Minivan shopping

The dreaded minivan shopping actually began quite some time ago, when we knew that we wanted a 3rd child.  Even though I knew then that it was a ways off, I wanted to make a really good decision when the time came so I started doing my research.  I did lots of on-line research, including looking at all the non-minivan options that have 3rd row seating.  This is becoming more and more common in the SUV class.  But really, it is just like adding extra seating behind our second row in the Jeep and so is very cramped on space.  The bigger options, like the Chevy Suburban and the Toyota Sequoia are just too gassy guzzling for my economy conscious taste.  So that leads us back to the lame-parent labeling minivan!:-) 

I don't care so much about the minivan stigma now that I have gotten use to the idea.  They are so darn practical and I am looking forward to having the additional space (if I could count the number of times I have bonked my poor kid's heads getting them in their car seats in the Jeep...).  Plus some are much better looking than they use to be and are available with nice interior trim options (leather please!!).  As far as looks go, I prefer the Honda Odyssey to the competition.  Craig likes the Toyota Sienna (and the Odyssey) and we both don't mind the look of the VW Routan (which is a Chrysler Town & Country masquerading with VW upgrade touches.  The Dodge Caravan is also a Chrysler base product).  The Odyssey wins out in all the reviews and holds it's value the best; you could have probably guessed this based on the number of those things on the road, they are everywhere!  But reviewers also really like the Sienna.  After extensive on-line research I think we have decided to bypass the Chrysler/Dodge/VW minivans as well as the Kia Sedona, and go straight for the class leaders.  The problem with the class leaders of course, is they are damn expensive.  We will not buy new but just to give you an idea, a loaded 2011 Odyssey is somewhere around 43,000$ while the Sienna is slightly cheaper, closer to 40,000$. 

I c&p some pictures of the 2008 models since these will be more like what we are looking at (both vans have new 2011 body styles).



Sienna:
 

We had planned on going out tomorrow to look at a 2003 VW Eurovan, but decided not too.  That is the last year that VW sold the Eurovan in the states and so is the newest you can find.  The Eurovan is a VW product, not Chrysler, and I hear that people love them but after more research I decided to check it off our list.  The Eurovan is kind of a hip van, despite it's ugly appearance, and it has TONS of interior space.  But those things aside, it gets about the same gas mileage as the Jeep (we are hoping for a little better) and it drives like a full size van.  While it would be awesome for vacations, 95% of its use would be day to day, around town driving.

Craig talked to a 'car guy' at our wonderful Pacific Northwest Federal Credit Union and it sounds like we will be able to get a darn good deal going through him.  It is kind of like a personal shopper for cars.  He finds the best trade in value for our Jeep and finds us the van we want for under retail value.  It is all done through the credit union financing (we already have our Jeep loan with them) so we get the loan paper work set up and then the car guy goes out and finds us a van.  So what we have to do is go out and test drive and tell our car guy as specifically as we can what we want.  He is going to set up a couple of test drives for us soon so we can decide which van we like best.  I guess he calls us when he has something that fits our wish list and we say yeah or neigh.  We don't get to look at the actual van we buy before we buy it which is weird but it does take a lot of the stress out of buying a car.  And the Credit Union backs up the transaction the way any dealership would.  All we do is say what we want and fill out the paper work.  No haggling, no endless searching and test driving.  It will be nice to work with someone who feels more 'on our side' then a dealership salesman. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!