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I would buy a Sienna. $7K will get one with 150K miles around here and I would expect to use it for four or five more years. Other brands have known problems.
Actually, I would spend $3K and get a good-looking twenty-year-old one and lay out some money on getting it fixed. Early Siennas are a bit smaller and handier than the '04 and later.
For this kind of money, you should stay away from dealers. They have to add one or two thousand for overhead, and you really don't get any better product.
Don't Chrysler and Dodge minivans have trouble with their transmissions? I know someone who has a 2000 Town & Country and it is on its 3rd transmission and that one is failing. The van is ready for a fourth transmission.
Do Town & Country minivans have a timing chain or a timing belt? Does a Dodge Caravan have a timing chain or a timing belt?
Yes they have issues with the transmission if you put the wrong fluid in. Otherwise, no, no problem with all 5 that we owned.c Also, all 5 had timing chains. The engines were 3.3, 3.8, and 3.6.
Older Chrysler minivans had transmissions issues. I do not recall he last year, it was in the early or mid 2000s. POst 2010 they used a different transmission, I think one form Zf (who also supplies transmission to Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, BMW and pretty much everyone else)
They have a bad reputation from the Cerebus and Daimler days. There may be a few chintzy parts left over form the bad old days when they squeezed their suppliers for lower prices somewhat more than other mfgs. However they make very solid drive-trains now. You get the benefit of a residual bad reputation (meaning lower prices) plus the benefit of a decade or more head start on design and convenience ideas. simply you you get more for your money in exchange for the possibility of the inconvenience of slightly more frequent.
Avoid the 1990s and early 2000s and you will get a great van with much better features for less money. OTOH if you can find late 1990s/early 2000s models you could buy three or four of them and possibly get the same life out of them for less money. they cost next to nothing (for a reason). they are a disposable used car.
One plus if you get a somewhat older one, junk yard parts are extremely plentiful they sell a ton of them and parts from many years are interchangeable.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 07-16-2019 at 12:43 PM..
The Buick Terraza is a pretty good buy. Its not a great looker but it gets better than average ratings. One reliability site rates it right below the Sienna. Its similar to the Chevrolet Uplander.
I'd go for a 3rd gen Honda Odyssey, especially the 2008-2010 as they were rated Top Safety Pick by the IIHS. They're safer than any of the Chrysler minivans (except the Pacifica, but those are WAY over $7,000)
Don't get a pre-2008 Chrysler minivan or anything without side curtain airbags, those saved my mom's life and most minivans back to '06 or so have them. Especially don't get the 1997-2005 GM minivans, they're horrible death traps and I'd love to see every one of them break down and get replaced by safer vehicles.
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