Looking for used or new minivan ! What are your recommendation?

Love our Sienna.

I would buy a new odyssey or Sienna, or a 2-3 years old Grand caravan.

I bought a new Odyssey because it was 31500$ for a EX before taxes and a 4 years old one with 80000km was still around 25k$ + taxes.

The grand caravan you will save about 15000$ for a barely used one.

Yes not the same quality, but they did fix a lot of issue over the year on the current generation.

Never buy a FCA product. That includes the Chrysler Pacifica. Everyone regrets it.

FCA cannot make a car if their lives depended on it. By far the crappiest car manufacturer out there with the lowest dependability rating.

Anikiri wrote: ↑ Never buy a FCA product. That includes the Chrysler Pacifica. Everyone regrets it.

FCA cannot make a car if their lives depended on it. By far the crappiest car manufacturer out there with the lowest dependability rating.

How many FCA cars have you owned??

Best value for the money is the Dodge Grand Caravan CVP.
You cannot even buy Corolla for the same money as CVP

romsan04 wrote: ↑ How many FCA cars have you owned??

Best value for the money is the Dodge Grand Caravan CVP.
You cannot even buy Corolla for the same money as CVP

- Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) cars won in six of the 19 categories in an annual auto industry reliability survey published on Wednesday, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU.N) trailed in the bottom three of the report’s main rankings.

Source

Feburary 14, 2018

Most people opt-in for Sienna or Odyssey because their brand is synonymous with safety and reliability.
As for whether to buy new or used, it all depends on your overall budget. If you can afford a New car, go ahead since you'll get all the updated safety/tech features of the vehicle. If there's a vehicle you'd like to get, check autotrader.ca

Do you need a van? I mean for the gas that youre going to use during the year and your parents only visit in the summer you can get a sedan-hatch and rent a van when they come in the summer.

estevens wrote: ↑ Do you need a van? I mean for the gas that youre going to use during the year and your parents only visit in the summer you can get a sedan-hatch and rent a van when they come in the summer.

they are here almost 5-6 months

-- Kia Sedona - the new model looks awersome and the features compared to price are Great.
-- Other than that Sienna and Odyssey are thought to be the most reliable ones.

If buying 2011-2014 Sienna AWD budget $1600 or so to replace replace the rear viscous coupler. Its a likely to fail part at 100k that Toyota Canada will not cover out of warranty even though they updated the part to a newer spec (due to its defective nature)

Pay for Toyota reliability and get hohum reliability when all said and done.

cartfan123 wrote: ↑ If buying 2011-2014 Sienna AWD budget $1600 or so to replace replace the rear viscous coupler. Its a likely to fail part at 100k that Toyota Canada will not cover out of warranty even though they updated the part to a newer spec (due to its defective nature)

Pay for Toyota reliability and get hohum reliability when all said and done.

for used once we are looking for year > 2015 and up

I know that everyone will bash the Dodge GC, but I found the value for money to be excellent and knock on wood, we've had no issues with ours over the last 4 years. Will resale value be great, likely not, but I'm going to run mine into the ground so that's not a concern for me. And if all else fails, given their market share, there will be a sizeable amount of parts in the marketplace for repairs.

My advice is new Sienna or Odyssey. Used ones are not much cheaper. The total cost of ownership might not necessary be higher with new one. Used ones from any other brands will be a gamble.

Bought a Sienna 5 months ago and are thankful we did. Amazing van, and imo is the best looking one (bought the SE).

cartfan123 wrote: ↑ If buying 2011-2014 Sienna AWD budget $1600 or so to replace replace the rear viscous coupler. Its a likely to fail part at 100k that Toyota Canada will not cover out of warranty even though they updated the part to a newer spec (due to its defective nature)

Pay for Toyota reliability and get hohum reliability when all said and done.

I just had mine done before xmas... at 65k. I was far from impressed...

But, I still do love that van... not the coolest ride out there, but it's so handy with the kids, dog, whatever crap you need to haul around. Very comfortable and practical. I hate taking the kids in my car i actually prefer the van if I'm taking them anywhere.

Brampton79 wrote: ↑ Hi,

We are family of 4 ( 2 small kids with full car seat) and our parents visit us during summer.

what would you recommend?

Used or New????

Chrysler Pacifica
Kia Sedona
Dodge Grand Caravan
Toyota Sienna
Honda Odyssey
Chrysler Town and Country

Very quickly this sums up how I feel about these as minivans.

Pacifica - Like - stow n' go is useful, drives pretty decently, interior design is quite good. Possible con, FCA reliability is wonky especially in earlier years.
Kia Sedona - Ok - Its actually a decent choice new, has 8 seater configuration, overall though its fairly average nothing spectacular. Long term reliability however is unknown, prior Kia Sedonas were only merely ok.
Caravan/T&C(its the same thing) - Don't like - Stow n' go is useful, not that nice to drive though, has a ton of weird specs so careful when buying used as for example a Crew model has a few different odd options, not build well so expect missing trim, what's good though is its cheap. Earliest versions of the van like 2008-2010 had reliability issues(I unfortunately remember a lot of them), far less problems with late models.
Sienna - Like - Comfortable, although dull to drive its very easy to park, it accelerates pretty quick, has an 8 seater option, optional AWD if you need that, reliability is well known, the only thing that mostly sucks about it is awful interior materials sometimes cheaper than even the Caravan.
Odyssey - Like - Drives the best of the bunch, also rather fast, its low to the ground which can be a good or bad thing pending your circumstances, vacuum is a good idea if you're getting that, however...its very expensive.

Jay-c wrote: ↑ But, I still do love that van... not the coolest ride out there, but it's so handy with the kids, dog, whatever crap you need to haul around. Very comfortable and practical. I hate taking the kids in my car i actually prefer the van if I'm taking them anywhere.

Eh, I wouldn't worry about the image. You don't gain any coolness for a 7-seater CUV anyways since that's the current soccer mom mobile.

JeganV wrote: ↑ Very quickly this sums up how I feel about these as minivans.

Pacifica - Like - stow n' go is useful, drives pretty decently, interior design is quite good. Possible con, FCA reliability is wonky especially in earlier years.
Kia Sedona - Ok - Its actually a decent choice new, has 8 seater configuration, overall though its fairly average nothing spectacular. Long term reliability however is unknown, prior Kia Sedonas were only merely ok.
Caravan/T&C(its the same thing) - Don't like - Stow n' go is useful, not that nice to drive though, has a ton of weird specs so careful when buying used as for example a Crew model has a few different odd options, not build well so expect missing trim, what's good though is its cheap. Earliest versions of the van like 2008-2010 had reliability issues(I unfortunately remember a lot of them), far less problems with late models.
Sienna - Like - Comfortable, although dull to drive its very easy to park, it accelerates pretty quick, has an 8 seater option, optional AWD if you need that, reliability is well known, the only thing that mostly sucks about it is awful interior materials sometimes cheaper than even the Caravan.
Odyssey - Like - Drives the best of the bunch, also rather fast, its low to the ground which can be a good or bad thing pending your circumstances, vacuum is a good idea if you're getting that, however...its very expensive.


Eh, I wouldn't worry about the image. You don't gain any coolness for a 7-seater CUV anyways since that's the current soccer mom mobile.

I owned both GC and Sienna, ride quality is almost indistinguishable. Missing trims, really??

There are a lot of options and models, so yes you need to spend time to figure out what do you need. I love Stow n' go. Used it many times, and happy with it. Stow'n go seats looks like they should be uncomfortable on long rides but thats not a case, I sat in them for 5-6 hours and did not feel uncomfortable.
Reliability wise no issues in the past 5 years except the breaks had to replace them twice, in the new model they should be better. Other thing is Grand Caravan is not that cheap anymore, I was trying to price few before new year but it looks like it went up $5,000 at least. My model SXT was $24,500 on the road but right now I could not get anything bellow $29,000. If the difference is not that much I would definitely would went with Toyota, or get 2 year old Toyota for $26,000-$27,000.

Never driven Odyssey or Pacifica so cannot comment on them.

romsan04 wrote: ↑ I owned both GC and Sienna, ride quality is almost indistinguishable. Missing trims, really??

Absolutely. I've dealt with probably at this point at least a thousand if not more individual Caravans/T&Cs from 2008 to today(yes I drove one today, was going to drive the Kia until I saw someone put a giant hole in the bumper). Not nearly as many Siennas, more like 30+ different ones. I can tell you which particular trim pieces are the flimsiest, the worst affected parts will be the flaps on the sides of the stow n' go seats, they come apart ridiculously easy. Seen the cheapest spec Caravan(with no adjustable mirrors) to the fullest spec T&C. Don't think there's ever been any model in my career in fleet cars where I've driven the entire trim range to this degree.

romsan04 wrote: ↑There are a lot of options and models, so yes you need to spend time to figure out what do you need. I love Stow n' go. Used it many times, and happy with it. Stow'n go seats looks like they should be uncomfortable on long rides but thats not a case, I sat in them for 5-6 hours and did not feel uncomfortable.

I noted that because when you buy a Caravan used...you're not just looking at say an SXT, but multiple SXTs and then if you go to Crew, its multiple Crews and so on. Its really bad when the seller(likely a dealer) also doesn't quite know everything and assumes one specific spec applies to all. That's the only reason I put out a warning like that, when buying new this no longer is an issue since you can pick exactly which one you wanted(hopefully).

As for the ride, do note I didn't say the Caravan was particularly bad for ride comfort. Its not nice to drive though and its turning radius sucks compared to the Sienna. The Sienna's seats are much more plush in cloth form(no idea about the leather one), both cloth and leather in the Caravan is a bit more hard in comparison. However if you spill something that can stain, the Sienna's seats will show it forever whereas neither Caravan/T&C seats will show any evidence of it happening.

romsan04 wrote: ↑Reliability wise no issues in the past 5 years except the breaks had to replace them twice, in the new model they should be better. Other thing is Grand Caravan is not that cheap anymore, I was trying to price few before new year but it looks like it went up $5,000 at least. My model SXT was $24,500 on the road but right now I could not get anything bellow $29,000. If the difference is not that much I would definitely would went with Toyota, or get 2 year old Toyota for $26,000-$27,000.

Dodge has gotten pretty sketchy with its Caravan pricing online. They'll bump back up the MSRP only to massively discount it back to cheap levels again to make it seem like you're saving a ton. Based on its MSRP you would be easily directed to the Pacifica instead.

On the reliability front, I also noted the earliest ones being the 2008-2010s were the worst. I remember clearly the fiasco with those early ones where the A/C lines corroded via salt meaning you stopped having A/C after every winter, it was a major PITA until Chrysler finally did a proper fix. I don't remember having any real issues with 2014-2018, other than a silly recall for a window switch.

Whatever van you get, check the crash test ratings first! You want the safest car for your family so I would avoid the Caravan.



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