*sigh* Tell me about your minivan.

Don’t think that hasn’t occured to Lady Chance. And she’s an antique lover.

Well, we did it. I browbeat these poor helpless small town car salesmen to meet my price on it and drove it home. My old Explorer is probably headed for Mexico as we speak.

I went looking at lunchtime yesterday at a few dealerships here in Marietta. Identified the Montana that I wanted (based on those available yesterday). Then called the credit union…

Then I called the sales guy up and told him I owed X amount on my Explorer and that the blue book value was N, that I wanted that Montana that was priced at Y and that it wouldn’t work for me at that price because Consumer Reports said it should be less. I told him if he could work it so that I could drive off the lot with that minivan with a monthly payment of less than $Z I’d buy it and that making that work was up to him and I’d be there at 5PM.

And he did it…almost. We settled at $Z.64 per month. They got that buy giving me 150% of the trade in value for my Explorer.

All in all I’m happy. It’s nice to have it and we have a big road trip coming up next week.

Dude, you were robbed! A Montana, even a brand new one, is not worth more than $Z.53 per month!

I’m fairly clueless about this type of vehicle, but wasn’t the Explorer an SUV? Why does having kids mean you had to go to a minivan? Wouldn’t everyone fit just as easily into the Explorer?

No, the explorer is really only a four seater (five if they squeeze). But with car seats it’s definitely four. The minivan will seat 6-7 so we can have the two (and maybe three at some point) cat seats plus passengers/storage.

See, that’s just the thing with SUVs: they look gigantic because they’re so bloody tall, but the reality is that many of them have smaller interiors than a minivan. And the height alone can make dealing with car seats/booster seats a problem.

I get the feeling that some families trade from minivans to SUVs when the kids get old enough to complain about the car not being cool…

If the sprouts ever make THAT complaint I’m buying a motocycle and they can walk.

I don’t know much about the Montana, but the main absolutely must have feature on a minivan (IMO) is the second sliding door. Remember the older minivans only had a sliding door on the one side. Not a good thing if you’re trying to buckle two squirming kids into car seats!

Obviously you’ll need to look at reliability, maintenance cost etc. - I have no clue how the Montana stacks up there.

We’ve got a 97 Dodge Caravan (shorter version, not Grand). It’s actually been a decent car for the most part. We bought it new in late '96, and have put 92,000 miles on it. The air-conditioners in most Dodge products from back then were defective, apparently (Chrysler did a “goodwill warranty” on everything but the minivans) and we’ve spent about 2K replacing the A/C. No other major bills except for things like the struts, which are routine when a car gets that many miles on it. I gather the Grand Caravans tended to have major transmission problems, which the shorter ones have somehow escaped (phew!).

We plan to hang onto it for a couple more years, anyway. I like the height - hate climbing into Papa Zappa’s Civic. OTOH, the mileage does stink compared with the Civic so there are tradeoffs.

We drive a Toyota Previa, and just love it and it’s as reliable as the day. We’ve had virtually no serious trouble with at all aside from regular maintenance, brakes etc. I just got front and rear brakes done on it this week, and it cost us $500.

I wish it did have dual sliding doors, that would be great, but oh well. The 2004 Sienna is a fantastic piece of machinery, but it’s a toss-up with the Odyssey.

I know you already bought your minivan, so this is pretty much a moot point…but I thought I would drop my 2 cents in for anyone who is interested :stuck_out_tongue:

We have a 2003 Ford Windstar and we love it!!! My parents borrow it now and then (I hate being the person w/ the extra cars lying around) and they love it too. Great pick-up and go…dual sliding doors…fun to drive…it’s just all around a great minivan.

So, anyone who has heard that Windstars suck should give 'em another chance…I think they have improved them alot over the years.

Good luck w/ the new vehicle (and children!!) :smiley:

I used to drive a 1996 Chrysler Town & Country… fully loaded, leather seats, 4 captains chairs, 3rd row bench seat, and running boards. I could carry 7 people in that van and everyone be comfortable. I loved it. We bought it last year because we have two kids (they were 5 & 3 when we bought it) and our car was just becoming too small for our family of four. The opportunity to buy this van came up and we got a great deal on it so we bought it.

We started looking around last month because we wanted to trade in the van and buy a 2004 model. We found one we liked (another Town & Country) and when the dealer took our old van for a drive we started looking around the lot… just checking out the other vehicles there. We saw a 2004 Dodge Durango. Just for kicks we took it for a test drive. I drove it, fell in love with it, and that’s what we ended up buying… instead of the minivan!

My Durango can hold 7 people, very comfortabley, just like my van did and it’s decked out with everything like my van was… even has a sunroof! Our kids are now 6 1/2 and 4 1/2 so they’re old enough to climb up in the Durango (we have running boards) and get into their booster seats and buckle themselves up. If we ever have another baby one of the older kids will just get in the 3rd row back seat and the baby and other kid in the middle… just as convenient and easy as a minivan.

I can understand why you got rid of your Explorer. My mother in law has an Explorer and it really is only a 4 person vehicle. You can fit 5 but it’s very uncomfortable to have 3 people squished into that bench seat. A minivan or larger SUV is the way to go. You already bought minivan but for anyone else out there with kids looking at vans… if you don’t feel comfortable in a minivan or if you think you’re too young for a minivan… go with a larger SUV.

Used to have a Chevy Astro Van, it was a cargo van and we had no problems with it. Moved up to a full size Ford f150 Van still a cargo, added bench seats when the kids started coming.

Got a new vehicle last year and I passed up all the nifty new minivans for a sportwagon. 4 door 5 speed Turbo VW Passat. Now we have no dogs but it has plenty of room for groceries, bikes etc etc. Still have the Ford for hauling motorbikes, landscaping supplies and all.

Saw a bumper sticker on a Caravan the other day, and it read. Somebody please steal this car.

No minivan in JuanitaVille, thankyouverymuch. We have an SUV that seats seven. I’m still shopping around for a stationwagon to replace our second car but, as I’ve been in the market for one for over a year, I’m taking my sweet time.

cmkeller, congrats on kid number five! That’s just great!

Amen! I’ve got abot 180k on mine, and it’s my 2nd one. I just love that model. sad thing is that now that I live in a winter clime, I think front wheel drive is better.

Funny, I opened this thread because I’m shopping for a replacement minivan now before I have to.

I’ve got about $6-7k and I want to pay cash, no car payments for me, I hate 'em.

I guess I’ll get a Windstar. Any complaints about them?

Thanks, Juanita!

I hope they make full-size vans with those hybrid engine things. When I replace the minivan, that’s what I want to get, so I can start sticking it to OPEC, curse them.

We have a Chevrolet Ody, the kind with the dual power side doors. My only complaint with this van is that it doesn’t come in a larger size. This van seats 7, but it only holds 4 car seats plus the two front seats for adults, and we have 4 kids in the family.

Before, when we had only 3 kids, I loved the ability to open the driver-side sliding door, climb into the space where one captain’s chair had been removed (an area perhaps as large as 3’x4’), and load kids into ther car seats. I had plenty of room to move, plenty of room to change diapers, put on jackets, or even have a “picnic in the car”, plenty of cargo space, and room for the camping-porta-potty we take with us. We had two child seats in the back bench seat, one in a captain’s chair, and everybody could be out of the rain while buckling in.

Well, the arrival of #4 threw that all to hell, because we had to put the other captain’s seat back in. Now it’s a major struggle to get to the back seat to help the kids in back buckle in (though I am thankful to say they have finally perfected that skill themselves, so I no longer have to climb back between the seats to help). I still like the ability to put the baby in on one side, while the older kids climb in from the other side and buckle themselves in. I cannot imagine having to work with a standard car-door setup after having this convenience.