Time To Go Car Shopping

With baby 3 coming soon we are in the market for a new car… a minivan.

A little over a year ago we received Joe’s grandfather’s old van, a 1998 Dodge Caravan with less than 50K miles. It really is in great shape. Or it was… about 2 months after we got it the AC broke… while we were on vacation in Charleston, SC… in the middle of summer. IT WAS MISERABLE. We spent a good bit of money trying to fix it and it worked great for a few more months and then it broke again. We’ve now come to the realization that fixing it is probably going to cost us more than what the car is worth. So we’re going to attempt to sell it (as-is) and buy a newer van.

It kind of sucks because we don’t have a car payment right now and we don’t want to have a car payment so we’re on a pretty tight budget.

We’re considering an older Honda Odyssey.

We’ve both owned several Hondas (we actually own an 05 Accord that we love!) and have always been pleased with their performance.

Our goal is to buy a new van by or before our 5th wedding anniversary, September 15th.

Obviously we want a car that is safe and reliable but I never really realized how important air conditioning was until we didn’t have it… so working AC is a MUST.

QUESTION: I know a lot of you own an Odyssey, what are some thing we need to consider when shopping for our used Odyssey?