It is a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport, 85000 miles, 3.3 liter engine, V6 engine. It has one large dent. It is otherwise cosmetically very nice. The guy, a visiting professor here at UMich who is leaving within the week and is somewhat time pressured to sell, claimed he had the dealer look at it and it was problem free. It started up very easily and nicely in 20 degree weather, and with the driving I could do with the snow and cold, it seemed to go nicely. We would have a mechanic look at it before purchasing.
We were not looking to buy a van. We only have 1.8 children, and were going to get a regular car. But, this van looks like a pretty good deal, it is nearby, and it just seems like it would be very easy to both buy and make for a lot of extra room once we owned it. The extra space of a van would be nice. Becoming minivan people would not be nice.
So, the questions: Where do you learn about the reliabilty of cars? I have searched and read many reviews online, but most either say the hated it or loved it, about equally split. They have averages of these, but the mean of a bimodal distribution is hardly a good estimator of the true mean. So, is there somewhere less obvious where I can see how these things are, on average, doing after 7 years?
Do you think we should buy the van? If so, at what price?
Jan 17, 2009
A New Car?
So, for a while now, Stacey and I have needed to buy a new car. Seeing as how the point of owning a car is to be able to get somewhere when you need to go there, and how our current car is not always able to comply with that request, we need a new one. But, like most things I am personally involved in, I just talk about doing it and never do it. In any event, here is one we are thinking of:
It is a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport, 85000 miles, 3.3 liter engine, V6 engine. It has one large dent. It is otherwise cosmetically very nice. The guy, a visiting professor here at UMich who is leaving within the week and is somewhat time pressured to sell, claimed he had the dealer look at it and it was problem free. It started up very easily and nicely in 20 degree weather, and with the driving I could do with the snow and cold, it seemed to go nicely. We would have a mechanic look at it before purchasing.
We were not looking to buy a van. We only have 1.8 children, and were going to get a regular car. But, this van looks like a pretty good deal, it is nearby, and it just seems like it would be very easy to both buy and make for a lot of extra room once we owned it. The extra space of a van would be nice. Becoming minivan people would not be nice.
So, the questions: Where do you learn about the reliabilty of cars? I have searched and read many reviews online, but most either say the hated it or loved it, about equally split. They have averages of these, but the mean of a bimodal distribution is hardly a good estimator of the true mean. So, is there somewhere less obvious where I can see how these things are, on average, doing after 7 years?
Do you think we should buy the van? If so, at what price?
It is a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport, 85000 miles, 3.3 liter engine, V6 engine. It has one large dent. It is otherwise cosmetically very nice. The guy, a visiting professor here at UMich who is leaving within the week and is somewhat time pressured to sell, claimed he had the dealer look at it and it was problem free. It started up very easily and nicely in 20 degree weather, and with the driving I could do with the snow and cold, it seemed to go nicely. We would have a mechanic look at it before purchasing.
We were not looking to buy a van. We only have 1.8 children, and were going to get a regular car. But, this van looks like a pretty good deal, it is nearby, and it just seems like it would be very easy to both buy and make for a lot of extra room once we owned it. The extra space of a van would be nice. Becoming minivan people would not be nice.
So, the questions: Where do you learn about the reliabilty of cars? I have searched and read many reviews online, but most either say the hated it or loved it, about equally split. They have averages of these, but the mean of a bimodal distribution is hardly a good estimator of the true mean. So, is there somewhere less obvious where I can see how these things are, on average, doing after 7 years?
Do you think we should buy the van? If so, at what price?
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4 comments:
I love having a van...although we had to get one once we had 3 kids; the carseats were too squished in the back of our car! haha
You probably already know this, and maybe have already checked it out, too...but consumerreports.org is a good place to get the reliability report of them. Also, to get used values, you can check nadaguides.com, which you also probably have already checked.
As far as the Dodge Caravan specifically, I used to want one, until I read all of the reviews, and then decided against it, because of the "used" car value of them. On the other hand, you still see lots of people driving them around, and they are older models that have been driven for awhile, so that's gotta be good for something.
What are they asking for it? On nada, a rough estimate, would be between 4-5 grand, depending on the bells and whistles that are offered. Good luck in the van selection, too! It's fun!
We actually ended up getting our van at an aution, and got it for half of the price of lowbook value. It had a dent in the fender, but nothing too serious. We had to put $500 of work into it(part of which included putting in a new battery), but it was nice that we saved thousands of dollars that we didn't have to spend had we bought it at a dealership. It's worked out quite nicely for us, and now we've got a few more years that we can wait until our "dream van" comes out and maybe we can afford it later on. haha
We used to own one of these. It was not the sport Model though. we bought it brand new and was a 2002. We traded it in 2 years ago when we bought our Durango. I never had any major problems with it. We had a nice feature that had the intergrated child safety seats in it. When we traded it in two years ago, they gave us $3300 for it. If I remember right, we had about 80,000 miles on it. Ours was a base model with just a few options. If you want to a to ask more about it, you can call me. 801-302-0127
My parents always research cars they buy on Consumer Reports. Here's the website for used cars:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/used-cars/index.htm
I say take it only if it's a very reduced price. If you don't want to drive a minivan, but like the utility of a minivan, consider the Mazda 5. I think if Michelle and I were in a position where we needed a new car, we would get the Mazda 5. Check it out.
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