Minivan shopping

[Reynoma]

My wife and I have been recently shopping for a new Minivan (our Villager just went over 100K miles). With rebates going through the roof (almost $4K), we thought "why not".We've looked at the Ford Freestar (over-weight, under-powered)Nissan Quest (very, very nice...a little pricey)Pontiac Montana (one of the very few with 8 seat capacity)but my wifes favorite so far is...GMC Safari...I would have never guessed. It has gobs of room, drives pretty nice, fits in our garage (just barely), and has a very commanding view of the road.Anybody have one of these (or the Chevy version) and want to comment?

[JayC]

They are very good size van. I think they actually call it mid size van.Salsa is right, this is an old design, with truck ride (which may make more difference on longer trips). If none of the new features like two sliding doors, power sliding doors, stowable seats, Navigation, DVD entertainment, etc are important, then Safari may be just fine.You also may want to look at 2004 Honda Odyssey. The all new 2005 is coming out this fall, and they are giving deep discounts for 2004 model. Many magazines still rank Honda Odyssey as the king of minivans, even with newer Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest.

[Reynoma]

The problem I have with the newer minivans is the seating configuration. I have three kids and often want to carry them with alot of stuff. The best scenario is to have three seat across in the middle and fold/remove the back seat. All newer minvans have captains chairs or a two seat bench in the middle, forcing me to keep that back seat in for a third child, cutting down on the amount of stuff we can carry.Not having the second sliding door on the Safari is a big issue. I would also have to look into an aftermarket entertainment center.

[Fformula88]

I don't think I would go with the older Safari van over a Pontiac Montana. Have you looked at the Toyota van yet? Its fairly new and has been getting really good reviews. I am not sure how its seating configuration is inside. You might also want to check out the Chrysler vans, although they are more of a budget buy than the best thing on the block. Still, they are popular so they cannot be all bad.

[JayC]

Toyota Sienna has 8 seat configuration you are looking for. You can seat three kids in middle row, and fold down the third row seat. And third row fold down seats are split also.I think the middle seat in middle row even slides back and forth. I guess to keep your baby seat closer to front seats.However, Siennas are not cheap.

[Vibewatcher]

Latest Montana rebates according to GM:$5000 for current GM owners, and I think $1000 additional for those with the built in video system.

[Nervous_Dog]

My wife and I just traded in our Villager (had over 125,000 miles) and bought a 2004 Focus ZX5. The Villager was a great van and we couldn't find another decently priced minivan that we liked. Of course, we don't have kids so we didn't really need another van, but it sure was great to haul stuff in when we bought our condo.The Mazda MPV was nice. I don't think you could put 3 across on the middle seat tho. The Toyota Sienna has the best crash rating out of any minivan, Chevy's get some of the worst ratings. Just something to consider.HTH

[Reynoma]

I see on the Pontiac website that the current rebate is $3K + $1K (for the DVD). I didn't see anything about current GM owners.

[Vibewatcher]

http://www.gm.com/vc/ownerexclusive/New program GM just started. Looks like the current owner rebate of $5000 is in place of the $3000 regular rebate.And if you can buy a Montana for $5000 to $6000 less the way the Toyotas are stock and sold, it takes the some of the wind out of the resale value issue.

[SGT]

Wow, $5000 grand off a Montana or Aztek? That is a great deal. Did anyone else notice that the Vibe is excluded from this offer. Guess the Vibe is still selling pretty good!

[Reynoma]

I built out both a Montana and Sienna on the web with the stuff I want. Both came in around $31K sticker price. Considering that Pontiac is offering the $5K rebate and is probably more willing to move on the price, I figure I can get the Pontiac to down around $22K. Toyota, on the other hand, never seems to have what I want on the lot, is not offering rebates and won't move on the sticker price. (Gee, I had the same thing happen when considering the Vibe/Matrix). I usually keep my cars til about $100K, so resale value really doesn't concern me.....

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by Reynoma » I have three kids and often want to carry them with alot of stuff. The best scenario is to have three seat across in the middle and fold/remove the back seat. This makes me wonder why you would need a minivan in the first place. If you are not going to use the third row, you can further your options by looking at SUVs that are relativiely fuel efficient and have ample room behind the rear seats. I would look at the Hoda CRV, the new Chevy Equinox (it has a movable back seat to allow for greater storage room or greater rear leg room), Saturn Vue, and I am sure I am missing some. Also, some SUVs have three rows of seats too. SUVs like the Honda Passport and Acura MDX (based on the odyssey), Ford Explorer, Suzuki XL-7, GM's long wheelbase midsize SUVs haver three rows too like the trailblazer ext, envoy xl and xuv. Don't limit yourself to just a minivan, there are so many more options out there now!

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Btw, my uncle has 190,000 on his 97 Villager and it still is a daily driver. My wife and I still drive a 95 Chevy Lumina sedan with over 217,000 on it now, as a daily driver. I just replaced a few parts and it purrs like a kitten. Something should be said for good ol american cars too.

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 » Go to http://www.edmunds.com and build the vehicle and it will give you invoice price and shop dealers using that. Most dealers can give you 10% off on accessories or add ons.I found http://www.carsdirect.com to be pretty good too.

[Reynoma]

Quote, originally posted by noginsk »If you are not going to use the third row, you can further your options by looking at SUVs that are relativiely fuel efficient and have ample room behind the rear seats.Also, some SUVs have three rows of seats too. SUVs like the Honda Passport and Acura MDX (based on the odyssey), Ford Explorer, Suzuki XL-7, GM's long wheelbase midsize SUVs haver three rows too like the trailblazer ext, envoy xl and xuv. Don't limit yourself to just a minivan, there are so many more options out there now!The third row is a must. When not carrying stuff, we like to have the third row to put one of the kids (or friends)...mostly to keep them separated to keep the fighting down. Minivans are much more roomy behind that third seat than the SUVs.

[ColonelPanic]

The Safari/Astro are certainly the last of a dying breed... It's mid-80's architecture, but if you need something rugged and can haul, it would do things that a car-based minivan can't. Like what was said earlier, if you don't need all the high tech gizmos and gadgets, that may be a good choice. After two decades of production, I would hope GM would be able to get the bugs worked out.

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by Reynoma »The third row is a must. When not carrying stuff, we like to have the third row to put one of the kids (or friends)...mostly to keep them separated to keep the fighting down. Minivans are much more roomy behind that third seat than the SUVs.Cool beans, just making suer you were aware of the other possibilities!

[Mike-NC]

Just stay away from the Chrysler/Dodge mini-vans. I think they are still having trouble out of the transmissions. Our 2001 Dodge w/3.3L V6 had sporadic shift trouble with less than 15K. We traded it with 30K. I am sure ours would not have made it 60K-70K without breaking. (Of course the dealer could never replicate our troubles, but they did try and were very accomodating!)I wanted another mini-van (leaning towards a Honda Odyessey), but the wife wanted a SUV. (That gets 17mpg!!)I agreee, its hard to beat the hauling capacity of people or cargo in a mini-van. Good luck shopping!

[cohocarl]

Quote, originally posted by noginsk »Something should be said for good ol american cars too.Being a U.A.W. member, I appreciate that.

[Fialchar]

My Dad drives a 2003 Honda Odyssey and it's a pretty nice van. It has a lot of room, A/C for the back as well as the front, navigation system, and it's pretty quick for a van, too. If I remember right it has a 3.5 Vtec engine.

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by cohocarl »Being a U.A.W. member, I appreciate that. U.A.W. Is that a union? Do you work at a GM factory?