Need a sub-$4k minivan Grandpa-mobile

My father-in-law needs new wheels. They have about $4k to spend. He is recovering from a scooter accident last fall so he needs something easy to get in and out of. I convinced him that since he is now retired he doesn't need a truck anymore, plus he needs room to tote grandson's on wildlife adventures. He wanted a quad-cab pickup but after seeing how bad gas mileage is he changed his mind. He's a retired teacher so the budget is a hard limit and buying brand new is right out.

I have narrowed it down to the following vehicles and would like input from the collective. In no particular order:

1999-2002 Nissan Quest/Mercury Villager

2002-2003 Toyota Sienna

2002-2004 Kia Sedona

Things the van needs to do:

• Travel frequently between Atlanta and Savannah while toting large items (in-laws are retiring to the coast and are moving slowly). Gas mileage is a concern.

• Hold two children, two adults, and a weekend of camping gear.

• Stand in as a small pickup to haul supplies for odd yard projects.

• Not be a death trap in the event of an accident (because Atlanta).

So far the Villager has my attention. Just a rebadged Nissan but it seems to carry a lower price because of that.

I pretty much ruled out GM's minivan offerings due to the awful crash test ratings across the board. I ruled out Honda's minivan due to the transmission problems that plagued their lineup, and I dismissed Ford's van for being notoriously awful.

How about an Astrovan?

cwh wrote: How about an Astrovan?

Lousy crash test rating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kuSghb7P7U

My first car was a ford aerostar, but thats slightly older than your other models. Didn't have too many problems with it, to be honest. Plugs were not fun to change though.

It might be worth looking at the astro, since its truck-based unlike the newer vans, which mostly seem to be tall cars.

edit - nevermind, bad crash test ratings. all i know about nissans is my dad likes his frontier alot.

I'd look at the Quest/Villager. Nissan V6s are bulletproof.

I miss my Caravan.

Before I even clicked on the thread I was thinking Sedona or Sienna. My parents have one of each and I've gotten to borrow them both for extended periods of time.

I liked the Sedona better than I thought I would. Nothing about the car seemed "nice", but it was relatively fun to drive around town and seemed like a great little scrappy minivan that you're not afraid to get dirty. I thought it drove smaller than it actually was, but it's not big by modern minivan standards. Of all the minivans I've driven only my Mazda5 felt lighter on it's feet. Disclaimer - the Maz5 is a sort of pseudo-minivan really.

I'm just realizing as I write this that my mom's Sienna is the generation after what you're looking for, so I can't really speak to the ones you're looking at. That said, her Sienna is a fast, comfortable, vault-like tank compared to my dad's Sedona. It's not as much fun to drive around town, but you can light up the tires easier and it makes short work of road trips. I'm not sure how that translates to the preceding generation though.

Neither parent has admitted any major repairs or issues to me, but take that with a grain of salt.

Isn't the Village/Quest more of a Mercury rebadged as a Nissan?

The Kia may need more research. The Quest/Villager seems like a solid choice though. I found this already: http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/cto/3713047379.html

JohnRW1621 wrote: Isn't the Village/Quest more of a Mercury rebadged as a Nissan?

Nope, in fact the service manual for the Villager at the Ford dealership is a different color than all the others and says says Nissan Quest on the front of it.

I've had nothing but bad luck with the villagers. They are on the very short list of vehicles I will never own for longer than it takes to resell or haul to the crusher, but maybe that's just me. Nothing against nissan powertrains, but the stuff around it like expensive fragile door handles, power window components and HVAC gremlins.

I'm not a big fan of the Quest either.

What Honda transmission problems? Our current one has 150k on it, the previous one was at 120k before it was taken out in a wreck where my wife pulled out in front of someone and got tboned right behind the drivers door. She only had a sore neck and a small cut from some glass

icaneat50eggs wrote: What Honda transmission problems? Our current one has 150k on it, the previous one was at 120k before it was taken out in a wreck where my wife pulled out in front of someone and got tboned right behind the drivers door. She only had a sore neck and a small cut from some glass

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/honda-transmission-problems-seem-to-persist/

http://www.odysseytransmission.com/

Yes, Villagers are E36 M3ty vehicles in my opinion. The engine is the best part of the car and even that is little consolation since i dont like working on them. You have to remember that an 02 villager is still basically an updated 1993 design, too.

Im not a big fan of the sienna or sedona in those years, either. The Sienna of that year is definitely much less crappy than the sedona, but they are a little on the small side and require this thing called a timing belt that Dodges dont. Ive also seen 'perfectly good cars' put out to pasture because of clogged oil passages in the head for the VVT system on those toyota 3.0s. Id be looking for a good oil change history and evidence of timing belt + water pump replacement if i went that route.

I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

In reply to slefain:

are they afraid of high miles? i know you have ruled out the Odyssey, but i've got an '03 with 233k miles on it. trans was replaced under the NHTSA recall campaign at 44k, so the current one has about 190k on it. i think their transmission problems may be in the past, but YMMV.

Don't get anything older than an '04 Sedona. A lot of quality issues from the early models were fixed for that year, My wife's '04 Sedona was pretty much bulletproof, and we sold it to our sister-in-law, who is still driving it.

My FIL was handicapped, walked badly on rebuilt knees and hips. He's had station wagons since 1961 but got a Villager because he couldn't keep his weight supported while lowering himself into the low seat.

A local rigged up a davit with a small electric winch inside the back door to lift his scooter up and in. Once inside, the winch power cord could charge the scoot's batteries.

It worked very very well for him.

YMMV.

AngryCorvair wrote: In reply to slefain: are they afraid of high miles? i know you have ruled out the Odyssey, but i've got an '03 with 233k miles on it. trans was replaced under the NHTSA recall campaign at 44k, so the current one has about 190k on it. i think their transmission problems may be in the past, but YMMV.

A buddy just had his replaced for the second time at 125k on the van.

Vigo wrote: I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

This, also try and find one from an older couple. Much less likely to have had the wrong trans fluid put in it (dealer maintained).

moparman76_69 wrote:

Vigo wrote: I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

This, also try and find one from an older couple. Much less likely to have had the wrong trans fluid put in it (dealer maintained).

I would back this BUT the Sienna from this era has a much better crash test rating than the Dodge from that era. Just something to think about. I'm going through this selection process right now with roughly the same criteria.

tuna55 wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote:

Vigo wrote: I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

This, also try and find one from an older couple. Much less likely to have had the wrong trans fluid put in it (dealer maintained).

I would back this BUT the Sienna from this era has a much better crash test rating than the Dodge from that era. Just something to think about. I'm going through this selection process right now with roughly the same criteria.

To each his own. I've never bought a car based off crash test rating.

moparman76_69 wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote:

Vigo wrote: I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

This, also try and find one from an older couple. Much less likely to have had the wrong trans fluid put in it (dealer maintained).

I would back this BUT the Sienna from this era has a much better crash test rating than the Dodge from that era. Just something to think about. I'm going through this selection process right now with roughly the same criteria.

To each his own. I've never bought a car based off crash test rating.

After surviving a head-on collision with a drunk driver, crash test rating is now one of my qualifications for vehicle purchase. That's where my avatar comes from.

slefain wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

moparman76_69 wrote:

Vigo wrote: I would definitely just buy the nicest 3.3/3.8L chrysler van that you can in that price range. That motor is goofy reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part and 4k gets you a pretty nice old dodge, probably even a loaded town and country.

This, also try and find one from an older couple. Much less likely to have had the wrong trans fluid put in it (dealer maintained).

I would back this BUT the Sienna from this era has a much better crash test rating than the Dodge from that era. Just something to think about. I'm going through this selection process right now with roughly the same criteria.

To each his own. I've never bought a car based off crash test rating.

After surviving a head-on collision with a drunk driver, crash test rating is now one of my qualifications for vehicle purchase. That's where my avatar comes from.

The Sienna is fantastic in this way

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=90&seriesid=422

BUT, if you can find a crash test on the Euro Ncap (none for the Sienna, but the Caravan fared poorly http://www.euroncap.com/results/chrysler/voyager.aspx), the results are more meaningful, because the dummies in those tests were belted in, unlike the NHTSA and IIHS.

Why not Mazda MPV? 02.5+ with the 3.0L seems like a pretty decent minivan to me.

m4ff3w wrote: Why not Mazda MPV? 02.5+ with the 3.0L seems like a pretty decent minivan to me.

You know, the MPV fell off my radar for some reason. Time to research it as well.