I think you’re making a wise choice. Regardless of how much you think you save by buying something else, the Honda is a best seller for a reason. You get what you pay for and the resale value will recover any difference in price. My daughter’s Honda has been superb regardless of the collisions she puts it through. You seldom regret buying the best.
You will never hear the end to it ,if you do not buy what the wife wants.Period .End of discusion.Been there,done that.
To me, the Toyota Sienna seemed slightly quieter than the Honda Odyssey (road noise). However, it may not be a big deal. I know that the 2011 Sienna does not have a timing belt that needs to be changed periodically. You might check this out on the Honda Odyssey. My trusted independent mechanic liked both the Toyota and Honda minivans.
To me, a minivan is a minivan–I’ve had four different minivans. When you’ve driven one, you’ve driven them all. If I didn’t need one for my activities, I would drive a Mazda Miata (or an 1960 Austin Healy Sprite if I could keep one running).
If you are long legged like me , the new Sienna and Oddessy don’t fit . 5 years ago the Sienna fit me beautifully. Actually I liked all the minivan better years ago. I had a 92 Plymouth Voyager that had chair high seats for 7 full sized adults. The Chrysler vans still have great seating positions in front but the rears are no longer comfortable on trips for adults.
not only the price, but the warranty is 2+x Honda’s. How much do you want to start paying for repairs (less of them on the Honda, admittedly) 3 years into a 5 year loan? With the Kia (or Hyundai Entourage version) it’s 6/60 and 10/100, that’s what got me to look there first.
We have recently purcahsed the Odyessy with the addition of our third son and I have accepted it. I was not a big minivan guy, but the Odyessyy won me over.
I test drove the Sienna and I found its control consoul very unintutive. The Odyessy is much better.
I will second that the Sienna seemed quiter, but the difference was not that much. I will say that in a crossbreeze the Oddessy whistles like the Andy Griffin theme song.
Our engine is the six cylinder that cuts out to a four cylinder when cruising and it does save on gas.
My brother-in-law has a Dodge Caravan with all of the stow and go features and he and his family love it as well, so I think you are looking at three good choices IMHO
Comfort is a big deal to me. I’m 6’2" and sometimeswill ride in the back. In fact, the ones we’ve test drove ( the Flex and Sienna), my wife drove and i sat in the back. I had sufficient leg room in both cars, but I was sitting behind my wife (5’4’).
I think we’ll do the “long” test drives as suggested before. It’s hard to find something for the long legged people, unless you get the 3/4 ton ext. cab trucks.
Kia Sedona for sure. We’ve had ours for 4 yrs. And it’s been rock solid. Toyota and Honda are overrated. You’ll also pay about 6 grand more. That means that you’d have to have 6 thousand dollars worth of repairs with the Sedona to break even.
I guess I’ll be the one to say it. You do not need a minivan for 4 people. If you’re really worried about space, get a small crossover, like a Honda CR-V. Minivans are a dying breed, and i can guarantee that you’ll watch the resale value plummet to nothing in the next few years.
According to edmunds.com, the true cost to own a 2010 Honda Odyssey EX 4dr Minivan (3.5L 6cyl 5A) for five years is $42,971, and the true cost to own a 2010 Kia Sedona 4dr Minivan (3.8L 6cyl 5A) for five years is $44,053. Sure, you can save $6,000 on the sticker price, but over the course of five years, you should expect to pay an extra $7,082 for other expenses related to operating the Kia.
There are costs of operation other than the sticker price and repairs. You should also take depreciation, fuel cost, and insurance cost into account.
I'm not a Honda fan, but have still heard good things about the Odyssey. However, I think the test drives are the best advice (personally, I don't think it has to be real long depending on where you are -- the dealers here are right off city streets and interstate, so I can test city driving, stops, corners, and punching it up an onramp in a fairly short drive.) You don't want a minivan that's great except it's uncomfortable 8-) Personally, I would also look into MPG -- minivans generally do get reasonable mileage, but within the last year or so some car cos have gone into a real crash course in improving mileage (with direct injection, variable valve timing, newer transmissions, and in some cases just realizing the smaller engine exceeds the power output of the bigger engine of a few years ago, and just putting a smaller engine in.)
Regarding consumer reports, it’s certainly reputable, but reliability on all makes and models has gotten much better of late – so if one has like 5 stars reliability and the other has like 4, I wouldn’t sweat it too much.
When you have kids, you need more room than for just 4 people. When they’re young, you have to bring along a lot of stuff when you travel with them. When they get older you need room for friends of your kids plus all their golf clubs, skis, snowboards, hockey equipment, etc. Also, what about the dog?
Vans have a lot of interior room and are more efficient and practical compared to a SUV or crossover.
Minivans are a dying breed, and i can guarantee that you’ll watch the resale value plummet to nothing in the next few years.
This might have the opposite effect and the resale values might just increase if minivans become scarce. I paid $15,500 for a 2006 Chevrolet Uplander back in 2006. Mine was a program car with 15,000 miles. This past March, we sold it to our son, and I went looking for another minivan. I found an almost identical 2006 Uplander with the same number of miles and the dealer wanted $14,500. I decided to buy a new Sienna instead.
I have owned
Voyager- junk
Windstar-junk
Aerostar- great
Astro-great
If I were to buy another m/van it would be a Honda or Toyota. Nothing else!