Late-model minivans: your thoughts/preferences?

DC auto show starts this week. Send her to poke around.

Actually,you planning to go at all?

How much room do you need? How many seats, and will you be going on trips with those seats filled, and with the accompanying luggage? I'd recommend answering those questions first, then picking the one you like that fits that criteria. Not all seat 8, and some do it better than others. The seating and access are different, and the storage in the rear with the seats up can be important. My wife drives a '14 Sienna that we bought new, and those were the factors that put it ahead of the others when we chose it. It was reinforced when we went on vacation recently. A bunch of my extended local family traveled across the country for a wedding/family reunion. We took our Sienna and my brothers quad cab truck to the airport. At our destination, we both rented minivans from the same place, choosing ours from the same line. My brother went to the Sienna first, but passed because it was mid level model, and chose a new Sedona instead, because it was an upper level model with leather. They had a few more like it, but only one Sienna. It was old for a rental, 2015, and had almost 50k on it. Side by side with the Sedona, it had noticeably more room, especially in the cargo area. I chose the well used Sienna over the new vans because I knew everything I brought would fit- I brought it to the airport in my van after all. My brother's family had the nice new van with the leather interior. Which would have been much nicer if they didn't have to share it with their luggage since it wouldn't fit in the back. No such problem with the Sienna, we even took in some of their excess luggage.

bluej wrote: DC auto show starts this week. Send her to poke around. Actually,you planning to go at all?

Hadn't really thought about it. I do hate walking aroudn seeing things that I'm not going to be able to get ;)

We drove a few a couple years ago when we got the sequoia, but you know how wives are - they want what they want, lol. The goal is to guide her toward something good and then let her think it was her idea. Because I can say 100 great things about XXX vehicle and she'll instinctively want something else because she will think I'm "shopping for me" instead of her lol.

All the previously mentioned stuff is great.

Have you considered a Prius V?

They're incredibly reliable, insane gas mileage especially if your wife does nothing but in-town running, etc. Not sure on how much space or how many seats are really needed but it may be worth a look if she puts a lot of mileage on a vehicle, of if you want to get into something MUCH less costly than a normal minivan. They're dead-nuts reliable and will get 2-3x the mileage a minivan will. I'd personally buy a slightly used one with 20-30k miles to save a ton of money, unless there are some incentives and better financing that make a new one make sense.

edit: Totally missed the third row requirement. Disregard.

Sad thing is, they sold the Prius V with a 3rd row in other places.

flatlander937 wrote: All the previously mentioned stuff is great. Have you considered a Prius V? They're incredibly reliable, insane gas mileage especially if your wife does nothing but in-town running, etc. Not sure on how much space or how many seats are really needed but it may be worth a look if she puts a lot of mileage on a vehicle, of if you want to get into something MUCH less costly than a normal minivan. They're dead-nuts reliable and will get 2-3x the mileage a minivan will. I'd personally buy a slightly used one with 20-30k miles to save a ton of money, unless there are some incentives and better financing that make a new one make sense. edit: Totally missed the third row requirement. Disregard.

She literally puts less than 10k on her car per year (and half of that is me using it to tow the racecar), so fuel MPG isn't really a concern at all anyhow.

But yeah, far too small for our requirements.

We've put about 300K miles on two Grand Caravans, and have owned a 2011 Oddy for about 60K miles. The Honda has been no more reliable that the GC.
Personally, I HATE powered side doors, especially the ones in the Honda. If the battery dies, or worse, your in an accident that renders the electrics inop, the side doors are nearly impossible to open. I'm The only one in my family that has the physical strength to open them. That's scary.
The stow-n-go feature is a HUGE asset and more than makes up for the more car-like ride in the Honda.

Edit: i forgot to mention. Parking the Honda anywhere other the the Bonnevile salt flats sucks. Feels 10' wide.

I really like our '15 GC. It's helped me get over the painful loss of a full size conversion van. I see this one lasting many many years and miles.

We are on our second Sienna. Bought an 07 in May 2008 with 22k on it. We replaced it this past May with 189k trouble free miles. Our 2016 already has over 16k miles on it. We love it. We looked at the Odyssey at the same time and went for the Sienna for one big reason. Passenger space.

I'm 6'2". My twin boys will be not far behind that. I couldn't get enough headroom in the passenger seat of the Honda. Plus there was a little more room in the back for my boys. If you are of the tall stock or your children are, then the Sienna would get the nod.

But you really can't go wrong. They are all pretty good.

We really, really like our 2016 Sedona. However, showroom-new minivans are pricey and you can easily find 2015 Grand Caravans and Transit Connect XLTs for under $15K.

I've put a few hundred miles on both the current generation Sienna and Sedona and I liked them both but would buy the Kia. The premium for the Toyota doesn't seem worth it to me and the Kia is very well appointed, drives like a car, and has pretty much all the features you'd want in a kid hauler.

I would look at crash test ratings.

None of my friends seem to have a bad minivan right now. I would guess that whatever your wife is happy with is going to be an ok choice.

Can't go wrong with the Toyota, Honda, or Kia. The new Pacifica is still too new for me to trust it yet, and the Nissan is terrible. The old Chrysler was a love or hate proposition (love the stow-n-go, hate the build quality, etc). We bought a Sedona SX because I wanted the fancy interior and the wife liked how it drove.

Wall-e wrote: None of my friends seem to have a bad minivan right now. I would guess that whatever your wife is happy with is going to be an ok choice.

That's what I was coming here to add. Nobody here has come on and said "My minivan was a piece of E36 M3". That's a rarity when it comes to genre of cars...there's usually one piece of crap out there somewhere. I think most minivans on the market today are pretty good vehicles overall.

Grand Caravan. Try stow n go and imagine yourself packing fora trip.

Get something with power sliding doors. They are super nice.

Klayfish wrote:

Wall-e wrote: None of my friends seem to have a bad minivan right now. I would guess that whatever your wife is happy with is going to be an ok choice.

That's what I was coming here to add. Nobody here has come on and said "My minivan was a piece of E36 M3". That's a rarity when it comes to genre of cars...there's usually one piece of crap out there somewhere. I think most minivans on the market today are pretty good vehicles overall.

My sister has a current/outgoing GC she bought new in '12 or '13. Reliability has been typical ChryCo. It has had a transaxle replaced under warranty and goes back to the shop for one thing or another twice a year. Not a lemon, but a far cry from Honda/Toyota 100k+ with nothing but oil and tires. Otherwise she is happy with it.

Extreme outlier that doesn't look like a minivan:

A D3 or D4 A8 has amazing amounts of interior space and an engine bay so large it actually makes an Audi easy to work on. The 4.2 or 3.0 supercharged are both reliable. Very few cars depreciate faster. D3 4.2s are ten grand. D4 3.0T are thirty.

Brian wrote:

Klayfish wrote:

Wall-e wrote: None of my friends seem to have a bad minivan right now. I would guess that whatever your wife is happy with is going to be an ok choice.

That's what I was coming here to add. Nobody here has come on and said "My minivan was a piece of E36 M3". That's a rarity when it comes to genre of cars...there's usually one piece of crap out there somewhere. I think most minivans on the market today are pretty good vehicles overall.

My sister has a current/outgoing GC she bought new in '12 or '13. Reliability has been typical ChryCo. It has had a transaxle replaced under warranty and goes back to the shop for one thing or another twice a year. Not a lemon, but a far cry from Honda/Toyota 100k+ with nothing but oil and tires. Otherwise she is happy with it.

So counterpoint is my 2011, free from basically any failure other than the battery and the alternator.

You'll be down 100hp and 2 gears, but if you're buying a Chrysler van old enough to still have the 3.3L/4spd auto combo, they're very reliable. They ran that combo for almost 20 years and by the end it was an anvil.

I personally would care more about a power liftgate than sliding doors, but i can see too much un-powered resistance being worth avoiding the power sliders altogether. One caveat to that complaint, though: When i was a kid, i watched my younger brother almost break his own skull open trying to pull a sliding door closed when it finally came off the hold-open detent thing and slammed on his head after he had used all his child strength just trying to get it past that detent. I guess that would be nearly impossible with a power slider.

I've been extremely pleased with my 14 Grand Caravan. I actually have a 4x8 sheet of plywood sitting flat in it right now. The Stow&Go is remarkable--- I wouldn't consider a mini-van without it. I've put about 25K miles in two years on mine without ANY problems....none. No trim breaking, no mechanical issues, no electrical malfunctions....no flaws whatsoever.

The build quality is on par with the Japanese and Korean offerings, but the price was way below the Honda or Toyota. (mine was $23K brand new out the door--- with upgraded interior, sat radio, rear AC and Heat, and sliding-door windows that retract) I didn't get the power doors--- as I hate them.

I haven't checked out the new Pacifica yet, but if it's price / value is anywhere near the GC--- that would be my choice. Again--- you don't know what your missing with the Stow&Go feature----it's so easy to go from 7 passengers to a cargo van--- I use this feature all the time. It also drives pretty nicely, and gives 25mpg at 80mph.

It's preference thing at this point, but I think Chrysler has really perfected the mini van. I used to argue that the Honda/Toyota offerings were of better build quality that justified their higher prices, but now that just isn't the case. I might cross shop a GC with a Sedona, but I have no idea about the latter so I'm really just speculating.

Joe Gearin wrote: Again--- you don't know what your missing with the Stow&Go feature----it's so easy to go from 7 passengers to a cargo van--- I use this feature all the time.

I think that has a lot to do with how you'd use the van. I've towed plenty with our van, which obviously isn't a cargo thing. In terms of cargo hauling, 99% didn't require removal of the middle seats. I've folded the 3rd row many, many times. But in 10 years of ownership, the number of times that my cargo haul has been so big that I had to pull the middle seats is probably less than 5. And while it unquestionably would have been more convenient to just fold them in the floor for those rare occasions, removing the seats isn't that big of a deal. All in how the van is used...

In reply to Vigo:

My '08 has the 3.3L/4spd combo. I wouldn't recommend it. It's a rather crude engine. Not very smooth. Rather marginal gas mileage -average in the low 20's. Best was 25. Other than maybe the potential for less maintenance (OHV = no timing belt), I'm not sure that benefit makes up for the low power, higher noise and overall "archaic" driving experience for such a fairly new car. Had I known then what I know now, I would have looked for a model with a better engine.

I use the stow-n-go constantly - just last weekend, for example. In three years I've used the middle seats maybe a half-dozen times. The rear seat once.

Klayfish wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: Again--- you don't know what your missing with the Stow&Go feature----it's so easy to go from 7 passengers to a cargo van--- I use this feature all the time.

I think that has a lot to do with how you'd use the van. I've towed plenty with our van, which obviously isn't a cargo thing. In terms of cargo hauling, 99% didn't require removal of the middle seats. I've folded the 3rd row many, many times. But in 10 years of ownership, the number of times that my cargo haul has been so big that I had to pull the middle seats is probably less than 5. And while it unquestionably would have been more convenient to just fold them in the floor for those rare occasions, removing the seats isn't that big of a deal. All in how the van is used...

True---- I usually keep the middle seats folded flat, and the rear bench upright. The rear seats (they split) have grocery bag hooks mounted to the back--- which are very handy. I haul my dog around a bunch, so he prefers the bench in back-- and he likes the rear slider windows down, so he can grab a sniff every now and again. I actually very rarely use the middle seats, as It's rare that I'll have more than two passengers at a time back there. I also like having the flat floor just inside the sliding doors--- very easy to load stuff.

My rear bench stows easily, and it gets popped up and down frequently. Every now and then I pop the middle seats up when I need them. It's nice to have them ready to deploy, without having to store them outside the van. So yes---it's all in how you use the van, but for my uses, the Stow&Go arrangement gives me the most versatility and ease of use.

I've also never noticed enough of a dynamic difference in the way the minivans handle to overcome the convenience of this feature. For me, the Dodge had the most options that were important to me, it drove as well as, or nearly as well as any of them, and it cost far less. Chrysler doesn't do many things well, but they've nailed the minivan.