Chrysler Town and Country Mini Van

[John Weber]

Last year about my parents bought a new 2003 Chrysler Town and Country Limited mini van. It is loaded with want seems like everything. Sticker was over $38K, although Chrysler was offering several $1k in incentives. They want to trade and it looks like the dealers are only going to give them in the mid-upper teens on trade-in (unbelievable). Anyway we have a mid-line 2000 Toyota Sienna LE with about 77k miles, the Toyota seems to have decent resale, so for a few thousands dollars we could upgrade from a 2000 to a 2003 and mileage would drop from 77k to about 25k. Plus the heated seats, power doors and other stuff is kind of cool. I haven’t bought an American car since my ’77 Pontiac Firebird Formula (I loved that car). We haven’t been overwhelmed with the Sienna; although it works as promised I guess, plus we would likely do something next year before we reached 100k miles. Any thoughts? We would rather not spend the money, but it seems like a good deal.

Thanks – John

P.S. We just paid off the Toyota last WEEK, so the idea of a paid for car is appreciated. Also my folks brought up the idea, we’ll work everything as fairly as possible although they would do better selling the Chrysler themselves. If we can’t all agree on the numbers we’ll just move on, no sense causing ill will among family…

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Hi John,
This seems like a logical move IF the numbers are right for all parties involved. I know the feeling of driving a car with no payments is nice. But now more than ever before, driving American feels very, very good! Good luck on making a major decision.

[Jim Becker]

John, go to the Edmunds.com and use their appaisal feature to determine about what the Chrysler is really worth for trade, resale and on a dealer lot. I found this to be quite accurate and used it as a barganing tool when I was trading my Chrysler 300M for the Tundra a few years ago. I ran into similar situations and ended up getting much more on trade once I was armed with "facts", as subjective as they may be.

[John Weber]

Jim,

That would be excellent advice for my Dad. :-) I did a quick check and they were a couple thousand more then the dealer told my folks. One of the factors is I think my folks want to help us out if they can - so they might be a bit shy on the trade in value. We have a very fixed amount we can play with, so if it works out great, if not then we'll likely regret not coming up with some more cash now. Thanks for the heads up.

John

[Jim Becker]

Sounds like a good deal for you, John. It's nice getting a very clean, low mileage vehicle like this when you can. You know how it's been taken care of, too. There is piece of mind in that.

[Ken Garlock]

John, keep what you have. It is paid for, and it is always cheaper to repair than to buy. That Toyota engine is just getting broken in, it proabaly has another 100K on it

I am happy to say that I haven't owned a Chrysler product since the mid 1977s. As far as I am concerned, that will be the last one, unless someone want to give me one. I have had friends that were totally disgusted with the way the transmission adjusts to the driver, it is a frustration for a 2 driver family. That is several year old information, is in fairness, they might have fixed the problem.

I would rather push a Ford than drive a Chrysler

[Neal McCormick]

We own what sounds like the exact model your parents have. We are putting in excess of 20k miles per year on it. We have had only minor problems with it. None that would lead me to avoid the car. In fact, it is the third one we have owned. My 2 oldest teens are driving the last one with over 120k miles. Certainly there are repairs that need to be done but it has not been extraordinary. We also do ALL the scheduled maintenance so that may help.

But I would also agree that continuing with the vehicle you have probably makes more sense if money is tight. A loaded T&C has a lot of "creature comforts" which can be quite expensive to repair if there are problems. We have been fortunate so far in that we have not had many problems. But your circumstances could be different.

[John Weber]

Thanks guys! Since we would likely trade next year as the van approached 100k, I though we might be dollars ahead buying now. I also worry a little bit about all those gadgets, but heated seats is a must, especially since my Passat has them and Kim's Sienna doesn't. I guess I was more concerned with the overall quality of the Chrysler. Back when I had my '92 Toyota truck (man I loved that thing), Toyota was at the top of the game (way ahead of Nissian, Chevy, Ford, and Dogde), with the 2000 Sienna ,Toyota seems to be a middle pack player, the new Sienna looks nice, but seriously out of our price range. Our Sienna has, want can only be considered several engineering/design flaws - very disappointing from Toyota. I guess we'll see what my folks think now. Here is a picture of my old baby (about 8 years old and 150,000 miles in this photo):



John

[Arvin Brown]

Interesting post - I have some very personal issues in this area but I'll try to keep to the facts. Why do you think that the Dodge has depreciated so much?! and the Toyota has not?! I use to be in charge of a fleet of Dodge minivans. Everyone (16 of them plus my sister and everyone that I have talked to) has had to rebuild the transmission at 60,000 - 75,000 miles. Those of you that say that my Dodge has 100,000 miles on it and is going but needs some work - my 1998 Sienna Van has 87,000 miles on it - never been in the shop - it's as good as it was when it came off the showroom floor. My 1992 Accord has 159,000 miles on it and is in the same condition as my Sienna - except that I've replaced the timing belt, water pump, and one oxygen sensor. I just don't think that the American car companies can match the reliability and durability of Toyota or Honda. If I was to buy another minivan today, my first choice would be the Sienna and then the Honda. No questions!