Best Used Minivan?

I’m there!

Did you buy it from an individual or a dealer? How much checking into the vehicle did you do? I’m always wary of buying a used car.

Dealer Ganley Volkswagon of Bedford.

Extensive internet searching led me to 3 or 4 prospects. Then I researched the vehicle ID#'s through CarFax and finally a test drive. I’ve had great luck with pre-owned, except for the one that burst into fire and burned up before my very eyes, but that only happened once out of nine cars I’ve owned, so the odds would seem to favor me. :smiley:

I hate car payments, so pre-owned I can just write a check for and be on my way!

Dodges have in the past had significant quality control issues. Ours (a 1996 regular vs the longer Grand) was not one of the models that had transmission problems; the Grand for that year did (I think). Earlier years, both versions had transmission problems. Mine also had to have the entire A/C system replaced - part after 3 years, part after 6. Apparently that was a known problem with Dodges in general during that time period, but Chrysler’s “hidden warranty” to help with such repairs explicitly excluded the Caravan. And at 10 years old, the car developed starter / electrical problems that could never be pinpointed. We finally sold it after 2 months of being in the shop every 2 weeks.

Newer ones (as yours is, obviously) might be a lot better but I was burned badly enough that I’d be leery of the Caravan.

As to what models are good, not sure - I’ll let others weigh in on that.

Added on reading more of the thread: OBE now, but please tell me you had the car inspected thoroughly by a third party. 31,000 miles is very low for a 5 model year old car and dealers (or their upstream providers) have been known to tamper with odometers. A friend of ours was looking at a used car with relatively low mileage and they had it checked out - and the mechanic commented on several things and said “no way this car has only xx miles”.

Too late.

It was a corporate lease vehicle with one owner. I trust the dealer not to do the odometer thing. He’s the largest dealer in Ohio I believe.

Of course I had it checked out.

And no matter what car you pick, Ford, Dodge, Ferrari, whatever, you’ll find someone online with a horror story. Par for the course.

You pays your money, you takes your chances. I can’t obsess about it.