2005 Venture Extended, 85K, any good?

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It's a Chevy Venture Extended "mini van", which is actually pretty big, has a 3.5l 6 cylinder. I took the oil cap off, and the engine has NO blow by at all, and runs really quiet and powerful. They are looking for $6000 in US terms, or $7000 in Canadian terms.
It comes from the salty region, but the underneath looks really clean. Doors open and close really nice, and I like it.
Any opinions?
 
Just eyeball the intake on that 3.4, watch the coolant. (would be a good idea to change that dex cool anyways), and you should be just fine.


My dad has an 03 with 75k, no issues so far..
 
Seems like this 3.5l engine replaced the 3.4l and GM claims they made several improvements to it. Around 200hp in an OHV engine, for 3800 lb. means appropriate power to weight, and gets 8.3l/100km mileage which is excellent. This would be one of the very few Ventures that got the 3.5l - most were outfitted with the 3.4
This is a return from lease vehicle, so I imagine oil was changed as per required schedule. With the oil cap off and engine running, there is no noise coming from inside the engine, and I can detect no blow by with the back of my hand next to the opening. Tranny shifts smooth. Holding a dollar bill next to the exhaust tail pipe, the exhaust is smooth, and the paper sails appropriately in the exhaust stream. Vehicle tracks straight.
 
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That's probably the best minivan drivetrain out there. 4T65E trans and a solid, reliable old school pushrod V6. Decent power and fuel economy too. IMO, the bad news on them is the horrible slap together, squeaky, rattly cheap interiors and this particular body style seems to rust worse than Caravans and Windstars in my area. You often see them with NO rocker panels left on the lovely Buffalo roads.

Joel
 
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The rocker panels on this are mint, the underneath is mint, absolutely no rust, except the front wheel well area from stone chip road sand abrasion, which is easily repaired.
 
I have owned two of these types of minivans, a 97 Pontiac Montana and a 2003 Pontiac Montana. Both of them have zero problems with the powertrain and were very easy to maintain. I ran dino in both of them (mostly Havoline and Valvoline) with an occasional run of synthetic blend in the winter. Neither ever used any oil and no problems with the trans. I did some trailering with the 97 sometimes. I sold the 97 when it had 134,000 miles on it and the only problem with it was trim rattling and the power sliding doors not working. The kids had something to do with both of those as they beat the car up on the inside and wore the doors out. My wife wrapped the 2003 around a big oak tree and narrowly escaped serious injury. I think your 2005 has the longer front end and GM addressed the front end safety issues. I agree with the other poster that this is solid vehicle with a good power train. This is another case of GM mismanaging a platform, if they would have improved the interior trim quality and paid attention to restyling more than every 7 years they might have been competitive. But in this case they just gave up, conceded defeat and pulled out of the minivan market in the US altogether. Incidently I saw lots of these in China they sell them under the GM Shanghai brand name there, and also I think I saw some Buick minivans over there. I think they still might be making new ones like this in China.
 
The van was purchased. This is an LS with entertainment centre.
In Canadian terms, a 40,000$ van, 4 years old, for 7,000$ - a real solid value, almost a steal. A look into the glove box shows the
owner was changing the oil every 3000 miles! yipee!!! The engine shows the result of this fine care.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
That's probably the best minivan drivetrain out there. 4T65E trans and a solid, reliable old school pushrod V6. Decent power and fuel economy too. IMO, the bad news on them is the horrible slap together, squeaky, rattly cheap interiors and this particular body style seems to rust worse than Caravans and Windstars in my area. You often see them with NO rocker panels left on the lovely Buffalo roads.

Joel


That's pretty "big" coming from someone who drives an Odyssey
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: kkreit01
...That's pretty "big" coming from someone who drives an Odyssey
grin2.gif



Bwahaha.. Yeah well my last minivan was a 2001 Windstar! It was actually a darn good vehicle the 4yrs/60Kmi we owned it. Our Ody is great, but I wouldn't be driving one had I not gotten the lease 'deal' we got. To the OP; Congrats to you! Economically, you did the best thing you could do. You won't get squat for it in ~4yrs, but it won't owe you anything by then either.

Joel
 
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I'm sure in 4 years it will still be worth half what I paid, so I will have "lost" 3,500$ (Canadian) in "depreciation", basically peanuts, less than the Canadian taxes and freight on a new $20,000 vehicle. I'll take it in for annual oil spraying, and look after the paint and engine, and plan on keeping it for another 15 years anyway. No way am I selling this baby after owning it for just 4 years.
 
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