Considering buying a minivan as a gift, but have some mileage concerns

OSULemon wrote: she's not taking road trips or hauling around people that often, just camera equipment.

While I love wagons as much or more than anyone, I'd agree a minivan is a better tool as it would allow for easier access to a particular piece of equipment without having to unload half of it to get to it.

Also - plan on dark tinting to keep prying eyes from seeing what's inside. And unless she really wants to advertise, no decals or anything that would hint to a casual passerby the contents of the van may exceed the value of the van.

And I commend your plan. You're trying to do what I had hoped to do for my father for hauling around his reenactment gear before he went nuts.

Have you ever looked inside a Scion? They're surprisingly roomy and I assume cheap to run.

This one is $5800.

http://newlondon.craigslist.org/cto/3793745358.html

Yeah, for this purpose the Element, xB, Cube et al would be other great options. I bet even a Honda Fit would work well.

The Fit would definitely work well, as long as she's not carrying passengers. With the back seat up, the cargo area isn't too big. But with the back seat down, it's huge.

Big is beautiful! Go for the minivan. She knows what she wants, and it isn't a subcompact! (Where's the rolleyes smiley?)

My mom has a 2000, that she has owned since new, and will never, ever part with. Though she has the 2000 model that was left over before the redesigned version you're loooking. Be that as it may, she's had great luck with it outside of the usual honda issues (niggling window issues, rotting exhausts from short commutes, etc) and has never had anything major. I kid you not, a giant tree limb crashed down on it last year, blew out the back windows and partially smashed the roof and she still refused to get rid of it. Insurance company wanted to total it and she paid out of pocket to repair. She loves that thing to death. My father has offered to get her a new one, or a CRV, or anything to replace it and she refuses. I think she has somewhere around 120k miles on it

I think she's pretty set on a minivan. If it was my purchase, I would get an Element or something similar, but I think she knows what she needs better than I do. The dark tint is a good idea.

You may also want to consider some of the Chrysler minivans - I'm seeing some 09 Grand Caravans fall into your price range.

OSULemon wrote: Well, berkeley. Seems as though '99-2008 all have transmission issues. Before that is too old, and I can't afford quite that new. Time to cross-shop.

IIRC, the incidence rate of transmission failures drops off significantly around 2005 or so. You'll find people out on the net blaming any transmission problem on an Odyssey on this issue, but my understanding is that Honda fixed the basic problem that was causing massive numbers of failures somewhere around 2005.

codrus wrote:

OSULemon wrote: Well, berkeley. Seems as though '99-2008 all have transmission issues. Before that is too old, and I can't afford quite that new. Time to cross-shop.

IIRC, the incidence rate of transmission failures drops off significantly around 2005 or so. You'll find people out on the net blaming *any* transmission problem on an Odyssey on this issue, but my understanding is that Honda fixed the basic problem that was causing massive numbers of failures somewhere around 2005.

That was my suspicion. I will find out a lot by taking her car shopping. If she gravitates towards the more expensive models, then I will have to abandon the idea.

First off, good for you for this thought. Depreciation is your friend, so cross-shop the models that no one loves. Mazda and Nissan and the Koreans seem to drop more than Honda and Toyota, meaning you can get "more." I haven't thought about some of the obscure ones. What about the last Olds Silhouettes? There's a good orphan that most normal people wouldn't search on AutoTrader.

Out of curiosity, what discipline of photography is she into?

Oh, and I second the dark tint. It keeps prying eyes out, makes the glass harder to break, and makes the van a comfortable place to hang out while you're waiting for a shot.

FWIW I also have a "security blanket" which is literally just a blanket that I throw over everything for security. If you do it right you can make it look like wadded up dirty clothes under an old dog blanket, instead of looking like a bunch of awesome stuff behind fragile glass.

Also, if any thieves are reading this–I'm just kidding. I actually keep a trained attack dog in my car with my camera gear.

Tom Suddard wrote: Out of curiosity, what discipline of photography is she into?

Portrait/wedding. She loves taking pictures of kids. And yes, she is very good.

Cool! I guess she doesn't need 4x4, then. I'm real into nature photography, which often times means I need to destroy some nature for a good shot.

Tom Suddard wrote: Cool! I guess she doesn't need 4x4, then. I'm real into nature photography, which often times means I need to destroy some nature for a good shot.

Ha. She's taken a few landscape shots, like all photographers probably do, but trees and mountains don't have jobs and don't pay for photoshoots.

My research on Odysseys concluded that the transmission problems were the worst in '01-04ish and dropped off with the re-design. It sounds like there still are issues with torque converters and some "shudder" even on brand new Odysseys. Also, the motor mounts on VCM-equipped Odysseys seem to be problematic and expensive to fix.

$10k is a tough price for minivans right now. I know because I've been shopping them.

We ended up with a 2007 Sienna with high miles. Siennas have their own issues, but to me they were more favorable than the Honda's. I live in a small market so there weren't many Sedonas and I wasn't going to buy a used one sight unseen. Sedona is probably the best value, but I like the Sienna better.

we bought an '03 ody new in Nov '02. trans was replaced by honda under NHTSA recall at 44k miles. ody currently has 235k miles, so 191k on the replacement. i'd say if your candidate has documented honda replacement trans, you're probably good for the long haul.

oh, and if you want a silver '03 EX-L DVD with 235k and all receipts since purchase, i know where you can get one for about $6k.

Tom Suddard wrote: Cool! I guess she doesn't need 4x4, then. I'm real into nature photography, which often times means I need to destroy some nature for a good shot.

Tom

Are you hitting on his mom?

OSULemon wrote: Well, berkeley. Seems as though '99-2008 all have transmission issues. Before that is too old, and I can't afford quite that new. Time to cross-shop.

Its a honda, they have transmission issues. We always had a stock of honda auto trans and manual transmissions in the parts department, when I used to work at a Honda dealer. Never any engines though...

On the Ody transmissions, from my understanding they did a re-work for the '05-'06 models and then switched to the ridgeline transmisson. As twolittlebroncos said, they dropped off alot( compared to '04 and earlier ) after '05.

We have an 06 Sienna, and it has truly trouble free over the 6.5 years we have owned it. I love the van!!

Chris