pretty close hp/weight ratio to the charger RT. 

I used to think I was an outlier for wanting to modify roomy sedans to do sporty things and never getting hardcore into sports cars. Funny thing is, tastes in general have changed so much that now i feel like an outlier for even still keeping all these sedans around (it won't be long until sedans are a truly tiny portion of new-car sales).  I keep thinking about turboing this cheap 05 Pacifica I've been driving off and on for the past 8 months (ive already modified the suspension) and it makes me wonder how much the space for sedans has shrunk in my weird little car world. Minivans are.. basically beyond reproach. They're just good vehicles. I still have my 2 turbocharged minivans and a slammed full size. My acceptance of SUVs has grown quite a bit (for certain ones). I just wonder if im subconsciously leaving sedans behind and shuffling most of my car-modifying desires over into the van/suv/crossover-modifying column.  Weird.

In reply to Vigo :

Let's not confuse an '05 Pacifica with a 2017+ Pacifica, since they are (thankfully) completely separate vehicles (I know you aren't, Vigo - I just want to remind others).

Thanks, Chrysler!

In reply to Vigo :u

While we are on topic of 05 pacificas, My daughter just bought one yesterday. I would be interested to know how you modified the suspension and any other neat info you have about it. Interesting, very interesting.

I really liked our ‘14 Sienna. Replaced the brakes once and two sets of tires in 70k mi, that was it. Drove great, plenty of power. We shopped everything when we bought it new, seemed to have more room and better access to the back row than the others. Storage behind the third row is significantly larger than all the others, which made a big difference on trips. We learned when flying to rent another Sienna at our destination, otherwise all the stuff we brought to the airport in our Sienna didn’t fit in the rental as well. This was very important when the kids were small, with strollers, portacribs, etc.. To put it in perspective- there is almost the exact same cubic footage of storage behind the third row as a Suburban, but the Sienna handles people better. 

Duke said:

In reply to Vigo :

Let's not confuse an '05 Pacifica with a 2017+ Pacifica, since the are (thankfully) completely separate vehicles (I know you aren't - I just want to remind others).

Thanks, Chrysler!

 

I've been thinking about this while reading this thread. Glad you mentioned it.

In reply to Vigo :

Whatever your motivations, I'm behind you 100%! I'm trying to make my 1/2 ton Sierra 4x4 handle.

I would be interested to know how you modified the suspension

I sent you a message through the forums. I will post a thread about it here sometime because i feel like i 'fixed' the Pacifica and created a low buck way for GRM'ers to like them a lot more.  

My brother swears by the Sedona's.  He's had a few.  They seem to be 90% of the Toyota/Honda at 70% of the price.