Originally Posted By: GeekPriest
Originally Posted By: FutureDoc
We should compare notes someday.
My fleet has been updating 04-07 Caravans to 2015-2016 caravans. They do hold up... but with frequent small maintenance items, particularly little things like trim, brakes, egr, ignition issues. Compare those to a few Uplanders I have, and they are a dream vehicle. If you do not mind minor fix-it item, then the Mopar is not a bad choice. That being said, if you can swing a Toyota with similar mileage, the Toyota will be better and more expensive initially, but cheaper if kept for a long time. If keeping it to a 5K-10K budget, I would go Mopar... and then expect to fix it.
Thanks for the reminder about Mazda. Indeed, they're forgotten much of the time.
I have only anecdote as opposed to hard data, and so the larger sample size from a fleet has some weight behind it. Nonetheless, my own Toyota experience -- a 1996 Camry bought with 73k miles in 2005, and driven to around 130k miles and sold in 2009 -- is that the Toyota had at least as many niggling problems as any other car I've had. This was with a clean 1-owner Carfax.
The list, from memory:
* CV boots (fixed with reman drive axles)
* Interior door handles. EVERY SINGLE ONE broke off in my hand at some point. They'd just snap off. (A friend with an early '00s Tacoma has had similar experiences.)
* Exterior door handles. Had to replace two of them.
* Driver's power window switches.
* Leaky trunk, with a source I could never find.
* Cracked radiator; common problem, right at the base of the neck.
* Leaky valve cover gasket.
* Oxygen sensor failed.
* Starter; A normal person would go buy a new one. I determined that the failure was that the points (contacts) at the solenoid were eaten away by arcing, and drove an hour round trip after spending an hour on the phone finding a shop that'd sell me JUST the contacts. I had way more time than money at that point.
* Mystery brake fluid leak; I think it was running down inside the master cylinder where I couldn't see it.
The car was amazing in many ways: 33 mpg from a 1996 cruising at 70+ mph. Quiet ride. A/C worked well. I paid $5k for it.
Yet this is one of Toyota's top two reliability standard bearers (alongside the Corolla), that had lived its whole life around Houston, Texas. So no road salt problems and no extreme cold. AND it just wasn't very old or high miles.
It was certainly not the Toyota experience I was hoping for. What can I say?
Dang. Well, that goes to show that not all used cars are equal. I would say, for $5k, that list is not bad. My MR2 has been the Toyota experience. Over the last 10 years,I have replaced an 02 sensor, rear brake calipers, and had a fuel filler crack P0440. And I keep that car signing at above 4K rpm. Nothing is maintenance free, but yea,bad cars can be a drag.
For Chryslers, what bugs me is that the parts that fail, fail again and again. Those are premature wearing or stress points items. With a fleet, you see the common problem areas. Trim in the same spots, specific brake issues, electrical issues.