Buying a Van

Question

Good afternoon Mr. Scotty!!

I got your reference from my friend about where she calls you an Auto Guru!! 🙂

I live in upstate new york and currently I am confused to buy the right minivan for my family. I tried looking into Honda Odyssey vs Toyota Sienna with or without a hybrid version.

Have the following questions below, Please advise with your comments?

1) Should I go for Toyota Hybrid Van AWD from Sienna or a non- Hybrid one.

2) if you suggest non Hybrid which brand would you prefer Honda, Sienna (AWD/FWD), or any other brand from Kia or Chrysler?

3) Money standpoint of you is it worth buying a new Van or anything from 2012.. 2020?

4) if not van would you suggest EV, Tesla Model Y AWD for the long run?

Truly appreciate your advice, Sir!!

Sincerely,

Sri

Whatchamacallit · Accepted Answer

Answers to your questions:

1.) Go with the regular gas version Sienna. More mechanics can work on regular vs. hybrid and if you keep it long enough (150,000+ miles) it can get very pricey to repair the hybrid (versus regular gas).

2.) Hands down, go Toyota Sienna (gas). It’s better to go FWD, if you can, over AWD - less issues and repairs (and $$$ to keep running) over time. If you plan to keep for as long as possible until wheels fall off, go Toyota Sienna. I would stay away, at all costs, from the Chrysler or Kia. If you don’t believe me about the Kia, see below: we are not recommending any of the Hyundai Motor Group products; better to pay a little extra and get that Toyota that will (most likely) last longer and have fewer issues over the course of ownership, esp. if you plan to keep the vehicle for a very long time and put as much mileage on it as possible.

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/why-all-the-hyundai-hate/

3.) For best years Toyota Sienna, see below:

https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/postid/112928/

4.) I would never recommend buying a Tesla for long term ownership, too many quality issues, and you can only get it serviced by Tesla (and they won’t even release repair information to Independent mechanics). If you really want a Tesla, I would only lease (short-term), and make sure it’s not your only vehicle.

knotquiteawake · Answer

After doing a lot of research over the last couple years I had come to the conclusion that the Kia was the new sweet spot for price and reliability these days. Especially the 2016-2018 years. Any older and the consumer reports frequency of repair was a bit higher, and newer and the standard feature set increased the price a lot. It seems that 2016 and beyond Kia started to build some solid vehicles to compete with the Toyotas on cost of ownership.

I was able to pickup a 2018 Kia Sedona LS (or whatever the just barely above base model was) with 30,000 miles on it for $18,500. This was $5,000-$6,000 cheaper than all the comparable Honda and Toyota vans.

So while there's always the chance for a lemon or for features you might hate I would add the Kia to your list of possible vehicles with a low cost of ownership and that you don't have to pay the Honda/Toyota "tax" on.