Buying a new Minivan....likely Toyota this time...need advice

[umsami]

So my 11-1/2 year old Honda need more work...and she's gotten to the point where putting more money in doesn't make sense.  We're talking $7k to do everything. :(

 

I think we're going to switch to a Toyota, as the ac on the Honda was horrible, and that's a big thing living here in Florida.  (Could have just been my van, but this was a request.)  Test drove the Honda, Toyota, and Dodge....and the kids all voted for the Dodge and Toyota.  

 

I've always had leather seats in my cars since I've had kids, but they are not available except for a big jump on the Toyota.  How tough is it to keep cloth clean?? Do I automatically want to go darker even though I'm living in Florida?

 

Do people do DVD players anymore? My kids loved ours for movies, but as they get older, they seem to just want their own devices--so I'm thinking that may not be worth it.

 

Advice??

 

Anybody use price services like with Costco or AARP?? What was your experience like?

[umsami]

I wish you were in Florida texasmom.  I hate haggling.  My Mom loves it, though...and is good at it...so I'm bringing her with me. :)

[displace]

For cloth seats I install seat covers to protect them, and no longer allow eating or drinking except water. The kids are old enough that car food isn’t necessary. Cheap seat covers off market are made for any make/model. I’d skip a DVD player too.

 

I used a car shopper (not through a service but a one man business), because I hate haggling and such. He negotiated a price lower than a dealership, got a trade in for my junk car, and arranged for vehicle delivery, old car takeaway, and quick paperwork stuff. It’s definitely a good business because a lot of people hate car dealerships.

 

My last car was a Toyota and I loved it, but I never had one. We have an old dodge minivan, which I don’t like and seems to not be longevity-worthy vs a Toyota, but YMMV.

 

For a Florida vehicle, tinted windows and a shady spot or garage parking is best for keeping cool before driving, as you already know. I park out of the way to have some shade.

[scbusf]

I have a Sienna and love it. I do HATE the leather seats. Yes, easier to clean, but so hot in the summer. We got this model honestly because of the power lift gate (back door to acces cargo area). Honestly, that is just something that was important to me. My kids are 7, 10, and 11, and a couple of them are too short to reach that door. So I wanted to be able to hit the button in the remote to close it.

 

DVD - my kids use their own devices on trips and we don’t use anything just in town.

[wintermom]

We did the exact same switch for the same a/c reason (and we live in cold Canada). Sounds like Honda need to improve their a/c systems on the older model. Maybe the newer models are better? 

 

We love our Toyota and have had it for about 7 years now. The previous Honda lasted 7 years, and we drove it across Canada/US twice. Both vans are pretty amazing.

 

Re: Cloth seats: We've always had cloth seats and they are fine. I don't notice any huge stains, but I don't care about that very much. Even when the dc were really little and throwing-up on the cloth seats, we managed to get the stains out.

Edited March 7, 2018 by wintermom

[Miss Tick]

A car service through our credit union found us or Sienna 13 years ago with leather seats, no dvd, in the colour we wanted (I've or two states over). It was totally worth it to me (I hate car buying with a passion).

 

The leather seats are starting to crack. They have been relatively easy to clean, when I notice them getting grungy some elbow grease and car product gets them back to, well, I stop at acceptable. Some of the actuators in the sliding doors have failed in the last two years, but my car guy sent me to an electronics shop that replaced them for way less than he was going to have to charge. The back power gate no longer fully opens in the winter. I can't blame it. This may never be an issue in Florida, though! Outside of that I can't think of any significant issues.

Edited March 7, 2018 by SusanC

[prairiewindmomma]

Do the ceramic window tint. It makes a huge difference. You are correct—the Toyota has stronger ac than the Honda.

[alisoncooks]

Well, this ac tip was nice to know!

We're going to get a minivan when we finish paying off the Rav-4 (DH will get the Rav, I'll upgrade to a minivan).  One of the things I HATE about the Rav-4 is that the only ac vents are in the front.  So when it's hot outside (and it gets hot/humid in NC), I have to blast the air to cool the kids down in the back.  Sooo annoying.  I'll definitely do some comparison when we are ready to buy -- I'd almost settled on the Odyssey, but now the Sienna is back in the running. :p

[Storygirl]

We had a Toyota Sienna for more than ten years. When we replaced it, we bought a Honda Odyssey. We visited both dealers, and we liked the two vehicles equally, so in our case it came down to price. Plus the Toyota salesman was aggressive, argued with DH during negotiations, refused to give a straight answer to a repeated question and kept asking challenging questions in return, and so on. Ugh. It was horrible. So we bought the Odyssey, which was a little cheaper in the model we wanted, anyway.

 

We've been happy with both vehicles.

 

In our case, a DVD player was important, and my kids do still use it, even though they are teens. We sometimes are in the car for hours, though, and sometimes take an extended car vacation in the summers, so it gives them an alternative to playing their own devices. And they have something to do when their devices need to be charged (keeping them charged is a constant issue, even though they have personal batteries). We also don't load movies onto their IPods.

 

We have always limited the usage of the DVD player to longer car rides, because I never wanted them to just watch tv in the car all of the time. They don't turn it on unless we are in the car for an hour or more, but that happens frequently (at least weekly).

 

I have never had leather seats and have never felt the need to have them, so it's not important to me.

 

We did buy a model with darker seat fabric. Because my kids are messy. And since we are in the car so often, we do eat in the car. But we live in the Midwest, so we don't have a Florida climate.

 

Hope that helps.

[Storygirl]

I don't think my kids have complained about the AC in our Odyssey. There are separate controls for setting the temperature in the front and back of the van in our 2016 model.

[plansrme]

Check into getting dealer-added leather.  When we bought a Sienna, and when friends bought theirs, it was significantly cheaper to buy a model without bells and whistles, including leather seats, and add just leather.  Leather was pretty much the only feature I cared about.  I want to say it was under $1500 to add leather, but it's been so long that, even if I am right, my data is probably worthless.

[KungFuPanda]

I greatly prefer cloth seats for winter and summer. Are your kids really spilling that much or are we just talking crumbs? I just got rid of a 98’ car and the medium gray seats looked like new. I think I steam cleaned them twice.

[lea1]

We have had our Sienna now for about 10 or 11 years.  We have had issues with both sliding doors and the rear door and had them all fixed but that's about it for things going wrong.  It has been a great vehicle.  We are planning to replace it with another minivan in the fall and I was debating whether to stay with Toyota or move to Honda.  We just received our new Consumer Reports car buying magazine and the Sienna gets the best rating for reliability and also the best overall average rating so we will be staying with the Sienna.

 

Dh and I definitely prefer leather and will go out of our way to find it (we buy used - hopefully not more than a year or year and a half old).  We found our current Sienna on Autotrader.com and dh flew to Louisville, KY (from Oklahoma) to purchase it and drive it back.  It was such a good deal that it was worth it.  We found his current Toyota Camry on Autotrader also and it was an excellent deal in OKC, so much closer thankfully.

[umsami]

Thanks everybody!

 

I had actually never considered tinting my windows, but your post made me do some research.  Going to definitely look into ceramic tinting if I can afford it. 

[Cinder]

We have a 2005 Sienna--white exterior, tan interior with fabric seats. We got this car when our dc were 11, 8, 1yo. The floor mats have some staining from mud (GA red clay!) and spills but the seats still look great.

[prairiewindmomma]

It was less than $500.... I do have leather, and have never been uncomfortable sitting on the seats with my tint package.

 

We have mushroom colored leather (mid-tone), and so far my seats have not had any issues. I don’t allow eating in the vehicle, though.

[lexi]

We have a sienna. It’s been a great van. We’re actually selling it soon because our family is outgrowing it. I’ll miss it!

I think leather is so much easier to clean than cloth. So leather is a must for our cars. Our interior is light gray and I didn’t find it too hot when we lived in south Texas. We did have the windows tinted and that did help.

[RemsMom]

I have a 2008 Sienna with 212,000 miles on it.  It only quit on me once and that was in the middle of a very hot summer when the battery went out.  I always get leather seats.  My first car had cloth seats and I decided to use the attachment on the carpet shampooer to clean the seats and the color of the water in the tank was disgusting.  Also, my dogs ride in the car often and leather doesn't collect dog fur and the time that one of my dogs tore a paw pad and got blood on the seat I was thankful to be able to clean that up quickly.  Just don't get the run flat tires.  They are expensive and don't last as long as regular tires and I didn't like the idea of not having a spare.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I wish you were in Florida texasmom. I hate haggling. My Mom loves it, though...and is good at it...so I'm bringing her with me. :)

I negotiated via email, once I knew exactly what I wanted. I sent emails to all relevant dealerships in reasonable driving distance. I told them what car I wanted, listing required features and a couple “would be nice to have but not necessary†features. I also let them know I was emailing several dealerships. I ended up with the price I wanted and all the features I wanted, zero haggling.

 

I did research online ahead of time to gauge what was a reasonable offer. One dealership came in with an excellent offer and I bought from them.

 

I think I contacted around five dealerships.