This is a long shot but I'll mention it. When you look at dealership ads - look at high end car dealerships. We got our van from a BMW dealership and we feel we got a GOOD deal on it. I think they just wanted it off their lot. Then last year, friends of our just happened to do the same thing - got their van from a BMW dealership. They also feel they got a good deal.
Is there a good car search engine for this scenario, searching multiple inventories at once? I tried cars.com already. Or am I stuck looking at each high-end dealership's inventory individually?
Also, @supergreen, we just bought ours a week ago and did a ton of shopping, research, test driving, etc. I'm sure you have, too, but let me know if you have questions!
Thanks! We're really limited by our budget of $20k. That gets us a too old Sienna, like a 2010. We don't want a car that old, that's not much better than the 2007 Prius we already have as our "family car." The Mazda5 is too small. Looks like the domestic minivans (town & country, dodge whatever) have reliability issues and cruddy resale value (no offense if you bought one of those!). So we've narrowed our sights on an Odyssey, a 2012 is the newest model in our price range. As I said earlier, I can get the lowest LX trim level for $20K, but an EX with power sliding doors is around $24K. None of the dealers I've contacted so far will come down. Any advice?
We're on our second Dodge Grand Caravan. There was nothing wrong with the first one, which we bought new in 2009. We sold it last May for more than blue book value...it had low mileage for a 5 year old van, though. Honestly, the resale market for minivans is excellent, any van in good shape and not high mileage will sell no problem...which is why you're having trouble finding one in your price range. We definitely haven't had any reliability issues, either. We've had our second Grand Caravan for a year now and have had zero issues. The power sliding doors came standard...if we wanted manual doors it would have been a special order.
Thanks zarapipe. We have to trade in our existing family car to afford the van, and the existing car is the only one with car seats. I don't want to leave the kids with my parents to make a multi-hour trip to buy the van. So it's got to be somewhere close to me.
This is a long shot but I'll mention it. When you look at dealership ads - look at high end car dealerships. We got our van from a BMW dealership and we feel we got a GOOD deal on it. I think they just wanted it off their lot. Then last year, friends of our just happened to do the same thing - got their van from a BMW dealership. They also feel they got a good deal.
Is there a good car search engine for this scenario, searching multiple inventories at once? I tried cars.com already. Or am I stuck looking at each high-end dealership's inventory individually?
I really wish I could remember how I did it. It was by chance. I know I searched online and it was a "just happened" to find the van at a BMW dealership. It was probably through a site like cars.com. (It's been 6 years!) I definitely wasn't going to dealership sites one by one.
Also, @supergreen, we just bought ours a week ago and did a ton of shopping, research, test driving, etc. I'm sure you have, too, but let me know if you have questions!
Thanks! We're really limited by our budget of $20k. That gets us a too old Sienna, like a 2010. We don't want a car that old, that's not much better than the 2007 Prius we already have as our "family car." The Mazda5 is too small. Looks like the domestic minivans (town & country, dodge whatever) have reliability issues and cruddy resale value (no offense if you bought one of those!). So we've narrowed our sights on an Odyssey, a 2012 is the newest model in our price range. As I said earlier, I can get the lowest LX trim level for $20K, but an EX with power sliding doors is around $24K. None of the dealers I've contacted so far will come down. Any advice?
I found a couple of 2011 XLEs (leather, nav, sun roof) for just over $20k on cars.com in your state - no idea if they would be close to you. They do have around 80k miles on them - this wouldn't really bother me if it got me what I wanted at the right price. I just like to stay under 100k for a used car if everything else seems clean and well cared for (and we take it to our mechanic for a thorough inspection).
How have you been trying to contact dealers? I've had the best luck when we've gone in, driven the car, built a little rapport with the sales person...and then talk price. Do you have a trade? Maybe they can give you some wiggle room with a trade?
I personally didn't look at Dodge, Chrysler or Nissan because of their ratings, but they may be cheaper. Honda is top-rated and they know it. We did drive a 2014 Kia Sedona, but really preferred the 2015 redesign. I found the older models a bit cramped, but we are a tall people.
Post by mainelyfoolish on May 26, 2015 11:39:24 GMT -5
Power sliding doors are a must for me. That's one of the major benefits of the minivan, being able to push the button and letting your kids climb into the car while your hands are full with diaper bags, backpacks, groceries. You can live without a power lift gate in the rear; that's more of a luxury than a necessity, IMO.
LOL, resale value doesn't matter if you plan to drive a 4 year old van for 8 more years. Resale just burns you on the front end because it's worth near-new costs for a used vehicle.
Do it for the reliability or whatever, but don't do it for resale.
And power doors are pretty awesome with little kids. I'd only want a van with power doors and a DVD system.
I just want to say I know how frustrating this search can be. Minivans are super pricey vehicles!!! And with the Toyota and Honda holding their value it can be difficult to find a good used one! That's why we ended up going new but that's definitely out of your price range -our base model Toyota sienna with AWD was just over 31k.
Maybe some will have a sale over 4th of July weekend?
halfpintzarapipe and everyone else, what are your thoughts on no-name dealerships? There's a tiny independent dealer than has FOUR Odyssey's with my criteria, but the pics of the building look, well...shady frankly. Like I'm likely to get skin suited or something. Why does this tiny place have 4 cars that are $3-4K cheaper than everywhere else?
The Odyssey has crazy-good resale value, and we found that it was difficult to find good used ones.
Have you tried the Toyota? I liked the Honda a bit more, but there were a lot more Toyotas on the market. I was able to find some newer but higher mileage vans with nice features around that price point.
We ended up with a new Kia, which will be higher than your target price, but the new model is SO NICE.
Yup that's why we're looking at the Odyssey, good resale value. The Toyota Sienna is too expensive, our budget would get us a 2010 or so, which is not much newer than the 2007 Prius we already have. I don't want to go older than 2012, that's already 4 model years old. I need this van to last all the way through our kid's young years, at least 8 years.
I wouldn't think there is any reason that a 2010 Toyota Sienna wouldn't last 8 more years. 12 years isn't old for a Toyota
- signed the driver of a 17 yr old Toyota (Yes it has repairs, but nothing prior to 2 years ago, and all repairs are parts that needed to be replaced after a certain number of miles).
I also have a friend that has a town and county and it is nice (except that i feel like it drives like a boat, I heard the oddessy is more zippy)
halfpintzarapipe and everyone else, what are your thoughts on no-name dealerships? There's a tiny independent dealer than has FOUR Odyssey's with my criteria, but the pics of the building look, well...shady frankly. Like I'm likely to get skin suited or something. Why does this tiny place have 4 cars that are $3-4K cheaper than everywhere else?
Here's what the "nice" dealership in town told us - could be a total line of shit, but it makes some sense:
They go the auctions and buy the best - good condition, mileage, model year, no mechanical issues. If you buy from us, you know it's passed our rigorous standards.
The cheaper dealerships then buy what gets passed up by the big guys - so there's something that made it less desirable to them. Maybe not as clean, maybe has some history, dents, dings, or other wear and tear.
I guess I wouldn't worry TOO much, as long as they'll provide Carfax reports and allow your mechanic to inspect the vehicle before purchase. See if you can find any online reviews of the place?
halfpint thank you for the advice! I've been using phone and email to contact dealers. Asking for their best price and Carfax report. All dealers are over an hour away, so to stick with DS's nap schedule I have to get childcare for DS to look at cars. I'll also have to bring DD with us as she's a bottle refuser. I am absolutely not doing all of that hassle without a firm price already in place. I simply don't have the time or patience to test drive multiple cars and build a rapport with a salesperson. I've tried explaining to them that if they can give me the price I need I'll buy the car, but they're still not budging.
I need this van to last a long time, so I'm reluctant to buy anything older than 2012 or high mileage. But it sounds like I need to compromise on one of those things to get power sliding doors in my price range. Do you recommend compromising on year or mileage?
Post by Ashley&Scott on May 26, 2015 11:57:03 GMT -5
@supergreen - have you driven an Odyssey yet? When I was car shopping a few years ago I had a Honda Accord on my short list, but after driving one I quickly learned that it wasn't a good fit for me. (I'm assuming you have but just wanted to be sure that you're not pouring all of this effort into finding one before you test drive.)
Also, are the dealerships quoting a reasonable trade in value for your current car?
halfpint we do have a trade, my 2007 Prius. But we need a good trade-in value on that too! We're hoping between the trade-in and putting some money down to only finance $10k. So I need a $20k base price to start, and a good trade-in value. Are my aspirations too high?
LOL, resale value doesn't matter if you plan to drive a 4 year old van for 8 more years. Resale just burns you on the front end because it's worth near-new costs for a used vehicle.
Do it for the reliability or whatever, but don'd do it for resale.
And power doors are pretty awesome with little kids. I'd only want a van with power doors and a DVD system.
Thank you, this is exactly my though. Why are you worried about resale in eight years?
We have a fully loaded vw routan which is a t&c. And yeah, we bought it knowing there are potential transmission issues down the line. But I've never heard of a $10,000 transmission issue and that was the price difference. I'm willing to roll the dice on a potential $3,000 part failing than pay an additional $10,000 for sure.
Lots of my coworkers have Dodge Caravans. They all seem happy. What is the difference per month in an extra 3-4k? Like 20-30 bucks?
After trade-in and putting down some cash, we're hoping to only finance $10k, which we can pay off in a year or so. Financing $14k versus $10K, is..well a 40% increase more than we want to finance. KWIM? But it sounds like my aspirations are too high, and I need to compromise on something.
halfpint thank you for the advice! I've been using phone and email to contact dealers. Asking for their best price and Carfax report. All dealers are over an hour away, so to stick with DS's nap schedule I have to get childcare for DS to look at cars. I'll also have to bring DD with us as she's a bottle refuser. I am absolutely not doing all of that hassle without a firm price already in place. I simply don't have the time or patience to test drive multiple cars and build a rapport with a salesperson. I've tried explaining to them that if they can give me the price I need I'll buy the car, but they're still not budging.
I need this van to last a long time, so I'm reluctant to buy anything older than 2012 or high mileage. But it sounds like I need to compromise on one of those things to get power sliding doors in my price range. Do you recommend compromising on year or mileage?
hands down compromise on year not mileage. A car can be 50 years old, but if it only has 50 miles on it, it could drive forever. A car that is 1 yr old with 150K miles on it is going to be approaching the end of its useful life. Miles are what wear cares down not year.
halfpint thank you for the advice! I've been using phone and email to contact dealers. Asking for their best price and Carfax report. All dealers are over an hour away, so to stick with DS's nap schedule I have to get childcare for DS to look at cars. I'll also have to bring DD with us as she's a bottle refuser. I am absolutely not doing all of that hassle without a firm price already in place. I simply don't have the time or patience to test drive multiple cars and build a rapport with a salesperson. I've tried explaining to them that if they can give me the price I need I'll buy the car, but they're still not budging.
I need this van to last a long time, so I'm reluctant to buy anything older than 2012 or high mileage. But it sounds like I need to compromise on one of those things to get power sliding doors in my price range. Do you recommend compromising on year or mileage?
I get it - B is a pretty chill kid, but we definitely ended up with some meltdowns in dealerships!!! It's rough - we ended up sending him to the grandparents for a weekend so we could seal the deal, but either way, you don't want to be driving to a bunch of places all over hell and back We had like 10 dealerships all within a few miles of each other, so it made it a bit easier. If you have a little time before you feel like you HAVE to buy, we had sales people calling us with used vehicles as they came in, before they were even listed.
I bought my Honda Pilot at three years old, with 70k miles, zero hesitation that it would last for another 10 years if we wanted it to. I personally would probably look for a sweet spot with both - maybe a 2011 or 2012 with 70-80k miles. With higher mileage, you are going to start to get into some scheduled maintenance costs, but nothing too rough. Those motors are just getting warmed up. I looked for single previous owner. After we took it to our mechanic, we got some knocked off the price because of maintenance they identified that would need to be done soon (new tires, etc.).
@supergreen - have you driven an Odyssey yet? When I was car shopping a few years ago I had a Honda Accord on my short list, but after driving one I quickly learned that it wasn't a good fit for me. (I'm assuming you have but just wanted to be sure that you're not pouring all of this effort into finding one before you test drive.)
Also, are the dealerships quoting a reasonable trade in value for your current car?
No we haven't driven it yet. Silly I know! It's just so hard to do with two little kids and a FT working spouse. Like, what do I do with the kids while I test drive? I'm certainly not uninstalling their seats from my car and putting them in the van just to drive it around the block KWIM. I guess DH and I could take turns driving it while DS wrecks the dealer waiting room If I'm going to go through all the trouble of getting childcare and losing a precious Saturday to looking at cars, then I want to go ahead and buy the car at the end of the test drive. Which I can't do yet b/c I can't get the price I need.
So yeah I'm kinda pouring my effort into finding a particular one. I eliminated domestic vans for reliability issues, the Mazda5 is too small, and the Toyota Sienna is too expensive.
I haven't gotten to the "discuss trade-in" stage with any dealers yet, b/c we haven't passed the first step (price) yet. I've always read to get a firm price BEFORE you bring a trade-in into the equation, right?
My kid having a meltdown while looking got a dealership to knock more off the price!
We ultimately still got the best price from an Internet sales person.
Yeah that's what I've read. Get the best price from the internet sales person before you even go to the dealership. So that's what I've been trying to do, but they're not budging! I guess they know they can sell the van for list price?
@supergreen - have you driven an Odyssey yet? When I was car shopping a few years ago I had a Honda Accord on my short list, but after driving one I quickly learned that it wasn't a good fit for me. (I'm assuming you have but just wanted to be sure that you're not pouring all of this effort into finding one before you test drive.)
Also, are the dealerships quoting a reasonable trade in value for your current car?
No we haven't driven it yet. Silly I know! It's just so hard to do with two little kids and a FT working spouse. Like, what do I do with the kids while I test drive? I'm certainly not uninstalling their seats from my car and putting them in the van just to drive it around the block KWIM. I guess DH and I could take turns driving it while DS wrecks the dealer waiting room If I'm going to go through all the trouble of getting childcare and losing a precious Saturday to looking at cars, then I want to go ahead and buy the car at the end of the test drive. Which I can't do yet b/c I can't get the price I need.
So yeah I'm kinda pouring my effort into finding a particular one. I eliminated domestic vans for reliability issues, the Mazda5 is too small, and the Toyota Sienna is too expensive.
I haven't gotten to the "discuss trade-in" stage with any dealers yet, b/c we haven't passed the first step (price) yet. I've always read to get a firm price BEFORE you bring a trade-in into the equation, right?
Are there any dealerships that are local to you? Even if they don't have a van in your price range I would absolutely go drive the model so you know if you like it. If you don't then all of your searching & negotiating could be a waste if you don't even like the car.
This will be your primary car right? If so I would ask your mom to watch both kids on a weekday while you run to do a quick test drive at the local dealership. If you like it then send DH on a Saturday to test drive. Once you establish that you both actually like the van you can worry about test driving the actual car you are bidding on, which might end up being at a dealership farther away.
@barefootbarista I live in the boonies, at least an hour drive from any car dealership. So unfortunately there is no popping over for a test drive, or the dealer driving a car to my house, or DH haggling after work. We'd have to secure childcare for DS, haul DD to the dealer, and use up a precious Saturday to do it. If I'm doing all that work, I want to buy the car KWIM?
I'd look into Nissan and Kia a bit more, if you won't consider domestic. After all the recalls I keep getting for my Honda, I'm not buying into the "reliability" thing like I used to.
Post by humpforfree on May 26, 2015 12:17:29 GMT -5
We dropped the kid off yesterday and then just spent a whole day. We had prices from dealers kind of close toe what we wanted, but not all the way. We went to 3 different dealers and test drove/talked pricing, ended up back at the first one after a call from the last dealership asking the first to match the price. He did and we bought the van yesterday and brought it home. It is do-able all in one day. I will say that we were looking at trading in my car and the prices we were given we laughable- like 1/2-1/4 of what we can get selling on Craigslist. We brought it home with us too and will sell privately. We used savings (slightly less than what we should get from selling the car) to add to the car down payment and will replenish with what we get from selling.
Ashley&Scott the closest dealer is an hour away. It's close to DH's work though. So I'll probably leave DS with my mom and hike DD up there for a test drive while DH hangs out with DD.