Who has a mini van?

[ultrarunner]

My friends in Germany say the same thing...

Older VW/Audi is dirt cheap compared to over there.

 

[RobertN]

We have a Chevy mini-van. It is a used wheel chair van, with lowered floor, and manual ramp. With the rails in the floor, we can strap in three wheel chairs. Most we have had is two, when we took my Grandmother and my Mother in law out(we bought it since both of them were in wheel chairs; MIL has since passed away.

It works really well. Great for hauling stuff since the front passenger and the middle bench seat are not there...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Do any of you ever do any engine work on these vans? You can't get at much of the stuff. If I had a mechanic shop, I would politely turn down working on these, or charge out the ying yang prices to do it.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've got a full size and with the doghouse off access is good.

The mini Astro also had a doghouse.

Chrysler was originally a 4 cylinder and not bad... the V6 sideways changed all that.

 

[two_bit_score]

Do any of you ever do any engine work on these vans? You can't get at much of the stuff. If I had a mechanic shop, I would politely turn down working on these, or charge out the ying yang prices to do it.

:laughing:
That's right!


.

 

[Garandman]

Do any of you ever do any engine work on these vans? You can't get at much of the stuff. If I had a mechanic shop, I would politely turn down working on these, or charge out the ying yang prices to do it.

We had a Mazda MPV with a Ford 3.0L V6. As I recall, getting at the rear bank of spark plugs wasn't fun, but I'm not sure it was any better or worse than most FWD vehicles.

I can remember sitting on the front fender to change spark plugs on my 6 cylinder Ford Falcon. Those days are long gone....

 

[quicksandfarmer]

We had a Mazda MPV with a Ford 3.0L V6. As I recall, getting at the rear bank of spark plugs wasn't fun, but I'm not sure it was any better or worse than most FWD vehicles.

I can remember sitting on the front fender to change spark plugs on my 6 cylinder Ford Falcon. Those days are long gone....

On the other hand, the plug change interval on the Odyssey is 105,000 miles or 7 years. How does that compare to the Falcon?

 

[KennyG]

I didn't have to do much maintenance on my T&C, but what I did was not as bad as I expected. I did change the spark plugs before I sold it (they were 100K plugs but I was selling to a relative, so I changed them at about 90K). I wouldn't want to do it all the time but it was easier than changing out a steering column shaft on my Dodge Dakota.

I think maintainabilty has turned a corner on cars. I thought Corvettes were impossible a few years ago but I just looked under the hood at a 2016 and everything is compact, modularized and relatively easy to access. Similarly, the Ford Ecoboost engines look much less complicated than I would have expected.

 

[KubotainNH]

Actually, my Odyssey is very easy to work on. As mentioned the plugs are listed as being replaced at 105k but were still easy to do. Besides the timing belt, oil changes, a couple motor mounts and a bit of exhaust flex pipe work, I really haven't done much under the hood of this 16 year old van. the entire exhaust is original except for flange bolts and the flex piece I welded in this year.

The last Grand Caravan I had was a bear to replace the rear bank of plugs. Maybe they are better now. It is definitely something to consider.

 

[ultrarunner]

I imagine longevity varies as to environment...

The 10 year old Odyssey I mentioned has never seen snow or salted roads having existed in the mild weather of the SF Bay Area and mild weather has been very kind to vehicles...

Perhaps a 10 year old Midwest or Northeast car would suffer from rust and exposure and on it's last legs?