Vehicle recommendations please?

[featherhead]

Sheesh, I haven’t been on here in forever! We are looking at replacing our ‘03 Odyssey this spring/summer and need some recommendations. I would love an 8 passenger vehicle, but it’s not entirely necessary. My kids are as follows:
12 year old, 5 steps
10 year old, Incognito
8 year old, Harmony backless
6 year old, currently Pioneer, but looking at boosters
3 year old, FF Fllo

We have about $8000, and that’s Canadian.

 

[abigaylebelle]

You could look at another odyssey or sienna. Other than a van the honda pilot is a reliable suv (my pilot is a 2014 but my sister drives a 2004 pilot and it still runs great). You might sacrifice a little bit of trunk space compared to a van but you would get 8 seats.

 

[jjordan]

Your kids are similar ages to mine. We got an 8 passenger Sedona last summer and I do really love having the 8th seat so that we only need 2 in the third row. That said, $8k is not much of a budget in American $ so I’m guessing your options are extremely limited. I don’t recall when the Sedona came with an 8 passenger option but you might be able to find a newer, high mileage one in your price range. Otherwise I’d look for a 2010 or older 8 passenger Sienna (but those are extremely rare around here so might be hard).

Honestly with a low budget, I’d do some searches now so that you can recognize a good deal when you see one and then jump when you’re ready. Not sure if things are different in Canada, but here spending less than about $10k on a car means you’ll generally have better luck buying private party from someone whose goal is to get more cash than they would by trading it in. Dealerships don’t sell much in that price range (except some dealerships that specialize in lower priced used cars).

 

[featherhead]

How is the 8th seat in the 2008 Odyssey? I know it’s pretty narrow, can anything fit there? Ideally I would put my Fllo there FF. There are a couple ‘08 Odyssey’s for sale here privately, I just wasn’t sure if that seat was actually useful.

 

[jjordan]

It’s not as good as the 8th seat in the Sienna for that age van, but some stuff will fit there. There are definitely some threads if you search a bit - when we bought our 2008 Sedona we were considering that generation Odyssey and I remember finding info about what would fit in the 8th seat. However, pretty sure there is no tether anchor, which would mean no ff harnesses since you’re in Canada (unless the Canadian version added an anchor there).