Used car recommdation

That was before Honda had a good handle on the V6. The V6 Accord is a beast for a family car. Hell, my Sienna wows me on occasion. Those Japanese V6s are no joke. Kid hauler creeping up on 300 HP.

 

No, it's the 3.5 v6. Essentially the same as the ones that are in new Honda's.

I do think Honda gave GM their rejects for these cars.

 

Bummer. I haven't heard a bad thing about a Honda V6 under the hood of a Honda.

 

I learned that the hard way.

I had a '99 Jetta. One of the radiator hoses went bad. No problem. I can change a hose. $139.00. I'll never buy another VW.

My current daily driver is a '96 Toyota Camry. V6, 212,000 miles, 29mpg. I wouldn't think twice about taking it clear across the country.

 

Yep, yotas are great. The funny thing is that 3.0 v6 you have is known to be one of the least reliable yotas.

I've got a friend that has a 99 camry with the same motor. She will drive that thing anywhere. It'll probably never let her down either.

 

Honda CRV. Decent on gas, safety, reliability. On demand 4WD with no buttons to decide in or out. Good vehicles.

 

Ford flex. Awd available, nice base 3.5 l, or a beast of a twin turbo 3.5 ecoboost of you want. Tons of room too. Even more importantly, NOT a minivan. It's on the same chassis as the explorer, just bigger.

A guy at work had his Sedona minivan totalled. He bought a flex and liked it better. About the same room, and more power, even with the base 3.5 v6.


Yes, v6 Honda's have not had good trannies until recently.

 

Yeah but there safety record on off center collisions took them off consumer reports best buy list why I went with Subaru. I mean in real world who hits a brick wall head on much more likely to have some one cross center line or slide off road in snow and hit tree! I got insurance too replace everything except wife and kid so do a lot of research on safety. In short do not trust idiots on road!

 

Airbags won't help if the car's structure doesn't hold up.

 

The Ford Flex is a nice vehicle, but with respect, I don't think it would handle all that cargo, the rear cargo area is 'boxy'.. People would be fine, the dogs would be sleeping on the gear.

The Sienna would, neighbor has an '03 that I drove recently, it's a real people mover w/ car-like handling, nice and solid driving vehicle.

 

It all depends, of the storage height is an issue, yeah a minivan could have more room. If it's just floor space, it will be a close call.

Now, when it comes to tow rating, the flex has a huge advantage over any minivan. The sienna is the only minivan with available awd. From what I see, and my brother was looking at minivans for windsurfing use, the only siennas with awd are totally loaded. If you don't mind that, that's fine, but it's a lot of expense with options you may not need.

 

Yes standard now. Top 3 started as Honda CRV, Toyota Rav 4 Subaru Forrester. CRV, and Toyota did not so good on off center crash Ford did better Subaru won on safety. She wanted 4 or all wheel drive, high ground clearance and room. She is happy loves it. 26 average MPG, 30 plus on trips

 

That's true, they ain't cheap. The Flex may well work also, would be worth it for MasterMech to take a look.

 

My BIL has an Expy EL and I feel like our Sienna has more usable space. Getting kids and critters into the 3rd row is less than fun too.

 

I've got an 04 AWD V6 Vue, it has the de-badged Honda 3.5 V6, the motor is the only thing we haven't had trouble with. The GM AWD system was so bad I ended up just taking the driveshaft out, so now it's just FWD. Prior to 04 the motor is a 3.0 GM for the V6.

 

My wife has a 2010 CRV. While I despise driving it (poor handling, no passing power, uncomfortable ergos compared to my vehicles) I'll admit it's a good, reliable car. I've started driving it if I know I'll be out late, because the small town cops around me will leave me alone in it, while my IS300 and lifted loud exhaust Frontier almost guarantee I'll be followed and probably pulled over. I took it about 1/2 mile offroad to a bonfire one night. You need to go through 2 creek crossings, several hills, and straddle ruts most of the time to get there. It's the kind of place only lifted 4x4's have been to, and it had recently rained so the creeks were up and it was slippery. That CRV didn't skip a beat! It's so darned quiet nobody heard me coming either until I pulled up next to the fire! I was told it was the only Honda that wasn't a quad that had ever been back there haha.

On the other hand, my wife wasn't too happy when she into the garage the next day and saw "her poor little CRV" was covered in mud

 

Interesting. The motor surely want the only issue on my cousins garage queen.

 

Awd systems have gotten very very good in the past few years.