Well, minivans are by far the cheapest vehicle to get auto insurance on.
Unrelated (sorta), they are also the vehicle least likely to get stolen (what criminal would want to get caught stealing a minivan?).
Front wheel drive gives better traction on snow and ice (a big plus up North – which I’ll assume she is). Nothing wrong with 4*4 or all-wheel drive – but fuel mileage will not be as good, vehicle purchase price will be more, repair costs will be more, as well as frequency of breakdowns.
For most people, and for reliability, stick with either a front wheel or rear wheel drive vehicle.
Most women I know, prefer sitting up higher in the vehicle (ie: a minivan or pickup) – but I don’t have an answer as to why.
No actual data or numbers on this this – but it “appears” to me that teenagers who borrow parents cars – the Minivan doesn’t suffer from accident damage, as much as other vehicles, do.
After all, what self-respecting teenager will want to go driving around . . . in a minivan?
This comment is my opinion, only: Domestic owned company’s (ie: Chrysler, GM or Ford) – repairs might be slightly more frequent than import owned companies are – but repair costs are generally a lot less, than import (even domestic built imports) vehicle repairs are.
Also part availability is generally not an issue on domestic owned company cars.
I do like Kia and Hyundai’s new car powertrain warranty – which 10 year/100k mile (first owner only). That said, both companies are based in South Korea. What would happen to your vehicle warranty (or parts availability) if North Korea attacked South Korea?
Now I am not trying to get into politics or world events or anything – All I’m trying to do is make you think of “what if”.
If something like that was to happen, your Kia could become the next Yugo . . . (ie: no warranty, no parts, not much of anything - at the snap of a finger).
As to brand name to recommend, I will only say that I have worked on Chrysler vehicles sense I was about 10-11 years old and I know them like the back of my hand. Stick with something you know.
Are they the best vehicle out there? I think so, but that is my opinion.
Getting off subject, when Chrysler came out with the PT Cruiser (about 2000), my wife had to have one. This was when no one had any, so the dealers who did have them wanted $5-10 grand above sticker price (which I refused to pay for).
I didn’t have an objection to getting her a new car – well, um, yes I did, but that’s not the point here. At that same time, my parents got a new minivan and was wanting to sell their old one. She drove it and liked it, a lot (so we got it).
That was the first of three Town and Country minivan’s we have had, sense then.
On a different note: my wife has um, grown some sense the PT Cruisers first came out, and I’m fairly sure that she wouldn’t be able to fit into a Cruiser now, anyway
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BudW
