Car ?'s

gak said:

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So, dealers will sell at $100k over and even if you have that you can't get one.

So we just had our second kid and the Ford Escape we inherited is feeling a bit tight. Thinking about going with a minivan as more kids are a definite possibility in the future and I'm tired of upsizing vehicles (2 door Civic -> Escape -> Minivan -> ??Transit Van???). Any suggestions on make/model? I generally prefer vehicles with minimal to no gadgets. No IP addresses, no screens, just something as mechanical as possible. As such I generally try to stick to things older that like 2016 or so. I'm open to suggestions on newer stuff but that's been my preference up to this point.

Googling it shows that Toyota Sienna is the go to and older Odyssey's are alright. I have two unused vehicles right now so I'm hoping to find something at a dealership so I can trade one in but I don't have any experience there either. I assume dealership will fleece me on trade-in value so probably best off selling it myself, but I just haven't bothered to take the time to do it yet. Curious to hear trade-in experiences as well. Thanks pals.

Flobee said:

So we just had our second kid and the Ford Escape we inherited is feeling a bit tight. Thinking about going with a minivan as more kids are a definite possibility in the future and I'm tired of upsizing vehicles (2 door Civic -> Escape -> Minivan -> ??Transit Van???). Any suggestions on make/model? I generally prefer vehicles with minimal to no gadgets. No IP addresses, no screens, just something as mechanical as possible. As such I generally try to stick to things older that like 2016 or so. I'm open to suggestions on newer stuff but that's been my preference up to this point.

Googling it shows that Toyota Sienna is the go to and older Odyssey's are alright. I have two unused vehicles right now so I'm hoping to find something at a dealership so I can trade one in but I don't have any experience there either. I assume dealership will fleece me on trade-in value so probably best off selling it myself, but I just haven't bothered to take the time to do it yet. Curious to hear trade-in experiences as well. Thanks pals.

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Sell the car on Facebook, get financing prior to going to the dealership, don’t talk about anything but the price of the vehicle and when they ask how you plan on paying tell them you haven’t agreed on the price yet we can talk about that once we agree on a price, only pay tax title and licensing and nothing else and be willing to walk if the deal isn’t what you want. Also if they don’t want to budge if you’ve been approved by your creditor for let’s say 50k and the vehicle you want is 26k but trying to get them to come down, have your banker change your approval to the amount you are willing to pay and then come back with the approval letter saying this is what I’m approved for, want it or not?

Shit is more nuanced than that lots of YouTube videos can help, but honestly it’s a shit time to be financing anything right now so good luck.

Flobee said:

So we just had our second kid and the Ford Escape we inherited is feeling a bit tight. Thinking about going with a minivan as more kids are a definite possibility in the future and I'm tired of upsizing vehicles (2 door Civic -> Escape -> Minivan -> ??Transit Van???). Any suggestions on make/model? I generally prefer vehicles with minimal to no gadgets. No IP addresses, no screens, just something as mechanical as possible. As such I generally try to stick to things older that like 2016 or so. I'm open to suggestions on newer stuff but that's been my preference up to this point.

Googling it shows that Toyota Sienna is the go to and older Odyssey's are alright. I have two unused vehicles right now so I'm hoping to find something at a dealership so I can trade one in but I don't have any experience there either. I assume dealership will fleece me on trade-in value so probably best off selling it myself, but I just haven't bothered to take the time to do it yet. Curious to hear trade-in experiences as well. Thanks pals.

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Sienna's are really hard to come by. I recently got a Rav4 prime with an uncommon option package from the largest Toyota dealer in the country that gets the most allocations. I had to wait 3 months on the waitlist. For Siennas they closed the waitlist because it was getting too long and 2 years out for people. You will have a hard time finding one without a mark up. You can take your cars to carmax and get an offer from them and see if the dealer can match it to get an idea. Selling privately is always the best if you are willing to do it.

Flobee said:

So we just had our second kid and the Ford Escape we inherited is feeling a bit tight. Thinking about going with a minivan as more kids are a definite possibility in the future and I'm tired of upsizing vehicles (2 door Civic -> Escape -> Minivan -> ??Transit Van???). Any suggestions on make/model? I generally prefer vehicles with minimal to no gadgets. No IP addresses, no screens, just something as mechanical as possible. As such I generally try to stick to things older that like 2016 or so. I'm open to suggestions on newer stuff but that's been my preference up to this point.

Googling it shows that Toyota Sienna is the go to and older Odyssey's are alright. I have two unused vehicles right now so I'm hoping to find something at a dealership so I can trade one in but I don't have any experience there either. I assume dealership will fleece me on trade-in value so probably best off selling it myself, but I just haven't bothered to take the time to do it yet. Curious to hear trade-in experiences as well. Thanks pals.

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If you're going to wait a couple years between kids, a Suburban might work, as the oldest kid(s) shouldn't need help crawling in the rear seats. They are probably more expensive, but they may be easier to find if both the Sienna and Odyssey are rare, or if that rarity is driving up the price. Chevy seems to be middle of the road for quality as a whole, but I don't know what quirks the Suburban might have through the years.

As for dealers, be aware when buying from them, the best you can hope for is a fair price; you will never get a good deal (unless you have connections). Burnem has good recommendations for trying to get to that point with dealer.

Since you don't need it right away, you have the time to look for a good deal from a private seller, if you want to put in the work. You should be able to save at least 15% from a private seller, over buying from a used dealer. If you really want new, you (may) also have the time time to sit in a waitlist if new Siennas become "available" again.

To find good deals from private owners you probably need at least 3 months of just watching the market and writing down prices on a spreadsheet, one for each vehicle type you're interested in. If you can somehow get access to Manheim vehicle auction's "black book" price tool (dealer prices), it makes figuring out what is a good deal much easier, but I have no clue how to go about getting that these days.

I had a Nissan Quest, it has the 3.5 v6 that is a solid motor and the CVT on them is a good one. I had an older Murano and you can tell the difference in the CVT, even to the QX60

You’re not wanting new right?

My parents and brother have both had Siennas they have been good, they both have had 2 so far- not the current generation but the previous 2.

I have a Pacifica, I am tall and big, it was the most comfortable. My cousin, and aunt have pacificas.

The Honda did not impress me and I dont care for the new Sienna.

Also my neighbor has the last gen Kia Sedona - it is nice inside, and was a shock when i checked out the Carnival how cheap the inside was on their new van vs the Sedona.

My parents traded their Sienna for a new one (same generation) because the sun roof was leaking even after 1 seal replace, 1 entire sunroof module replace and then it leaked again… so they traded it in rather than fight the lemon law fight as they got it new and it was not that old… i was like “so you got another of what gave you problems?”

I should have kept that Quest… oh well. The Pacifica, esp the Pinnacle trim is really nice inside

Flobee said:

So we just had our second kid and the Ford Escape we inherited is feeling a bit tight. Thinking about going with a minivan as more kids are a definite possibility in the future and I'm tired of upsizing vehicles (2 door Civic -> Escape -> Minivan -> ??Transit Van???). Any suggestions on make/model? I generally prefer vehicles with minimal to no gadgets. No IP addresses, no screens, just something as mechanical as possible. As such I generally try to stick to things older that like 2016 or so. I'm open to suggestions on newer stuff but that's been my preference up to this point.

Googling it shows that Toyota Sienna is the go to and older Odyssey's are alright. I have two unused vehicles right now so I'm hoping to find something at a dealership so I can trade one in but I don't have any experience there either. I assume dealership will fleece me on trade-in value so probably best off selling it myself, but I just haven't bothered to take the time to do it yet. Curious to hear trade-in experiences as well. Thanks pals.

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Stop having kids. We don’t need more.

Burren said:

Stop having kids. We don’t need more.

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My kids are birthed at home, will be home schooled, raised on a farm, and they love Jesus. We're not the same. Kids are awesome, stop being a doomer

Siliconemelons said:

I had a Nissan Quest, it has the 3.5 v6 that is a solid motor and the CVT on them is a good one. I had an older Murano and you can tell the difference in the CVT, even to the QX60

You’re not wanting new right?

My parents and brother have both had Siennas they have been good, they both have had 2 so far- not the current generation but the previous 2.

I have a Pacifica, I am tall and big, it was the most comfortable. My cousin, and aunt have pacificas.

The Honda did not impress me and I dont care for the new Sienna.

Also my neighbor has the last gen Kia Sedona - it is nice inside, and was a shock when i checked out the Carnival how cheap the inside was on their new van vs the Sedona.

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I'm currently minivan shopping, but haven't gotten to the point of test driving yet. My short list was down to Toyota and Honda.
I had written off Chrysler because of the reliability horror stories, although that seems to skew towards the hybrid powertrain. Do you have the plug in hybrid version or gas? Have you had any major issues with it?

Curious what you didn't like about the Honda and Toyota.

Kobayashi said:

I'm currently minivan shopping, but haven't gotten to the point of test driving yet. My short list was down to Toyota and Honda.
I had written off Chrysler because of the reliability horror stories, although that seems to skew towards the hybrid powertrain. Do you have the plug in hybrid version or gas? Have you had any major issues with it?

Curious what you didn't like about the Honda and Toyota.

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I have the plug in hybrid, i have not had any issues but its only 2 years old 20k miles. 30 miles of battery only means unless i go on a trip, daily use never uses gas. It gets great MPG when it is in hybrid mode once the batter is done.

I bought the extended certified preowned warranty, as i got the extended warranty on my Mach-e also…

Any modern car has insanely expensive systems outside the “traditional” power train. So if you happen to get anything like that, the warranty pays for itself. Screen, infotainment system, radars, sensors blah blah blah, i dont want to pay on fixing anything like that.

This is all usually for new and late model used / certified.

As for the Toyota, the new current gen was not out, i have driven my parents and knew its comfort level, the Pacifica was more comfortable and a better drive / ride and nicer inside, the top top trim Pacifica was way nicer (main thing is the arm rest and leather door panels, the rear seat TV system is better on the top top trim, it has a DVD and the streaming stuff… ours the Limited trim only has what is equivalent of a fire stick… wish I would have caught that but they didn’t make it very apparent when comparing the trim levels)

The Honda, and it was the current generation and the one just past-we tried both- I did not fit well in at all and the entire thing felt the cheapest of them all oddly. The leather seats were nice but anything outside the seat itself, reminded me of my wife’s old civic… but this is a 50k van not a 9k base little car.

Edit: i think the new siennas are only traditional hybrids now.

Honda odyssey is about to get a price bump.

Intrinsic said:

My wife ended up picking the Santa Fe after we looked at the Palisade, Telluride, Sorento, and Santa Fe. I'm honestly pretty happy to drive it around when we go out for family stuff. We have 6-year old and a 1-year old and groceries fit just fine. The bells and whistles are pretty amazing. We're pretty happy with the purchase ~2 months later.

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The one with its droopy pants taillights?

Car looks great, until you get to those misplaced tail lights... just move them up inline with the headlights wtf hyundai?