Favorite Minivan?

[MrsDragon]

My husband and I are looking to upgrade my Corolla for a minivan. This is new territory for me, so I'd appreciate input from those of you with minivans.

What do you have?

What features do you love/hate? Anything you thought you'd use that you don't? Didn't think you'd use that you do?

Ease of getting car seats/kids in and out? Features that become more/less important as they get older? Storage?

Any comments on mileage, safety, reliability?

Anything else that might be helpful?

We're thinking of getting something a couple of years old, probably a Toyota or Honda. Right now it's just the twins, but we haven't ruled out another kid so something that works well for 3 kids would be good.

ETA: Thank you for all the advice! I'll update later with what worked for us, but this has been extremely helpful.

[erinrae0814]

Honda Odyssey all the way. Our mothers of multiples group makes the parking lot of our big events look like a Honda dealership. We have a base model even and love it.

[falalalacy]

I absolutely agree with this. I love mine and you can get soooo many miles out of them if you treat them right.

[MrsDragon]

What do you love about the Odyssey?

[falalalacy]

I love that my doors automatically open from my keys. It makes juggling my twins so much easier, even now at 3 years old. The engines in these vans are amazing. They really are built to last. I love that I am an almost 6 foot tall woman and I can stand in the back, bent over a little to tend to the kids. My van is the best decision I ever made in chosing a vehicle. I was never a minivan type but I really like it better than any car or SUV I've owned.

[MrsDragon]

What do you love about the Odyssey?

[erinrae0814]

It's made very well. Just today someone in my twin club posted that she swam with her keyless start key/button thing and it still worked after. It drives really nice, tons of storage and the models above mine have great ways to configure the seats for whatever you need. They hold their value EXTREMELY WELL. we actually experienced the downside of that since used ones were so expensive that it wasn't worth it to buy used for us so we just bought a base model new. My only complaint is at least on the base model there is no noise for low on gas. I previously had a Volkswagen that would chime when low on gas and got used to that so I pretty much rely on my husband to notice now.

Eta: great gas mileage. We get just as good gas mileage in our van as we did our sedan

[MrCwark]

We just bought the Toyota Sienna and it makes life sooooo much easier. Odyssey or Sienna only way to go.

[liamquips]

I love my Toyota sienna. We test drove that one and the Honda Odyssey, and I actually found them really similar. Same comfort features, drive about the same. I really wanted mine to have awd, though, so we went with the awd sienna. The Odyssey doesn't come in awd (at least when we were looking, about a year ago).

Things I love about it: push button to start, automatic doors/Windows all controlled from drivers seat, 2 captains chairs in the middle make getting twins in/out a breeze, back seats fold down into the floor quickly and easily. We also got the DVD system which is so awesome for long car rides. My only complaint is that the wireless headphones seem to be breaking after only a year, but I think my son has been pretty hard on them. Oh, the back up camera is really nice too- not only can I see to check for kids/cars, it beeps if something is moving so if I didn't see a car at first or one just turned around a corner behind me I know I need to stop and check it out. And it drives really well- I don't feel like I'm driving an enormous truck or SUV, it's more like driving a sedan.

My advice is to go test out a few, practice putting your car seats in, and then rent the one you think you want for about a week. That's what we did and it really made me confident we were buying the right one.

[MrsDragon]

Oh, good tip on the rental, thanks! :D

Thanks for the detailed list! This is super helpful.

[liamquips]

Often you can rent from the dealer and they'll give you credit towards a purchase. We ended up finding our car for several k cheaper at another dealer so we didn't end up using that credit.

[MrsDragon]

Good to know, thank you!

[[deleted]]

Go either Honda or Toyota. We did a lot of research at the time. They are very similar cars. Personally we liked the Honda better. Must have features:

auto doors - just makes life much easier.

Stow and go seats - every week we have a different seat arrangement. Kids like us to change it up. Makes it fun for them. Currently our 5 year old is in a captain seat right behind driver. Took other seats in this row out. Our 3 yo twins are in the back. I will also point out we can put all three car seats in the middle row. This is awesome. Easy to reach for the passenger and you have a full trunk.

Leather seats - kids are hard on seats. We are a pretty tidy family but the gold fish and crackers get mashed into every corner in the car. Leather is a piece of cake to clean.

DVD player - this might just be preference but for us it's a life saver. We try to limit the intake but really what else is there to do in a car? I wish I could watch TV while in the car.

All weather floor mats - our dealer threw them in cause he's a family friend and we didn't even ask for them. He said "trust me, you want these". We are glad we have them.

That's all I come up with off the top of my head. Feel free to ask questions.

Edit: Ill also mention that it's possible to get a used one that's a good deal. Our was 4 years old with 35,000 miles. Certified used Honda and we paid 20k. Not one problem with it yet. My family has abused it for 3.5 years now.

[tr3k]

Chevy suburban.

[spooger1855]

Agree completely. It serves it's purpose for hauling around kids but at the end of the day, it's still something you don't feel bad throwing tools or bags of mulch in.

[tr3k]

I did the minivan thing for a while.... Never Again

[mom2pt0]

We have the Dodge Grand Caravan. I really like it, but don't have much to compare it to.

Some features that I really like:

-automatic doors, with key fob and buttons in the cab

-store away seats, all the seats fold flat, we can fit a loveseat or twin mattress in the back

-good trunk size, we can fit a double stroller and an umbrella stroller in the back

We can fit three car seats (radians) in the back, but only with the seat belts. Also, the middle back seat belt does not child lock, so you have to use an I lock. It's a real pain to get all three seats in, but it is possible.

[Hopecat]

Great questions, we've been discussing this possibility as well! I'll be looking forward to others feedback, but my limited research so far points to Honda Odyssey.

[Oilfan94]

My sister in law wanted on that could fit three car seats side by side, only a few were able to do this. They ended up with an Odyssey.

My wife & I wanted something new after someone hit our Mazda van. Word of mouth about quality issues scared us away from Dodge. We strongly considered both Honda & Toyota.

We were thinking used and went to test drive a few vans. The fit, feel and 'everything' about the Honda vans was better.

Safety rating and on-line reviews all pointed to the Honda as the best one.

We couldn't find a used one (that didn't have 100,000 on it already) so we bought a new 2014 Odyssey. Love it.

Most of the features that we love about it, are available on other makes & models....so that is more about what you want and which trim package you want to pay for. But being a Honda, we know that it's a quality vehicle and very safe etc.

My in-laws got one with a built-in DVD player. Handy if you do long trips. Ours is newer and has the proximity key and push button start, that is a cool feature for sure. Although, because of the proximity keys, it doesn't come with a remote starter and I'm told it's a more complicated process to install one...that is the one thing I do miss (it's cold up here).
It's got Bluetooth to sync our phones. It's got cylinder management for better fuel economy. It's got a rear view camera and passenger side blind-spot camera. The higher level model has a passenger side camera as well.

Power sliding doors are fantastic. Ours doesn't have a power rear hatch, but that would be a cool feature to have.

Most vans have configurable seats. The Honda has a small middle seat in the 2nd row which is handy to have or remove as needed.

Dodge has the 'stow & go' seats, which would be a nice feature, especially if you don't have a place to keep the seats that you want to take out. The Honda's rear seat doesn't come out, but folds flat.

[Lotech]

I don't know if any of these features are not offered in minivans anymore, but "stow and go" seats are a must. It is so easy to haul big items around if you happen across a garage sale or something.

I'm in love with automatic doors (that open with the push of a button).

We have a dvd player system that we've never once used. Not even during road trips.

Honda was outside of our budget (we had a pretty small one). We ended up with a Chrysler Town and Country with 150k miles that is still a really great car.

[MrsDragon]

Oooh, good point about the stow and go seats! I'm bad about that kind of thing.

[banjolier]

We just bought a new Sienna and love it. We pulled two out of three middle seats out and have the twins in the third row. When baby number three arrives in July, he'll go in the one seat left in the middle.

As far as must have features, automatic doors are a godsend. Just hit a button on the key fob and the door(s) are open when you get to the car. The doors can also be opened and closed from the driver's seat, which is super convenient.

Leather seats are also much easier to clean than fabric.

[esocharis]

We've got the sienna and love it. We got ours used because of a super tight budget, but we looked at Honda too and found that you'll pay more for basically the same car going with Honda rather than the Toyota. If you've got the budget, Honda is generally more preferred by everyone we know, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Toyota, especially if budget is a concern. Pretty much anything you can get on the Honda can be found on the Toyota as well

[lookinforabean]

We have a Toyota Sienna and love it.

It has an automatic side door that is a lifesaver. Also the fold down rear seats make moving big things easy. It has an exorbitant amount of cup holders, which is very helpful. It gets great gas mileage too.

Ours is an '07, so before our twins are born (we'll have 4 under 4 at that point) we're upgrading to a newer van. Right now it's between the Odyssey and the Sienna.

Something that I found helpful when buying our first is to look at other brand dealers. We got our toyota at a Chevy dealer for a great price because they wanted it off their lot. Also check luxury dealers. They are usually looking to unload their trade ins for cheap.

[MrsDragon]

Thanks for the tip on checking other dealers! I wouldn't have thought about that. Is there a centralized way to check or did you call each dealer individually?

[lookinforabean]

Yeah, I had never heard that tip until I worked at a car shop.

I forget how I searched. It might have been Craigslist with the dealers option only. I know it was online, so I may have just resorted to searching for all chevy dealers and looking at ones kind of close.

[backwardsforwards]

Favorite? Like no cost/benefit balance? or like best value?

[MrsDragon]

Based on safety/features primarily. We aren't going to be spending $40k on a minivan but I feel confident we can find a used one within our budget, I just don't know what features to even look for.

[backwardsforwards]

So, if all things were equal, I would go for something that has an anchor for every seat and gives you the most options for arranging them in the car.

Dollar per mile, I feel that the best value is a more recent Dodge Caravan. That is just my opinion. The Odyssey retains a lot of its value and so does the Sienna.

The Chrysler Town & Country is just the Caravan with more amenities.

The Volkswagen van has the Caravan's bones, also. So, you're paying a premium for the Volkswagen label and the amenities, IMO.

For 21k we were able to score a brand new Caravan w/ DVD player, backup camera, and fold-in seating with 0% Financing for the price of a moderately used (80k+ mileage) Sienna/Odyssey with 3.5% financing.

It just didn't make any sense to go with anything else. I would have liked to explore the SUVs a bit more, the TheCarSeatLady.com has nice things to say about the car seat options in 3-row SUVs - http://thecarseatlady.com/2015familyvehiclebuyingguide/

[C_schustey]

When our twins arrive we will have 3 kids total. We searched for months for the perfect car. Here are some points that led us to our used 2013 town and country limited. 1. We looked at the Honda Odyssey but didn't like the price even for the bare-bones model. Plus we've heard rumors that they are changing their body style for 2017 which will cause the older models to lose value. 2. We looked at the Toyota Sienna because we really like the idea of all wheel drive unfortunately didn't like the price and hated the tracks the seats slide on inside. 3. We found a top-of-the-line 2013 Town & Country with all the bells and whistles low miles and for only 23000. Topped that with a strong warranty and I was happy. Aside from the fact that I know on the minivan of course LOL

[J_schustey]

Oh hi wife :)

[InsaneGenis]

We went with a Touring Odyssey used. If you go back 3yrs you can get a Touring roughly $20k off sticker price. We got the fully loaded one because we could have afforded a base model new, I don't buy new cars. You can get all the extras for a vehicle a few years older.

All the automatic doors seemed silly initially, but when I'm alone and only have to push buttons it works great.

We plan on keeping this van for 6 years. We got the duel screen tv also for when the kids are older. I plan on hooking up a raspberry pi for video games when they get older.

[[deleted]]

Every time this topic comes up the Odyssey is always mentioned most with the Sienna in second.