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Sienna vs Grand Caravan/Town & Country
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Comments
My next door neighbor was tipped off to this years ago by a Chrysler mechanic. His current GC has over 220K on it. The one before that nearly hit 300K. He reminds me that he's never had a tranny issue while I did have one on my Odyssey. At least my tranny was replaced at no cost - even with a loaner. Whew!
what's a cassette player?
Meanwhile, one daughter has a 1999 GC SE with 93,600 miles but did have to have the transmission serviced when some "O" ring failed. It cost her between $ 100 and $ 200 for the service.
We went with the '05 T&C Touring. The past experience with Chrysler was key, as well as the Stow & Go seating - I was tired of having to store the back seat from the old van!
My wife wanted the power sliders on both sides, and the power lift gate. The van has all that, and we love it!
P.S. The '98 is for sale...
The Odyssey is not as quiet as the Sienna or T&C and the T&C is slightly quieter than the T&C...but had twice the cargo space behind 3rd seat as did the 02 T&C. However, the new Siennas have the MOST cargo space behind 3rd row of any minivan but the T&C has the additional space under the floor between front and 2nd rows. :shades:
http://www.toyota.com/sienna/specs.html
Based on the specs listed on the manufacturer's webpages, the Sienna has 2" more legroom in row 1, 3" more in row 2 and 6" more in row 3 and as far as cargo space:
Behind rows 1/2/3
Sienna 148.9/94.5/43.6
T&C 144.2/85.9/32.5
And both vehicles are the same length, width and height, so I'd say the Sienna wins by far for people space and even for cargo space. But if you're using it mostly as a cargo van and must have the stow-n-go, then get the T&C, but the passengers would probably rather have the extra space inside the Sienna.
Either that, or a couple of trolls have made some bogus reviews on the Sienna. (I'm a Honda owner, so not Toyota biased).
Here's someone who rated it 2.5:
Comments: Handles like it is three times as heavy as it is, underpowered, interior could use some refinement. Overall unpleased.
Favorite Features: Nothing special about the Sienna.
Suggested Improvements: More power and fuel economy, improved handling, upgrade interior.
These are things that should be evident from a test drive (except maybe fuel economy).
I think it's a bogus review.
What impresses me is the very light payload this van is rated for, on the glove box there it is a label which especifies the maximum payload for the van is 454 kgs. (1000 lbs.), which means my 200 lbs. body uses 1/5th of the maximum payload, so I must be carrying light stuff and forget about carrying 7 adults since I will go way past the maximum payload of the van, and maybe placing stress on the transmission which is designed for light cars like the Dodge Stratus.
Any thoughts of this?
(I might be 200 lbs. but I'm fit huh? i'm 6'3" )
I myself have a 2004 Sienna XLE with 70,000 miles and love it. The only issue is the drivers sliding door lock broke. We recently had new brake pads for the front installed and routine maintenance.
At times the power does seem a little lacking. However that is solved with the new 3.5L engine.
Matt
I know of ONLY 1 person that has had transmission problem with a Caravan/GC/T&C/Voyager/GV and their minivan was purchased USED.
On the other hand, I know dozens of owners who LOVE their Chrysler minivan and are repeat buyers.'
I will NOT buy another Sienna but don't dislike my 2006 LE enough to trade it in with the dismal trade-in value that Siennas retain.
https://www.alg.com/deprratings.aspx
FWIW, the Dodge Caravan gets their worst rating, just 1 star.
I don't think it would be wise to bet on getting better resale from a new Dodge.
Having said that, Dodge dealers wheel and deal aplenty, and you can get a good value to begin with. Plus you're likely to spend less up front, so you can factor the opportunity cost of having saved that money.
I did look at used vans, and found that it just wasn't worth buying a used Sienna. New LE models were $23-24k, while used rental cars used by 355 Toyota were selling for $21k with 20k plus miles on them. Not worth it, especially for a rental that was beat on and had high miles for a year-old van.
I saw new Dodges for as little as $22k, but used ones were the real bargain, $15-17k was not hard to find.
So my personal shopping experience pretty much agreed with what ALG claims. As they say, YMMV.
I don't lease, never will as it's worst than buying.
Looks to me to be about equal losses at worst.
WHERE were NEW 2006 or 2007 Sienna LE's selling for $ 23-24K? :confuse:
Fitzmall.com sells Toyota at no-haggle prices. Their price for an LE package 3 back in May was $25,447. I got an e-price from 355 Toyota for $25,247. CarMax also has a Toyota store in MD and their price was also in the $25k range.
Perhaps the prices were higher when you bought yours. I did get a $1250 rebate. The prices are actually slightly lower now:
http://www.fitzmall.com/
You may have been ripped off at the time of purchase by paying more than others did. Depends on what package you got, though. Did you get a rear DVD screen?
If so, the dealer low-balled you. If not, your original price wasn't that great.
To be honest I doubt a 2005 DCX is worth $18,000. That same dealer, fitzmall.com, has a Dodge store, and used ones sell at this dealership (dealer retail) for under $15k.
Just checked, they have an 06 Grand Caravan SXT for sale right now, 30k miles, $14,837.
There's no way you could even get $18k from a private party sale, that's $3 grand more than a dealer's asking price. And yours is an 05, a year older.
Let's say you could match the dealer, i.e. best case scenario. You still only paid $19k, so $4k depreciation is very reasonable. Congrats. :shades:
The average consumer, without the employee discount, would have had $10,000 in depreciation.
Again, now, sticking with the same dealership, a new Sienna LE passenger is $23,445 with package 2. The same dealer, again, is selling two 06 models used for $20,995 and $20,977. This is for package 1, with less equipment and about 50 fewer horsepower, too.
They always have a supply of 1 year old used vans because they rent Siennas there. So there are rental cars. One has 27k miles, the other has 30k miles. Both are LE package 1.
So beat up, very high-mile, used rental cars with less equipment only depreciated $2500.
Forget ALG if you want, these are real-world prices from the same dealer. And they are no-haggle, this is the price you would pay, period.
It was not worth it for me to buy used Siennas because as you can see in my region, they do not depreciate AT ALL!
hansienna is being low-balled, his van is worth a lot more than he was offered.
Probably a combination of both although the price I paid was considerably less than Edmund's TMV at the time. There was NO Toyota rebate on mine so the current $ 1,500 rebate cheated me out of $ 1,500 right off the top.
Buyer beware: Don't EVER buy a NEW Sienna without a Toyota rebate of at least $ 1,500. :shades:
There is actually a $2000 rebate on 2007s in some regions right now, though I don't see any left over in the local dealer's inventory. They only have 2008s.
They did lower the price a tad for 2008, and the new package, now called Extra Value Packages, cost a little less.
Don't be fooled, though, they did cut some content.
Basically, they added:
* VSC is now standard on the CE and base LE models
* Bluetooth is now included with the JBL stereo
But they cut more than they added:
* JBL is no longer standard on XLE, it's a costly option
* tow prep package is deleted, now a $220 option
* fog lights are gone from some models
* DRLs are gone from some models
My LE, the way it is, would have gained nothing at all. I already had VSC, and I didn't get the JBL so the 2008 model equivalent would add exactly nothing to my van.
I would have lost the tow prep package and the DRLs, however.
So for me the 2007 model is a better deal, especially when you factor the rebates, the prices are slightly lower for MORE content (DRL, tow prep pkg).
Sadly, nothing is free in this world!