Minivan shopping

Ok....I have only purchased 1 vehicle for myself and that was 6 years ago.

DH's 2002 Accord is on its last legs with nearly 180,000 miles. It has some major mechanical issues that are basically not worth the cost of fixing.

So we're shopping for a minivan for me to drive and DH will drive my 2007 Altima that we love.

I'm needing some help. I don't want to spend more than $24,000. So, which vans are worth considering? I know Sienna and Odyssey are the most popular ones. I have 2 children...2.5 yr old rf in a Nextfit and 5 yr old ff in a Britax Frontier. There is also the possibility we will have 1 more child sometime in the next 2 years.

I'd like a van so that we have an option to pick up one of DS1's friends from school to play on occasion. Also, when we go visit my ILs we would love to all be able to ride in one vehicle when going somewhere.

I drove a Nissan Quest last year as a loaner and HATED it. SO.....what do I look for in a van? I'm thinking I would prefer a vehicle with less than 45,000 miles on it.

Was considering a Mazda 5, but I've read the back row is cramped if there are carseats in the 2nd row...so that's probably out for me. Also, I need room with the 3rd row up to fit suitcases when travelling.

Which model years of Sienna/Oddysey/etc. do I look at?

THANKS so much!

There are pros and cons to any van. To some extent you get what you pay for - the more popular vans do cost more money.

If you are getting a Sienna or Odyssey, they do not lose value as quickly as the other minivans, so buying new is not a bad idea. On the other hand, they can be quite pricey when new and are likely out of your budget. (Though this time of year, dealers are clearing out the previous model year and you might find a great deal.) Whereas other vans depreciate more quickly, so I'd recommend buying used in order to not take a huge loss in value the minute you drive it off the lot.

A used Sienna or Odyssey is generally going to be much more money than a similar used Sedona, Grand Caravan, or Town & Country. You can definitely get a used Sienna or Odyssey for less than $24k, but then you have to ask if you'd rather have another minivan that is newer and/or has more "bells & whistles" for the same price.

If safety ratings are a big consideration, then check the Informed for Life website and/or the IIHS safety ratings.

Autotrader is a good site to search for cars in your area.

Good luck!

I would definitely look at used Odysseys and Siennas. We bought a 2006 Ody Touring (7 passenger/all bells and whistles) in Jan 2010 (so 5 years old since really from 2005) for about $18,000. It did have almost 100,000 miles on it, but its been great. We've put another 40-50,000 on it. For the Ody, look at 2006 and newer. 2005 only has 3 top tethers. 2006-2010 have 5, 2011+ have 6. Watch out for PAX run flat tires on 2006/7 Touring models. They suck. You'd have to "de-PAX" it for a price. It was worth it for us, but something to be aware of. I like having the older model with 4 kids. We remove the center console in the 2nd row (plus 1 seat in the 8 passenger) and slide a captain's chair over. It makes it easy to have kids in the 3rd row. With 3 kids, I think I'd like the newer Ody or the older Siennas that have a much bigger 8th seat. Then I'd be able to have all 3 in the 2nd row when needed. Since I always need the 3rd row, I prefer sliding a seat over and would miss that feature with 4 kids in the new ones.

So I have found a few used Odysseys to look at. 2010 model year....which ones have captains chairs that can slide over? Only 8 seaters or all of them? That sounds like a great feature! I would be fine with 2 kids in second row and one in the back so I don't anticipate needing 3 across the middle.

Carolinadaisy said:

So I have found a few used Odysseys to look at. 2010 model year....which ones have captains chairs that can slide over? Only 8 seaters or all of them? That sounds like a great feature! I would be fine with 2 kids in second row and one in the back so I don't anticipate needing 3 across the middle.

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That;s a 2011+ feature on the Odysseys (and only on the new Odysseys).

For 2010 and older, I'd get a Sienna. The Ody was great, but I think you can argue the 2010 and older Sienna is even better than the current minivans.

We are getting features mixed up. All 2005-2010 Odys have the option to remove the small 8th seat or console in the 7 passenger ones and slide the passenger side captain's chair over toward the center. 2011+ have a bigger 8th seat and the whole 2nd row can be placed in "Wide Mode" by sliding the captain's chairs out a little. It makes fitting 3 car seats easier. In order to create a clear aisle in the 2011+, you have to remove seats and store them. You cannot slide the captains chairs over. I will try to find a pic of what the 2005-2010 do.

codex57 said:

That;s a 2011+ feature on the Odysseys (and only on the new Odysseys).

For 2010 and older, I'd get a Sienna. The Ody was great, but I think you can argue the 2010 and older Sienna is even better than the current minivans.

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Why are 2010 and older Siennas better than the current ones? I have seen lots of 2011 and 2012 Siennas still on our price range. I have to go a little older for an Ody to stay in budget unless we give up the power sliding doors....which I definitely want!

New Sienna's dropped a tether anchor. And the 2nd row is on a sliding track. 8th seat is rather useless, because its so small.

However, we have a 2011 Sienna and couldn't be happier (almost - i did want the ability to remove the 8th seat and slide the 2nd row together... that is, until i realized just how much my kids fight in the car as far apart as they are... i can no longer imagine sitting them closer!). We only have 2 kids, so lack of tether isn't a deal breaker.

It's also my opinion that sienna rides better and quieter than the odyssey.

MommyShannon said:

We are getting features mixed up. All 2005-2010 Odys have the option to remove the small 8th seat or console in the 7 passenger ones and slide the passenger side captain's chair over toward the center. 2011+ have a bigger 8th seat and the whole 2nd row can be placed in "Wide Mode" by sliding the captain's chairs out a little. It makes fitting 3 car seats easier. In order to create a clear aisle in the 2011+, you have to remove seats and store them. You cannot slide the captains chairs over. I will try to find a pic of what the 2005-2010 do.

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Sorry, yes. That's a MUCH clearer explanation.

MommaMia said:

New Sienna's dropped a tether anchor. And the 2nd row is on a sliding track. 8th seat is rather useless, because its so small.

However, we have a 2011 Sienna and couldn't be happier (almost - i did want the ability to remove the 8th seat and slide the 2nd row together... that is, until i realized just how much my kids fight in the car as far apart as they are... i can no longer imagine sitting them closer!). We only have 2 kids, so lack of tether isn't a deal breaker.

It's also my opinion that sienna rides better and quieter than the odyssey.

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Sienna is quieter and rides better. That's about it's only advantage IMO. The 2nd row "features" are pretty useless and actually are annoying to parents IMO. The Sienna mainly boasted about the reclining 2nd row, which turns out to be completely useless unless you're parked and only have 2 people in the van. I keep tripping over those 2nd row sliding tracks tho and they are hell to clean. Air vents at the bottom can collect cheerios and toys far easier than on the Ody. A/C felt weaker. 3rd row legroom is compromised b/c of the design of the 2nd row seats, unlike in the Odyssey. Well, the tiny 8th seat is either an advantage or disadvantage, depending on how you use the car. Storage is just smarter in the Ody IMO. And more plentiful. Little cool features like the trash bag ring, very easily removable center console, HDMI option, Cool Box, etc trump any cool features. The main advantage of the non-2014 new model Siennas is the optional keyless entry or panoramic moonroof if you get that high into the trim levels. The Ody matched the keyless in 2014. The most glaring thing that turned me off completely about the Sienna was the quality of interior materials. The plastics make Playskool feel luxurious, and if you have leather, the 3rd row is some weird plastic instead of leather. It's far worse compared to the Ody and even the other minivans IMO. I laugh anytime a reviewer says it is "Lexus-like" in the Sienna. Um, NO. I drive a Lexus. It's nowhere close. Granted, the Ody is not luxury level either. The old (2010 and older) Sienna. Now that one you could call "Lexus-like".

So, obviously, I like the new Ody better. I've got two Toyota mechanics as BILs and even they think the Ody is better. My mom has a 2008 Sienna LE with 8th seat. Love that van. My BIL has a 2008 Sienna Limited AWD. That thing is even cooler. One thing I didn't see mentioned is the older Sienna has more storage. I think the 3rd row is wider too. Whether you stick people or cargo in it, the older Sienna can be arguably better than either the new Odyssey or new Sienna.

Of course, neither the Sienna or Ody are "bad" minivans. We're really splitting hairs. If I had to grade them, I'd say the 2010 Sienna is at an A/A+, the 2011+ Odyssey is a solid A, and the 2011+ Sienna is an A-. Next closest competitors would be the Dodge Caravan/Chrysler Town & Country/VW Routan (don't think they make it anymore so b/c I don't think it has all the updates, it's rated a bit lower) at a solid B. The 2013 greatly improved the interior materials and the drivetrain was greatly improved (it was pretty crappy before), but it's like 7/8 the size of the others. The Nissan Quest is a B-/C+ IMO. It actually might be the most luxurious, but they made it more like a crossover SUV than a minivan. It's like you have almost all the negatives of a minivan (mainly the stigma, but the Quest is easily the ugliest of the minivans by far) but barely any of the positives. You should just buy a Nissan Pathfinder if you're gonna get a Nissan.

Since OP has a budget of $24,000, I HIGHLY suggest getting a 2010 or older Sienna that's more loaded (or even a 2010 and older Odyssey) over a more stripped 2011+ Odyssey or Sienna. As for the older Caravans/T&Cs, that's sort of a judgment call. If you find some smoking deal on one a loaded one (and only a fully loaded one), I'd consider it. What gives me pause is the drivetrain really was pretty bad up until like 2013 model year and reliability of the fancy gadgets. Chrysler's greatly improved, but quality and reliability has never been in their vocabulary. Me and my parents have owned various Jeeps, Dodges and Chryslers before. I still like the company and would give them a chance, but I just assume I'm gonna have to live with a car that feels like an older car far quicker than another brand. Being owned by FIAT is not an improvement either.

Wow....so much to process! DH went out looking today and looked at 3 used Siennas. 2012, 2010 and 2008 models. All were within budget and the older ones were under.He liked the 2008 best of all except for the 80,000 miles on it. It was loaded up. I don't care so much about the sunroof and built in dvd player, but leather is nice. We wanted to stay under 60,000 miles at most....so the hunt continues.

Hope we can find one soon. The 2002 accord has a burnt valve....so probably not worth price of repair. But the engine is dying randomly which causes the power steering to go out. Happened turning into the neighborhood yesterday and twice at stoplights. Need to get him in a safe car ASAP...so hope a great van can be found on the next few days!

Just gonna put this out there...odys were retrofitable for top tethers in the 3rd row from 2000-2004 and the ccaptains chairs could be slid together all the way back to 2000 as well (that 2000 was seriously ahead of its time!)

Excuse the mess DS made. I need to go vacuum and clean it out. This is the "aisle" created by sliding the seat over. This was with the seat slid all the way back too. You can make the space bigger by sliding the seat forward more. My siggy pic has the two girls with the seats slid together. There are two armrests between the seats so they aren't as close as two seats on a bench so any seats work. The siggy pic looks like I had the passenger side seat slid forward and the other one all the way back. You can see the little rectangle carpet that covers the track that get exposed too. It fits between the seats too so you can cover the middle if you want the aisle there. I don't know if the nice mats are in all of the trim levels or not, but in ours the entire floor is covered by mats.

This is such a knowledgeable community! So....I have found a lot of used and in our range. We could do a newer Sienna, but DH really didn't care for the interior at all yesterday. He did find a loaded 2008 Sienna that he really liked. I haven't seen it yet. Mileage is a little higher than I initially wanted. How many miles is a well cared for Sienna or Ody going to go? And if we look at ones with around 80,000 miles....what big and expensive service would be upcoming?

I bought my last car new because of a great deal, but we are looking to either pay cash this time or take a very small loan. But I don't want to by an older van and end up with issues! I overthink everything...so this is going to be a hard decision.

How many miles do you drive a year?

It's a Honda or Toyota. Nothing special about them. Just basic maintenance when needed and they just keep running. Be a bit wary about the transmission on the Honda. That's it's weak point. Best if you google "Honda transmission problem" and look for signs if you test drive it. Not every car has a problem, but 80,000 miles is a common time for it to rear it's ugly head. The old Sienna's drivetrain is tried and true (their newer 6 speed had similar issues to the Honda, just nowhere near as frequent it seems). The AWD Sienna can feel... deliberate, but the FWD one can feel pretty spritely. Altho the Honda handles better. 80,000 miles on a Sienna isn't a special time off the top of my head.

We had a 2008 sienna 8 passenger. Not as easy to find as the 7. Never had a single mechanical issue with that van but traded it in because of a leak in the trunk no one could figure out. A 7 pass will more than suffice for 2-3 kids. They have a bigger trunk then the ody and a wider back seat. You can do the slide the captain's chair over with the 7 pass old sienna and the seat belt is built into that seat so you don't have a seat belt crossing the aisle it makes - I really don't like that about the old ody esp. if you want to install a child seat in that seat.

I do not like the new Siennas at all. I feel like they look so cheap inside and as mentioned they took away top tethers which is a big deal for us with 4 kids. The old ones just seemed so high quality, even the lowest models (we had an LE, the 8 pass only came in the basic styles) Having the leak issue handled so poorly by Toyota really pushed us to move to Honda but I think I would have been happier with the style of the new Honda anyway. The old Sienna only had latch in the middle and passenger outboard part of the 3rd row so the new Ody works better for us in terms of tethers since we have 2 kids back there on either side.

Personally I prefer the overall look of the old sienna to the old odys - that 8th seat is nice but like I said the 3rd row of the old sienna was wider so more useful for 3 people, and getting back there is easier since the seat belt is attached to the captains seat if you make the aisle. But they are both good vans.

On odys at that range you are looking at a timing belt (if its one old enough to have the belt) and the transmission. My family's original ody needed a new transmission at 104, 000 but after that was fixed it ran to 237, 000 and was totalled in an accident(results not typical). When you test drive feel for hesitation off of stop signs and watch for high revs...if its shifting fine it won't need the transmission for a while

I don't have mechanical experience with siennas only odys.

We have a 2009 Toyota Sienna 7 passenger. We paid 17,500$ this February for it with 48k miles. My husband was hesitant to trust me on insisting we buy a 2006-2010 toyota. (newer odys weren't in our budget) We could've got a fully loaded Chrysler for 1500$ less. I knew there was no way I wanted to deal with fitting two seats in the back of the chrysler/dodge versions. That was the point of buying a van to me; not worrying about what carseats went where. We bought on a whim and after wards DH finally decided to actually research (yeah to late) vans. He was so impressed that I was right on with our budget and the best value. It's been great for us this far. I'm sure I'll be keeping it awhile and hopefully in the mean time Toyota notes the complaints on the newer models and the next model is more true to the one I have.

mscarder said:

I'm sure I'll be keeping it awhile and hopefully in the mean time Toyota notes the complaints on the newer models and the next model is more true to the one I have.

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I hope Honda listens to those complaints too and makes their new one truer to the one you have.

Decisions, decisions. We're off to go looking at few vans tomorrow. Sienna has inadvertently gotten knocked out of consideration because I'm finding more Odysseys with low mileage than Siennas.

We're going to look a 2010 Honda Ody EX-L with RES. Mileage is 39,900. Asking price is $24,293. What do you think is a reasonable price to attempt to negotiate down to?

Also, 2010 Honda EX. Mileage is 27,839 with asking price of $20,997. I honestly don't care so much about the built in dvd player and this price is more attractive plus lower mileage. Just cannot decide if I want to give up the leather.

Then there is a 2012 Honda Ody EX with 19,975. Asking price of $26,735. Highest priced and no leather or dvd player. But nice low mileage.

I couldn't find a Sienna under 60,000 miles for a 2010. We'll use the van for some decent length road trips so I'd rather start out with the lower mileage, I think. I know it will last a long time, so maybe this shouldn't be my deciding factor.

Any thoughts on which van might be the best buy for the $ and hold its resale value better? Do most people want the leather interior?? My cloth interior in the Altima has cleaned up well and I have liked that it doesn't get so warm in the summer.

Thanks!!

We have black leather and have been in really hot environments without trouble. Our windows are pretty tinted which helps a lot. I highly recommend getting them tinted if they aren't and depending on your state's laws. I'm not sure what the differences are in the trims to recommend one as a better value. I like the built in DVD b/c it's up high. My ff kids in and row can see it and even my rf DD in the 2nd row watches it by looking over her shoulder. It's nice to load DVDs up front where I can do it easily. If you won't use one much, I wouldn't consider it a deal breaker though.