StephanieZ Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I am coming to the long resisted conclusion that we need to get a new large vehicle (to haul the harp + family of 5). I have not even heard of many of the vehicles on the market. I have no idea what to consider. We don't watch TV, so don't see all the ads. . . I *Hate* shopping. Please help me! Needs: + large enough to fit us and the concert grand harp (so minivan or SUV) + best MPG possible + under 35k, but cheaper is better! I think the Chevrolet Traverse or Honday Odyssey would suit, but am sure there are other similar vehicles to consider. Please list some of them! THANKS MUCH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abecedarianmama Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I like the Odyssey, because of the stow and go seating the trunk is deep, which gives you more room. We don't use the stow and go seating, but the spaces where the seats go give you storage for stuff ;) We have a dodge caravan, which also does that. I get 21 mpg with mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 The Hyundai Santa Fe or, the biggest Hyundai SUV, the Veracruz. Hyundai quality is generally on par with Toyota and Honda but they're much more affordable. If you can, snag a used one that's only 6 months or so off the lot. Hyundais depreciate like crazy because people still remember the Pony days. So you get a discount but still get the balance of their 5 year/100,000 km warranty. We've owned two Hyundais in a row and have been extremely happy. No more domestics for us. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I have the Traverse. You'll probably find it does not have the cargo space you need. The rear seat can be partially folded down which does help. It does have legroom though for bigger kids & teens, so it's really a shame. They had to take it from somewhere I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaMa2005 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I have a Toyota Sienna mini-van. You can get it with 8 passenger seating which frees up a ton of room in the back for hauling all sorts of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyD Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I test drove both a Toyota Sienna and a Honda Odyssey last weekend. I thought the Honda had a cushier interior but the Sienna drove better. For whatever that's worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 We love our Kia Sedona! Price-wise, it will be more affordable than the Odyssey or Sienna, and the warranty is far superior to either of them. Hyundai owns Kia, and research is pointing to Hyundai taking over the market from Honda and Toyota. My BIL who has worked for Acura (owned by Honda) for years (12+) actually suggested the Sedona to us when we were looking 4 years ago. It's a great van w/ tons of space. My kids love the MANY cupholders! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 We love our Kia Sedona! Price-wise, it will be more affordable than the Odyssey or Sienna, and the warranty is far superior to either of them. Hyundai owns Kia, and research is pointing to Hyundai taking over the market from Honda and Toyota. My BIL who has worked for Acura (owned by Honda) for years (12+) actually suggested the Sedona to us when we were looking 4 years ago. It's a great van w/ tons of space. My kids love the MANY cupholders! :) :iagree: We got a new Kia Sedona about 2 weeks ago. LOVE it. In a lovely red color! Much like the Odyssey or the Sienna for size, features, and SAFETY ratings, without the attitude or price of the Japanese dealers. They barely seemed interested in selling us a van - it was weird. We got ours for a fantastic price. I think we paid less for this mini van than the mini van we bought 10 years ago honestly. We got the base model and it's got blue tooth for cell phone and an ipod docking station. Can you tell I love my new mini van!? Love it love it love it! :001_tt1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 We love our Kia Sedona! Price-wise, it will be more affordable than the Odyssey or Sienna, and the warranty is far superior to either of them. Hyundai owns Kia, and research is pointing to Hyundai taking over the market from Honda and Toyota. My BIL who has worked for Acura (owned by Honda) for years (12+) actually suggested the Sedona to us when we were looking 4 years ago. It's a great van w/ tons of space. My kids love the MANY cupholders! :) We have a Sedona, too. There were a few threads on the Sedona last summer, IIRC. DH said, in his opinion, SUVs were not worth the money. B/c minivans are not trendy like SUVs, you get more vehicle (and space inside the vehicle) for your money with a minivan. And I've found insuring a minivan is much cheaper than insuring an SUV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Odyssey! The 2011 if fab! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I like the Odyssey, because of the stow and go seating the trunk is deep, which gives you more room. We don't use the stow and go seating, but the spaces where the seats go give you storage for stuff ;) We have a dodge caravan, which also does that. I get 21 mpg with mine. Is the the one with 8 seats? My dh brought that up to me today for our list of choices someday when he's employed again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 And I've found insuring a minivan is much cheaper than insuring an SUV. I think that will depend on your company and where you live. I actually pay less to insure my Ford Expedition than we did to insure our Chrysler Town and Country. That said, I'm not sure a mid size SUV would work, and I think a minivan would depend on the size of your children. With our 3 we needed the bigger SUV like the expedition because the smaller ones left them too squished in the middle row if you needed the cargo space for something else. Two of my kids are taller and the youngest is pretty much a peanut but things were still cramped in the mid size things. We were able to get our expedition for $15,000 after an $8000 trade in because it was about 3.5 years old, but it still had pretty low milage for that age. It also gets the same gas milage as our Town and country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petepie2 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 To the best of my knowledge, the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna are the most reliable minivans on the market. I think there may have been a year or two where the Odyssey had transmission issues. So, I would check consumer reports before buying used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I concur with the Honda and Toyota for a minivan. However, I think you should consider looking at a vehicle with a truck-base, rather than a car base. They hold up longer and can take more abuse.True truck-based SUV's will probably be a bit more than a minivan... Here is a great link with all of the platforms in all of the brands listed: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/autoguide/index.php?table=suv For gas milage, diesel gets better mileage in a heavier car - so you may want to consider that as well. Yes - diesel is more expensive right now, but if you go with a heavier car, it will end up saving you money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-FL Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan :iagree: With the stow-n-go you have a nice flat bed when the seats are down. Plus it can be done in a flash. That's what sold us over an SUV that you have to remove the seats to get that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosiermom Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 We love our Toyota Highlander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Everyone I've ever asked seems to love the Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, and it sounds like they hold their value very well when used too, fwiw. I really loved my Ford Expedition before it died, but I've never driven nor insured a minivan, so I can't compare the two. It had a lot of leg room for the riders, especially in the middle row, but with the third row seat installed and not flattened, there wasn't a lot of cargo room. It looks like minivans might actually have more. Plus the Expedition got terrible gas mileage. We're probably going to get a minivan next time we buy a vehicle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 We love our Odyssey, bought it used with lower mileage for a good price (found it on ebay but located locally so we could look at it), and we have been very pleased with it. It is a 2007, and it currently has 110,000 miles on it. MPG is probably between 17-19, which is about what I would expect from a vehicle this size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I like my Toyota Sienna and it would fit your needs. But the Honda Odyssey is pretty much the same so six of one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephanieZ Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 Thanks, all, for your input! I am glad you guys mentioned the Kia, because we went with that and it really seems like it'll meet our needs and was a much better price than the other vans we'd considered (Toyota or Honda). We decided that only a minivan could hold us all and the harp, and we didn't want to do another Toyota as we'd had a lot of minor but expensive issues crop up since it's warranty expired. We just drove home in our new 2012 Kia Sedona & we are pretty excited about it! Wow, what a good deal! We traded in our high end 2005 Toyota Sienna, which had 140k miles on it. Both power sliding doors didn't work right (and would be about $1500 EACH to fix), it had $2k in body damage to the tailgate that we just got bonked into in a pkg garage (and have the insurance check in hand that we get to keep), and the DVD player didn't work anymore (and would be over $1k to fix) and the tires were mostly gone (and are over $1k to replace every 25k miles b/c it has stupid run flat tires that cost a fortune and don't last properly) . . . and they gave us $9500 for the trade-in! WOOT! That was a lot more than we expected, and was generous according to our Kelly Blue Book research, etc. Plus, there were $3k in cash incentives, 2.9% financing for 5 years (for the little we had to finance since the trade in was so good), and so, all told, we financed under $14k, and have $2k cash from the insurance check, so our out-of-pocket cost was under $12k! FWIW, we got the base model with no options, but the Kia has lots of needed & cool stuff standard (floor mats, roof rack, mp3 stereo, blue tooth phone in the stereo, 3 months free Sirius satellite radio, power all kinds of stuff, etc). We really did NOT want power doors (or any other power stuff that was unneccessary) because of our problems with the Toyota doors, and the more-things-to-go-wrong issues with a van that we'll likely keep until the wheels fall off (with three kids approaching driving age in the next 8 years). For a comparable Toyota or Honda, it would have been more like 30k+ instead of about 21k for the Kia. (MSRP 25k minus $3000 incentives - $500 discount off of MSRP, plus the great price on our trade in and the great financing). The Kia also has a 60k miles/5 year warranty as well as 100k miles/10 years power train, which is a LOT better than the Toyota or Honda warranties. We're very happy!! It's totally spiffy. First road trip begins tomorrow as a tester for our big road trip across country this summer. WOOT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Awesome! Thanks for the update. Enjoy the road trips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 FWIW, we got the base model with no options, but the Kia has lots of needed & cool stuff standard (floor mats, roof rack, mp3 stereo, blue tooth phone in the stereo, 3 months free Sirius satellite radio, power all kinds of stuff, etc). We really did NOT want power doors (or any other power stuff that was unneccessary) because of our problems with the Toyota doors, and the more-things-to-go-wrong issues with a van that we'll likely keep until the wheels fall off (with three kids approaching driving age in the next 8 years). That's another thing I love about Hyundai and Kia. The base models are loaded with useful stuff. Welcome to the family. :) In my experience once a person buys a Hyundai/Kia they become loyal and enthusiastic fans! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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