car aficionados - which should i buy...

[OWC Jamie]

A/C repair, unless there are many more [certain] repairs not too far out.

From a [ full size ?] van to a sedan ?
Some have a hard time adjusting to a lower driving position.
Both the seat and the road height.


Kia's have supposedly improved (as did Hyundai) .



I tend to buy as little vehicle as will fit my needs.

[illustratton]

car aficionados?

None of the "car aficionados" I know would vote for either of these!

[enigma]

[quote illustratton]car aficionados?

None of the "car aficionados" I know would vote for either of these!
fair enough, but i'm stuck with the vans as options. 3 growing kids 15/12/10 and a 65# dog make that an easy choice. :-)

MB and billb, i was thinking a/c repair, but my van is slowly costing me more and more - i did a tranny rebuild in 6/2006 and that basically bought me these last 2 years. i didn't mention before but this is a pontiac montana. my thinking is that i got my 10 years from it and i'm probably already on borrowed time. my driver is a 95 pathfinder with 130k and i hope to keep it another 10 yrs ;-)

it seems the overwhelming fave is honda, so i will see what can be done at that dealer. thanks everyone for your feedback!

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[wurm]

Of the two, I'd say Honda, but I might also suggest you keep your eyes open for a Mazda MPV. We have a 2001 with about 130k miles on it and we still love it. Mazda stopped making them last year (or maybe the year before), but you might find a recent trade-in.

[Wags]

Check out the Scion xB before you decide.

[sekker]

We're in the same boat with an older caravan, with broken A/C.

We're going to keep it and instead are shopping for a small sedan with decent mileage (a hybrid of some sort).

[wowzer]

Only question about the honda is the transmission on the 2004 Odyssey's. Make sure that the waranty will cover the transmission. The 2nd gear is notoriously prone to failure---and usually a catastrophic lurch as you are driving. Honda has re-engineered the transmission and the newer one is supposedly safe from the failures. Ask if the transmission was replaced or not...if not, then be careful, Honda extended the transmission warranties to 7 yr/100,000miles. That being said, I'd still stick with the Honda.


I believe the 2005 models do not suffer from this transmission problem.

[Wailer]

1) A former rental car is a bit frightening. I don't think the deal is good enough for me to take that risk.

2) The depreciation on the Honda was only $12k over 4 years (~40%). Seems like the previous owner or the dealer really made the killing. Most cars lose 60% of their value over the same period.

If you are planning on getting another 200k miles out of it, I'd buy a new one.

[deckeda]

[quote wowzer]Only question about the honda is the transmission on the 2004 Odyssey's. Make sure that the waranty will cover the transmission. The 2nd gear is notoriously prone to failure---and usually a catastrophic lurch as you are driving. Honda has re-engineered the transmission and the newer one is supposedly safe from the failures. Ask if the transmission was replaced or not...if not, then be careful, Honda extended the transmission warranties to 7 yr/100,000miles. That being said, I'd still stick with the Honda.


I believe the 2005 models do not suffer from this transmission problem.
The extra (free) warranty was for the '99-'01 Odysseys, because those trannies were bad. In '02? they went with the 5-sp auto. There have been some reports of similar problems with the 5-sp autos as well, and the '04 shares that tranny. I read somewhere that the Ody was to get the Ridgeline's beefier tranny but not until the model changeover. Was that '05 or '06?

In any event you're still better off with the Honda, even if it was only an LX and not an EX-L. Resale value will be much higher down the road, and in the meantime it'll be much nicer to drive. That $2000 difference will actually pay for itself later.

We owned an '03 EX-L brand new. Really nice van. Sold it because the payments were killing us. In 2006 got an '04 Mazda MPV LX with 9.xxx miles from a Chevy dealer for $14,xxx. I don't miss the power doors, although the MPV ES has that and leather.

We love it. It drives as well or better than the Ody, although neither will be as quiet and smooth as a late-model Sienna. All are leagues better than a Kia/ Hyundai in terms of refinement.

ugh i hate spending a few hours making decisions i have to live with for years!

Then keep going. Seek out an '04-'06 MPV to compare. As long as you can get over the fact that it's a little less roomy inside than the other vans, it should be a contender.

In '03 our objection to the MPV was the smaller size because of a baby carrier that forced us to have to move the front passenger seat all the way forward, unlike the Ody and other big vans. But by '06 when we (somewhat unexpectedly) found ourselves looking again (re: Ody payments) that was no longer an objection, EVEN THOUGH by that time we had another baby to cart around.

[h linamen]

We LOVE our '04 Mazda MPV. Drives like a car and has everything. Never the first problem and we have about 70,000 on it now. Get around 22 city and 27 highway mpg. It is slightly smaller than other vans, but that's a p;lus in my estimation.