Congrats on your new vehicle OP >>> but I have to agree that domestic vehicles tend to be less reliable overall & lose their value quicker.

and probably more than 50% of the life of the vehicle is gone already. just sayin

OP's thinking is totally off the mark by thinking that they scored a deal by buying a used car at half the MSRP. A "win" would be scoring a deal relative to a comparable used Dodge Caravan, and a simple search on car.com shows that it's around 17,990...which is exactly what OP got it for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

LOL!!! The Caravan GT sells for about $21k brand new. It's a fleet model sold to car rental places with an inflated MSRP. This is why slightly used cars are always poor values. Because people like you overpay for them.

OP here. How do you know this?
I know that the van I bought was a former rental vehicle. I keep wondering for what purpose vans usually get rented for. Crew of people going out to a worksite maybe?

Dodge Caravans are routinely sold for 35-40% off MSRP, brand new, this is with dealer markup and profit. The car design is 10+ years old and has officially been discontinued. Even though the GT has the highest MSRP of all the trim levels, it has no options to add, so every single one sold is at the $37k. If we apply a similarly aggressive pricing discount of 40%, and subtract $1k for dealer profits, you get to about $21k for pricing.

I actually did a quick search on the internet and Edmunds gives a "recommended" price of $23,114, the lowest of all trim levels, and Edmuds recommended pricing is generally regarded as higher than what you can actually get - it's just an "OK" price.

People rent vans for road trips, vacations, business trips with multiple people. I have driven my fair share of Caravans as our family of six go about our vacations. They are certainly adequate, but you could have done better in terms of value with a Pacifica.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

LOL!!! The Caravan GT sells for about $21k brand new. It's a fleet model sold to car rental places with an inflated MSRP. This is why slightly used cars are always poor values. Because people like you overpay for them.

OP here. How do you know this?
I know that the van I bought was a former rental vehicle. I keep wondering for what purpose vans usually get rented for. Crew of people going out to a worksite maybe?

We’re a family of five and rent minivans when we fly somewhere for vacation. And usually that’s the Dodge Caravan or whatever name it’s trading under. One PP is correct that for a fleet model like that, the sticker price or MSRP is wishful thinking. It’s like the price tag on a jacket at Kohl’s. You didn’t save 49%.

But look, you did fine, you got a decent van that will last you at least another 100k miles, probably another 150k miles or more, for a reasonable price. It’s a solid, safe car. One or two posters want to be mean on here, just consider what kind of person is spending their weekend making such comments to try to feel better.

We rented one when we went to FIL’s funeral because we had to drive BIL around with our family of 5. It was a piece of junk compared to my Sienna.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

LOL!!! The Caravan GT sells for about $21k brand new. It's a fleet model sold to car rental places with an inflated MSRP. This is why slightly used cars are always poor values. Because people like you overpay for them.

OP here. How do you know this?
I know that the van I bought was a former rental vehicle. I keep wondering for what purpose vans usually get rented for. Crew of people going out to a worksite maybe?

Don't some people just want to rent a similar car to what they drive when on vacation? Or if your minivan gets in an accident, you might rent another one. I actually wouldn't do that because insurance usually has a $-limit and I want it to stretch as long as possible because it can take a long time to fix/total cars, but some people might have so many kids they have to or wouldn't think about the limit because car insurance is usually willing to set you up in a car comparable to the one that was crashed.

OP here. The 2019 Dodge van I bought was to replace the 1996 Dodge van I have been driving since it was new. The 25 year old van is still running. I gave it to my mechanic yesterday so he can fix the latest glitch on it and then give it away or sell it or whatever he wants to do with it. It always has liked to go visit my mechanic.

But . . . it was still running after 25 years, which is why I bought another Dodge van.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

LOL!!! The Caravan GT sells for about $21k brand new. It's a fleet model sold to car rental places with an inflated MSRP. This is why slightly used cars are always poor values. Because people like you overpay for them.

OP here. How do you know this?
I know that the van I bought was a former rental vehicle. I keep wondering for what purpose vans usually get rented for. Crew of people going out to a worksite maybe?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

Are you asking for approval or anonymously sharing your good news with the world?

OP is feeling the typical smugness that used car buyers have, thinking they saved SOOOOO MUCH MONEY over buying new.

OP here. Yep. That is pretty much the reason I posted.

That and, in the thread about the family wanting to buy a van for 10K, someone responded that a Honda Odyssey will depreciate about 25 % in the first five years. After I came home and did the math about what I had paid for my Dodge van, I realized that apparently Dodge vans depreciate by 50 % in the first two years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

Are you asking for approval or anonymously sharing your good news with the world?

OP is feeling the typical smugness that used car buyers have, thinking they saved SOOOOO MUCH MONEY over buying new.

Anonymous wrote:We bought a Dodge Caravan GT model with 35,000 miles on it.

The original sticker price for it brand new was $37,000. We paid $18,000.

Which means we paid 49 % of the original sticker price.

I think that is a pretty sweet deal.

Are you asking for approval or anonymously sharing your good news with the world?

50% of sticker price means nothing. With a $37k sticker, you can buy it new for $29k. You still saved a good chunk of $$ thiugh

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If anyone sees a deal that sweet on a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, lemme know...

Yes!!! I want one so bad

My friend just bought a Toyota Sienna hybrid and it’s so nice. Not plug in, just an automatic hybrid.

This is the opposite of life goals.