Which van would you buy

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wheelman

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We have looked at the carnival and the Pacifica brand new and just don't see the value in them. 40k to have 5 kids destroy it just seems crazy to me. We have good kids but they're still kids so thing get well worn. With saying that a budget of 20-25k what would you buy? You can get a dodge grand caravan that has low miles but it's still a dodge so not the best quality. Or a Toyota or Honda with probably 60-100k miles. There's also the Sedona. What would you pick and why?
 
Toyota Sienna, they are solid vans and are known to go well over 300,000 miles.

The Odyssey has some years with transmission issues, Caravans pretty much the same thing although the earlier ones with the 40TE/41TE transmissions were fairly solid.
 
I heard Toyota over Honda due to timing chain but I’ve never had nor been in the market for a minivan
 
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I wouldn't buy any of those Dodge/Chrysler vans. In two years they would be junk. You are not going to get a Toyota/Honda van with 60,000 miles for your budget.

If your budget was 25K-you were wasting your time looking at new ones.
 
Toyota Sienna. My kids haven’t torn mine up and they tear apart everything. That isn’t just a joke. If something could possibly be torn apart they will rip it into as small of pieces possible. Even the toys from when I was a kid.
 
Both the Odyssey and Sienna have reliable powertrains. Sienna gets the nod if you need AWD, and the Odyssey gets the nod for the most entertaining driving experience (still a minivan, but likely the most engaging).
 
CKN said:
I wouldn't buy any of those Dodge/Chrysler vans. In two years they would be junk. You are not going to get a Toyota/Honda van with 60,000 miles for your budget.

If your budget was 25K-you were wasting your time looking at new ones.
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A quick search shows around 20 Odysseys nation-wide MY 2018+ with less than 60K and under $25K. They are out there, OP just has to be willing to travel.
 
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Just get weather tech floor liners and put something like vinyl, Pu/faux leather covers on the seats, poke around the section at walmart. Get a black interior too. Mine ruined the gray interior of my yukon.
 
Went through the same exact thing in early 2019. Bought a used, ex Enterprise rental, 2018 Grand Caravan that had 40k miles after looking at everything. Paid $18,500 for it. It’s now at 96,000 miles and all it’s needed was a set of tires and oil changes.

Honda and Toyota vans were significantly more expensive with even with higher miles… and I wasn’t impressed by how cheap the Sienna felt which is saying something. A $7,000-$10,000 at the time price premium on something that felt like a Grand Caravan just was not worth it to me.
 
Skippy722 said:
Went through the same exact thing in early 2019. Bought a used, ex Enterprise rental, 2018 Grand Caravan that had 40k miles after looking at everything. Paid $18,500 for it. It’s now at 96,000 miles and all it’s needed was a set of tires and oil changes.

Honda and Toyota vans were significantly more expensive with even with higher miles… and I wasn’t impressed by how cheap the Sienna felt which is saying something.
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Oil coolers and transmissions are the big issues it seems like. The oil cooler really isn't a huge deal. The transmission however is several thousand.
 
wheelman said:
Oil coolers and transmissions are the big issues it seems like. The oil cooler really isn't a huge deal. The transmission however is several thousand.
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Knock on wood, but no problems with ours yet. It’s purely a people hauler though, any heavy loads or towing is done by my truck. Got 4 kids though so there ain’t much room in the van for much else. Transmission seems to tolerate my driving (in my wife’s words, aggressive) okay. I haven’t even changed the fluid in it 😅
 
Skippy722 said:
Knock on wood, but no problems with ours yet. It’s purely a people hauler though, any heavy loads or towing is done by my truck. Got 4 kids though so there ain’t much room in the van for much else. Transmission seems to tolerate my driving (in my wife’s words, aggressive) okay. I haven’t even changed the fluid in it 😅
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I know a lot of them were made to perform better with software updates. I do know our local transmission shop says around 100k miles the torque converter starts going and the clutch material contaminates the entire unit. Obviously 100,000 is a general time frame. I think a lot of it is people don't take the best care of them.
 
Pick up a used Chrysler Voyager. You can easily get one sub $25k, the pentastar/8 speed auto is a good combo, there's fewer electronics to go wrong, and you won't feel bad when your kids destroy them after 5-10 years.
 
wheelman said:
We have looked at the carnival and the Pacifica brand new and just don't see the value in them. 40k to have 5 kids destroy it just seems crazy to me. We have good kids but they're still kids so thing get well worn. With saying that a budget of 20-25k what would you buy? You can get a dodge grand caravan that has low miles but it's still a dodge so not the best quality. Or a Toyota or Honda with probably 60-100k miles. There's also the Sedona. What would you pick and why?
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And you think a Pacifica is higher quality than a Dodge ?
 
The ‘21 Sienna Hybrid has been great especially with getting 32+ MPG. But we got ours when they could still be had new in the mid-30K’s. Gonna have to go used with some miles to keep it in the 20K’s.

I say Toyota > Honda > Kia > Dodge/Chrysler. In that order.
 
hemitom said:
And you think a Pacifica is higher quality than a Dodge ?
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"Just don't see the value in them"....maybe you missed that part.....you can't hardly find a new sienna or Odyssey to look at. So carnival and Pacifica were two options that were easy to look at.
 
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