re: Minivan - yay or nay?

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Get a toyota or Honda. Buy used. My sienna was like 20K with less than 30K miles and had leather.

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Same here. My wife was driving an older Accord. We bought her a Highlander. She loved it, but the first week or so of carpool with our oldest in Kindergarten, struggling to shut the door all the way, my wife wanted the power sliding doors. We only had the Highlander a year or so. Traded it in 2013 on a 2011 Sienna with under 20k miles. I think the van was around $20k. Leather, both power sliding doors, all that. It isn't the fully loaded model, but the only thing it is really missing is a sunroof, fog lights, nav, and some trim.

Four years later, she is considering another crossover SUV. Our son will be in K5 in a couple of years, and we don't plan on having any more. After he's in 1st grade, we'll be done with our van phase. But for 6-7 years when the kids are small, they are hard to beat. Plus I can stow the 3rd row and take the 2nd row seats out and stack drywall or plywood in the thing.

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The sienna has more road noise.

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Have to disagree there. We went to test drive a used Odyssey. She had her heart set on it. Took them both out, and the Sienna was much quieter. We drove at least 2-3 of each because they had them all on the lot, and each of the Honda's was louder. The drive was much smoother too. Plus it has a 3.5L V6 that has around 250-270 HP. It will straight up haul on the interstates on trips. I have to use cruise because if I don't I find myself going 85.