Most economical minivan?

[redpoint5]

Manual transmission you say, I might have to take a look, especially since nobody knows how to drive 'em anymore. Leave the keys in it and the doors unlocked, and the car will never be stolen.

Regarding toilets, I prefer to leave my waste, not drag it around the country with me.

[Piotrsko]

Um... the porta potty was kind of a joke unless you travel long trips with pre teenagers who generally need facilities right now when 50 miles from civilization

Edit: or my new life annoyance diabetes.

[Isaac Zachary]

Well I had the family crammed in the Avalon with another couple, 6 total. about a 6 hour trip. One child was in a child's seat taking up a lot of the back seat. If I had anymore room we could have taken two more people.

I'm thinking of selling the Prius and getting a minivan. I don't care what minivan, but if I find anything with a manual transmission I'll get that as long as it seats at least 8 and is affordable.

[Isaac Zachary]

Needs:

• 8 seats

Desires:

• Manual transmission
• or Supercharged Previa (1995 or newer)

Reality check:

• Can't be a piece of junk van that needs the radiator cap jacked up and a new van put underneath it and then the radiator cap replaced.
• But it also can't be more than I can afford. I have one more year of $180/month Avalon payments. If I sell the Prius and put some savings towards paying off the Avalon and a modest downpayment on another vehicle, I could potentially afford a loan of up to $10,000 if I do 5 years.

What have I found?
Manual transmission vans:

• Lots of Mazda MAZDA5's from $7,000 to $10,000 with around 100,000miles. Cons: only 6 seats.
• Lots of VW Buses and Vanagons of various years, usually way more than I can afford.
• There's a VW Eurovan with some 300,000 miles on it for $2,000...
• A manual 1991 Toyota Previa that already sold for $2,300, also with some 300,000 miles on it...
• Most of the other stick shift vans I can find are cargo vans (i.e. Chevy Astro)

Supercharged Previas:

• 1995, 160k, $10,000
• 1997, 244k, "New engine, needs wheel bearings", $2,500

Can't find:

• With a $10,000 budget it seems I can't find ANY type of minivan that's 10 years old or newer with less than 100,000 miles on it unless it's got a bunch of damage... So then what? Sell both the Avalon and the Prius and try to buy a $20,000, 10-year-old, 100k van?

Thoughts?

[freebeard]

Thoughts?

Supercharged Previa (1995 or newer)

[redpoint5]

I'll not own a car older than 1996 unless it's a Delorean or something.

Now isn't a good time to buy, but it is a good time to sell. Same problem with the housing market, when you get a good price for your house, you get a bad price on the one that replaces it.

[Piotrsko]

GSA resales? For a while they were pushing them instead of big chevy or ford 15 passengers. If they look good and aren't torn up inside, probably pretty decent mechanical condition

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I'll not own a car older than 1996 unless it's a Delorean or something.

Now isn't a good time to buy, but it is a good time to sell. Same problem with the housing market, when you get a good price for your house, you get a bad price on the one that replaces it.

Why 1996? OBDII?

Ya, I could sell the Prius and have one car with no ETA of when the era for buying cars will ever come back.

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

GSA resales? For a while they were pushing them instead of big chevy or ford 15 passengers. If they look good and aren't torn up inside, probably pretty decent mechanical condition

Pushing what???

There's a 1997 Previa with fewer than 200,000 miles on it and looks pretty good inside and out but "needs a head gasket".

[redpoint5]

My WAG is a crash in used vehicle prices in about a year as recession hits.

Yes OBDII is the main reason I wouldn't go older than 1996, but not having 30 years of problems in a vehicle is another motivating factor.

For my particular set of means, I wouldn't go older than probably 2012. A decade old car has already lost most of the value, under normal market conditions, but has at least another decade of trouble free miles left.

The newest vehicle I've owned was a 2012 Prius plug-in. Currently the newest vehicle I own is a tie between a 2006 CBR600 and a 2006 Acura TSX

[Isaac Zachary]

OBDII is great if you have the tools for it and the shop manual for the vehicle. Otherwise I see no difference between it and OBDI as OBDI will also give you the general codes like "bad O2 sensor signal" or "Excesive misfires" and without the need for a special scan tool as you can usually just jump a couple points and get the codes with a piece of wire.

I sure hope prices change. But as long as there's a shortage I don't see it happening. There has to be an increase in production first for used car prices to come down.