So, on Wednesday, my wife and I went to lunch (we work together). On our way back to the office, someone tried to turn left in front of us while we were going around 45 MPH. He pulled out when we were under 30 feet from his car, so my wife never hit the brake. It looks like our car may be totalled.
If it is, we need to replace it. It was a 2012 Kia Sportage, and we really liked it. However, we need something a little bit bigger, with seating for 6 instead of 5. With two car seats, we can never get a third adult in the car when my wife, our two kids, and I are all in it.
Here are our “need to haves”:
[ul]
[li]Third row seating[/li][li]Backup camera[/li][li]Bluetooth for hands-free phone use[/li][/ul]
Here are our “Heavily want to haves”:
[ul]
[li]Second row captain’s chairs[/li][li]Remote start[/li][/ul]
Here are our “Would be nice to haves”:
[ul]
[li]Navigation[/li][li]Heated seats[/li][li]Rear-seat DVD players[/li][/ul]
We’d prefer something fairly new, obviously, but we’re fine buying a used car. With our requirements, it will probably need to be a 2010 or later, I would assume.
So far, our list of possibilites looks like this:
[ul]
[li]Chevy Traverse/Buick Enclave/GMC Acadia[/li][li]Subaru Tribeca[/li][li]Nissan Quest[/li][li]Nissan Pathfinder[/li][li]Honda Odyessy[/li][li]Toyota Sienna[/li][li]Kia Sedona[/li][li]Kia Sorrento[/li][li]Chrysler T&C/Dodge Caravan[/li][/ul]
Does anyone have any experience with any of these SUVs/minivans? Anything we should avoid or be on the lookout for?
Very very very hard to beat the Odyssey. The good thing is you can pick up the loaded models at the same price as the lesser equipped ones… our '07 has every option and priced the same as one without the nav, dvd, etc.
I’d look for a 2010 or so with slightly high miles.
That’s good to know. The only thing that makes me hesitant to buy a Honda is that, as my wife and I were at the accident scene, a Honda salesman walked up and gave me his card.
At. The. Accident.
Unfortunately, there’s only one Honda dealer in my city. The next closest would be 40+ miles away. My wife likes the look of the Odyessy, so it may be worth the drive.
Sante Fe too small in the back, I had a Carnival and it saw a lot of family trips and basketball runs with no issues. Great value and comfy with those big captain’s chairs.
I don’t see these with captain’s chairs in the second row available. This is important because of the answer to Quartz’s question: my kids are one-and-a-half and nearly four years old. They’re in big, bulky car seats still that get attached via the LATCH system. I don’t want to have to move the seats around to get another adult or two into the back seat. My older daughter could probably go to just having her seat held in with the seat belt instead of the LATCH straps, since she’s nearly 40 pounds, but that seems far less secure to me. I like having the 5-point harness on her still.
If you’re buying used, you don’t necessarily need to buy from a Honda dealer. If you have another dealership you like, see if they have any used Odysseys for sale. Before I moved too far away, I bought used cars from the dealership in town that gave just wonderful repair service.
We found out this afternoon that our Kia is officially KIA. It was totalled out by the insurance company, so we really get to look for a car now. Is cars.com the best site for searching for a used car? Does anyone have experience replacing a car that’s been totalled? The worst part of replacing is that now we don’t have a trade or anything to put down.
Unless it’s changed recently the Orlando isn’t sold in the US, it’s a Canada specific model.
You can probably scratch the Tribeca and Sedona from your list as they are both ancient vehicles that have been discontinued. The rest of the list are just points on a spectrum of cheap<------->nice. So how much money do you want to spend? IF you have children then I would lean towards something with lots of practical features without any fancy leather or wood, and I would say go with the Dodge Caravan. It does everything you need to do in terms of features while still being very cheap to buy. You can certainly tell where they saved money(interior materials, ride quality and handling), and that’s fine because for this type of vehicle that’s exactly what you want.
Another one I might think about would be a Volvo XC90(Hi Rick). These are getting pretty old and are due to be replaced in a year or 2, and are a bit behind the pack when it comes to the lated phone integration and that kind of shit but for the same reason they should be running big discounts on them and they are the safest vehicles you can buy for any amount of money.
Yeah, we bought it brand new with nothing down when our old Saturn Vue died, so we’re underwater. Luckily, we have gap insurance, so we don’t owe anything.
It is hard to beat a minivan for space and fuel efficiency.
How important if fuel efficiency and size?
When I was the family chauffeur when families flew in I ended up with a 4 door tahoe.
Lots of room for luggage and people but it hits at the fuel pump.
I see some good deals on these if I go for a 2010 or 2011. I’ll have to keep that in mind.
You mentioned the Chrysler T&C/Dodge Caravan - these both get pretty putrid ratings by Consumer Reports, but I tend to take anything they say with a grain of salt. They’re far easier to find here in Michigan than Hondas or Nissans, though, which is appealing. Do you have any experience with them?
Not very familiar with most of the models posted - but some thoughts
I love the Oddysey - do take note however that the model we get here, the third row doesn’t fold “indpendently” - i.e it’s either all up or all down. With it up, luggage space is a little limited - with it down, you have bags of space but are back to a 5 seater. I currently own a 7 seater that is in the same class as the Stream (smaller brother for the Oddysey) - the third row has split fold. This lets us pack 6 people (3 adults, 2 children and a baby) plus their luggage for a one week holiday.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be very bothered about Sat Nav - you can buy good systems now for less than $100 that attach to the windscreen, or you can use your phone and Google Maps
Likewise for reversing camera - a system with an indash screen - I can get fitted and then linked to an incar DVD player for extra utility for around $300. Something that I would only care about as a tipping factor if I was looking at two very similar cars.
Do you have the Mazda 9 round there? I enjoyed this on a two day test drive when I had it (although the version I had was underpowered)
And as a final thought - just to be an arse…
You were doing 45mph in an area with traffic lights? :dubious: Wouldn’t that have been speeding a little?