The wife and I are looking at minivans as the family ride. We have a Kia Sorento (smaller SUV) now but with 2 kids in car seats there is no room if someone else needs to ride. Does anybody out there have a suggestion on make and model? We will more than likely be buying used 2009-2011 year models. Thanks for your help.

Andy T

 

We have an 06 Grand Caravan with V6. At 90,000 miles, I can't complain too much about it. I had to replace the EGR valve last year. No other maintenance issues. It is comfortable to drive for long periods and has plenty of room for family and friends. The only downside is fuel milage. We see about 20 mixed and 24 highway.

Dodge is supposed to be coming out with a sport version of the caravan (better performance and handling). You might want to look into that if you're like me and hate the idea of driving a mini van.

 

We had a Grand Caravan and then three Honda Odysseys. The Hondas were awesome vehicles but up here in the snow we needed AWD or at least 4WD. We were going to try a Toyota Sienna AWD minivan but settled on a Yukon XL instead after a couple smaller 7 passenger SUVs. Wow, we will never go back to anything other than the Suburban. Eight can ride comfortably. We have three boys and the Grandparents can go along without any stress at all.

 

We had an older Caravan. It's simply amazing as to how much crap you can pack into one of those things. We got ours for hardly nothing. It was smoking real bad. Changed a $5 PCV valve on it and the smoke was fixed and we drove it for 5 years maybe. Ours developed a retarted transmission. At any given moment, it would drop into 1st gear. At 70 on the freeway, it was a handful when it did that. It would never do it in the hands of a transmission shop. They even kept it for a week and we let one of their guys drive it allover town. I wouldn't judge them by what ours did. It was old when we got it and had been abused. But the price was right and we sold it for more than we paid so I just laugh about it and go on.

 

My Dad and brother have had good luck with Mopar minivans with the 3.3/3.8 liter v6. The '93 GV went 190k before rust made a trans repair uneconomical. The '98 T&C is still rolling fine at 87k. the '01 Caravan was sold at 230k and replaced with an '06. The '93 was the only one with trans issues, it was rebuilt under warranty once, then again at 103k. The only major work I ever had to do to one was the steering rack on the '01 at 180k. They eat front sway bar bushings, that's the only complaint I can think of.

 

I rented a Grand Caravan for a trip to upstate N.Y. with 6 of our dogs. Had the sto-n-go seats. When you fold all of them into the floor a sheet of pylwood will fit in the thing. It rode and drove great. Keith