What minivan to buy for $10k

[Anonymous]

We would like to spend no more than $10k on a minivan with a backup camera. It will be driven about 15k/year, and we would like to get about 4 years out of it and don't mind paying for some repairs, but where is the trade off between paying for repairs and paying more up front? We bought the last one with 135k miles on Craigslist and now have about 200k.

What would you buy, and would you go with a dealer or private? Is an older/higher mileage Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna preferable to a newer/lower mileage Dodge Caravan, Chrysler Town & Country, or Kia Sedona, for instance?

[Anonymous]

I drove a 2011 Dodge Caravan as a company vehicle and it was incredibly reliable. I was really shocked, actually. It was a “commercial fleet model”, meaning it didn’t have a lot of the fancy options and stuff more expensive versions did, but it had all the basic stuff. But I put 170,000 miles on it in 8 years, and all it ever needed was oil changes, tires, and other routine maintenance. No issues or breakdowns, ever. I was really surprised.

[Anonymous]

From what I can tell, having a backup camera in a vehicle didn't start happening until the 2012 models.
The cheapest used minivans seem to be dodge caravans.
With only $10k in your budget, I doubt you can find a used Toyota or Honda with a backup camera, even if the van has high mileage.

What type of van are you driving right now?

[Anonymous]

OP, I understand your dilemma.

We are currently in the same boat. We have been saving up for a new van for several months. My current van developed an electrical problem last week (dash board lights have gone out) so we are looking on line at what is available to replace it.

In my area (Florida)
There is a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country for sale for $7,000 with 165k miles on it.
And then there is a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country for sale for $18,000 with 30k miles on it.

If we bought the one with the high mileage, we wouldn't need to finance it. But how long before it needs some repair????
For that matter, the high mileage one might be in better shape mechanically than the low mileage one.


We plan to look over both vehicles very thoroughly before we make a final decision.

[Anonymous]

4 years? As in you are okay with taking 2500 depreciation per year to drive it for 4 years? If that's the case, the only real solution here is to buy new.

To give you an example, we bought a 2017 Odyssy EX-L for $31k. Looking at Autotrader, with less than 60k miles, they are going for $23,000 or higher. That's 8k of depreciation for 4 years, with warranty coverage, and no repair costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
From what I can tell, having a backup camera in a vehicle didn't start happening until the 2012 models.
The cheapest used minivans seem to be dodge caravans.
With only $10k in your budget, I doubt you can find a used Toyota or Honda with a backup camera, even if the van has high mileage.

What type of van are you driving right now?

2007 Odyssey EX-L with DVD/Nav because we wanted the backup camera back then also, and that was pretty much the only way to get it. There are some 2011/2012 ones available with high mileage, but then I see Carvans or Town and Country vans with much lower mileage. If they are likely to need repairs at lower mileage than an Odyssey will, then I'm not sure if that's a better deal or not. Also if we get a van with 80k, we pretty much know we'd need a timing belt in a year.... An Odyssey with more miles might have already had that done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 years? As in you are okay with taking 2500 depreciation per year to drive it for 4 years? If that's the case, the only real solution here is to buy new.

To give you an example, we bought a 2017 Odyssy EX-L for $31k. Looking at Autotrader, with less than 60k miles, they are going for $23,000 or higher. That's 8k of depreciation for 4 years, with warranty coverage, and no repair costs.

This is basically what I've been wondering. Did we spend as much per year on the cheaper/older one anyway because we had to do some repairs to get 4 years out of it? I'd like to have a van for more than 4 years, I only said I want to get 4 years out of it because it took us that long to get the one we have to 200,000 miles and close to worthless.

Also we had less money then. We could pay more now if it is expected to come out better per year.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need a backup camera ? Seems like that will limit your options.

[Anonymous]

I think the Odyssey may not have a timing belt. Timing chains do not need replacement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the Odyssey may not have a timing belt. Timing chains do not need replacement.

I will look into this. The one we have has one, which was changed before we got it, but maybe newer ones are different?

[Anonymous]

OP, why do you have to replace the minivan? Does it need major repairs? If not, I would just drive it until it dies and save more money so you can spend more than 10k and get a van that will a) last you longer than 4 years and b) will be easier to get what you want. It’s costlier in the long run to do it the way you’ve been doing. Get something newer and it will last you much longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, why do you have to replace the minivan? Does it need major repairs? If not, I would just drive it until it dies and save more money so you can spend more than 10k and get a van that will a) last you longer than 4 years and b) will be easier to get what you want. It’s costlier in the long run to do it the way you’ve been doing. Get something newer and it will last you much longer.

It will need another timing belt soon and some other things. I always thought used cars were supposed to be cheaper per mile, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Maybe because we bought too old instead of just a few years old. This was the first used vehicle we've bought. The car we bought new before the van ended up with over 200k on on it also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why do you have to replace the minivan? Does it need major repairs? If not, I would just drive it until it dies and save more money so you can spend more than 10k and get a van that will a) last you longer than 4 years and b) will be easier to get what you want. It’s costlier in the long run to do it the way you’ve been doing. Get something newer and it will last you much longer.

It will need another timing belt soon and some other things. I always thought used cars were supposed to be cheaper per mile, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Maybe because we bought too old instead of just a few years old. This was the first used vehicle we've bought. The car we bought new before the van ended up with over 200k on on it also.

The other reason is if we keep driving it, one day it will suddenly go from worth a few thousand to worth $0/paying someone to tow take it away if it breaks down because we're not going to fix it at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, why do you have to replace the minivan? Does it need major repairs? If not, I would just drive it until it dies and save more money so you can spend more than 10k and get a van that will a) last you longer than 4 years and b) will be easier to get what you want. It’s costlier in the long run to do it the way you’ve been doing. Get something newer and it will last you much longer.

It will need another timing belt soon and some other things. I always thought used cars were supposed to be cheaper per mile, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Maybe because we bought too old instead of just a few years old. This was the first used vehicle we've bought. The car we bought new before the van ended up with over 200k on on it also.

The other reason is if we keep driving it, one day it will suddenly go from worth a few thousand to worth $0/paying someone to tow take it away if it breaks down because we're not going to fix it at that point.

I think this is right. We have driven our last two minivans until they literally didn't work at all and I wish we had sold them for a couple of grand before that point.

[Anonymous]

We found our last few vehicles on Facebook Marketplace. It's kind of a pain unless you know how to do the transfer, but we got amazing deals.

You know you can buy a back up camera for about $35 and install it yourself.