Buying a used minivan

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 18, 2009

• #1

It looks like we will be buying a used minivan in a couple of weeks. We are going to pay cash and will only have about $3500-$4000 to spend. Our friend's father will more than likely be getting the vehicle from auction and selling it to us for his cost. I don't know what models and years to have him look for. Reliability is very important to us. I have three kids. Two in boosters and one in a harness. M has outgrown the back on most boosters, so will probably be in a backless.

We are considering 2002 and newer grand caravans, and town and country. I would love a sienna but know that it would probably be too expensive unless we bought something that was a bit older. Are there other vehicles in our price range that we should consider?

 

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hockeywoman

New member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #2

I would avoid the caravans - my parents never had luck with anything older than 4-5 years. I have seen 2002 Siennas for about $5K here, I would think at auction you'd be able to find one at that price.

We love our 2003 sienna, but it's just too small for our family - they redesigned storage space in the 2004 to be 2x as large, so we're on the lookout for a decent price on a 2004 or newer, but it has to be an 8 passenger. We've not had any repairs on it in the year we've had it, while my parents 2005 T&C has been in the shop for over 1k of repairs.

 

Maggie

New member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #3

You're really going to get a wide variety of answers. Everyone's had a bad experience, or heard someone who's had a bad experience with a car. So someone's going to hate something, while someone else will love it.

I LOVED my '01 Grand Caravan. It had top tethers in all 5 rear positions and LATCH too.
When I sold it, it had 192,000 on the original tranny and motor and ran like a champ.

I have an '02 Pontiac Montana now and really like it. It has dual power sliding doors, heated leather, DVD system, etc. We only paid $1000, but it needed a new head gasket. Luckily DH is handy with that stuff.

I also had a '99 Windstar that was nice. I liked that it had top tethers in all the rear seating positions.

 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #4

If it's a dealer auction, you can probably get a 2002-2003 Ody or a Sienna in that price range, so I'd focus on those. What state are you in? Prices vary alot by what region you're in.

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #5

It is a dealer auction. We are in CT. We were going to buy a 2001 sienna from him for $5500. The van was the top of the line model. We ended up not having enough money for it, but man that would have been great. Maybe he can find us a base model in our price range.

We had a 2004 ody up until right before thanksgiving. We couldn't afford to pay the monthly payments on it anymore so we had to turn it in. We really loved the ody too.

I guess I would prefer to have a sienna or ody but just doubted that we could get one in our price range.

 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #6

Do you know which auction it is? I have dealer logins to the 2 biggest ones' websites and I can check past prices for you.

 

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LuvMyGirls

New member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #7

I loved my '01 and '03 Grand Caravans. I sold the '01 to a friend who is still driving it with well over 100,000 miles on it. Dh works on there vehicles and they've had no major problems with it. The '03 was totaled when a teenager hit me last August.

 

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brittany741

New member

• Feb 19, 2009

• #8

You will pay a lot in maintenence in both vehicles you mentioned. I would suggest something more reliable, even an older Sienna is more reliable.

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 22, 2009

• #9

An Aurora said:

Do you know which auction it is? I have dealer logins to the 2 biggest ones' websites and I can check past prices for you.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I believe it is the southern auto auction that he gets vehicles from.

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 22, 2009

• #10

LuvMyGirls said:

I loved my '01 and '03 Grand Caravans. I sold the '01 to a friend who is still driving it with well over 100,000 miles on it. Dh works on there vehicles and they've had no major problems with it. The '03 was totaled when a teenager hit me last August.

Click to expand...

Did you have any expensive things go wrong with either of those vehicles? In my reseach on reliability it looks like the transmission problems were fixed on 2002 model year vehicle.

 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member

• Feb 22, 2009

• #11

I'm in the same spot, except with a lower budget..$3-4 K is the absolute max, and would take juggling. We've looked and looked aruondhere, and can not find anything in or price range in the paper, craigslist, local dealers, etc. I don';t know anything about buying at auction though? Oh, I'm in Indiana/Ohio area.
The only things we're seeing in our price range are crap...like, 92 ventures with 189K miles on them..stuff like that.
All the nicer stuff, anything made 2000 and newer, with closer to 100K than 200K on it, is like 5-6K++++....

I'm getting very frustrated.

i was concerned about thise gen 3 seateblts in the caravans and such....the website says they used them through 2003....?

blarg.

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 22, 2009

• #12

bobandjess99 said:

I'm in the same spot, except with a lower budget..$3-4 K is the absolute max, and would take juggling. We've looked and looked aruondhere, and can not find anything in or price range in the paper, craigslist, local dealers, etc. I don';t know anything about buying at auction though? Oh, I'm in Indiana/Ohio area.
The only things we're seeing in our price range are crap...like, 92 ventures with 189K miles on them..stuff like that.
All the nicer stuff, anything made 2000 and newer, with closer to 100K than 200K on it, is like 5-6K++++....

I'm getting very frustrated.

i was concerned about thise gen 3 seateblts in the caravans and such....the website says they used them through 2003....?

blarg.

Click to expand...

It is definitely frustrating. My husband djed this man's wedding for free so he has offered to get us the vehicle for his price. Otherwise we would be in the same boat as you are. We only have three children, so if worse comes to worse we can get a sedan. But, I dream of the day when I can separate the kids if they are fighting in the car. Right now the three year old can not behave on anything more than a 5 minute trip. He can't keep his arms and legs to himself.

I hope you can find something good soon.

Also, thank you for the reminder about the gen 3 seat belts. I didn't even think about that. In fact, I don't really know much about them. Can they be replaced?

 

M

mylittlet

Senior Community Member

• Feb 22, 2009

• #13

We have owned 3 minivans. One was a 2001 pontiac montana. Stay away. We replaced the headgasget and then less then 2 months later we had more problems. I would be driving down the road and my windows won't work and my gauges would stop reading anything.

We have had great luck with our 2 1997 voyagers. Our current one has 197,000 miles on it.

 

K

KaceyLynn

New member

• Feb 23, 2009

• #14

we have a 2001 chevy venture that we really like!!!

 

G

Guest

New member

• Feb 23, 2009

• #15

I think it's a given, but just reminding everyone (lurkers included) to check out safety ratings before buying. If finances require it, I'm ok with a Marginal rating. I'd pass on Poor though. Kids need their parents. Not worth buying a minivan if it could mean the kids will lose a parent in an accident (or vice versa). Some vans have deathtrap written all over them.

 

Heather98012

New member

• Feb 23, 2009

• #16

codex57 said:

I think it's a given, but just reminding everyone (lurkers included) to check out safety ratings before buying. If finances require it, I'm ok with a Marginal rating. I'd pass on Poor though. Kids need their parents. Not worth buying a minivan if it could mean the kids will lose a parent in an accident (or vice versa). Some vans have deathtrap written all over them.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 25, 2009

• #17

I have been checking informedforlife.org . In my situation, almost anything is going to be safer than loading all five of us in our 19 year old corolla, but I do want safety, reliability in the newest vehicle we can afford.

 

musicmaj

New member

• Feb 28, 2009

• #18

I am going to start a new thread with a poll in it. It turns out that we are getting back a better tax refund so we have more money to spend.