The Minivan Thread *AKA The Toyota Sienna Thread*

Adamgp
If it was seriously "drinking" oil at 60k miles, something was definately wrong with your car.
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*slow clap* Johnny tell him what he's won!

Ya something was wrong, clearly. The engine was garbage and obviously wasn't built properly. GM has some of the worse quality I've seen, but it's nothing compared to how awful Chrysler are.

Adamgp
It's amusing arguing quality and reliability with someone who drives a Mini.
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I don't drive a Mini, I love to own one though. MINI's on the other hand, that's another story.

Considering MINI/BMW just won an award for quality I don't see a problem. My car has been pretty good in terms of reliability and quality, yes it's had problems (most of them caused by something I did), but nothing major has happened. This seems to be the case with most MINI owners, small niggles come up but overall nothing major happens.
 
I saw one of these the other day - ugly as sin. :yuck:

Joey D
I don't drive a Mini, I love to own one though. MINI's on the other hand, that's another story.
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You had me confused there for a second, not gonna lie. :dopey:
 
Astro's one of my all-time favorite (medi)vans, but just about everyone I know who had it were fixing them all the time. I do stil see them around though. God, they look awesome. 👍
 
Somebody actually liked the Astro Van? They were always the junkiest vans around to me. Well, second to those Ford things.
 
Philly
Somebody actually liked the Astro Van? They were always the junkiest vans around to me. Well, second to those Ford things.
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They have the same charm Scion xB has to me. Probably not a coincidence Astro was pretty popular amongst American vehicles imported to Japan. Of course, American cars were considered pretty crappy back then, and during the trade deficit, what did the clueless American politicians & Detroit push at the Japanese instead? Frigging Saturns. They didn't sell like hotcakes, but more like hot sushi. :lol:
 
On the Astro-> I just liked the way that GM box looked back in the day. And I didn't like the Ford's version the Aerostar.

- These two versions are it:
2005.gmc.safari.31479-396x249.jpg
2005.chevrolet.astro.31199-396x249.jpg


- These versions are not:
111364413173928IMG.JPG
22069210001_medium.jpg


:sly:
 
Joey D
*slow clap* Johnny tell him what he's won!

Ya something was wrong, clearly. The engine was garbage and obviously wasn't built properly. GM has some of the worse quality I've seen, but it's nothing compared to how awful Chrysler are.
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Just a quick thought, did you bother to get it fixed, or did you just live with it drinking oil then write off everything GM has made since then as crap? Ford, GM, and Chrysler have made huge gains since the time your Blazer was made.

And ours has been great, as well as our friends who own or have owned Astros, S10's, Blazer's etc.


I don't drive a Mini, I love to own one though. MINI's on the other hand, that's another story.

Considering MINI/BMW just won an award for quality I don't see a problem. My car has been pretty good in terms of reliability and quality, yes it's had problems (most of them caused by something I did), but nothing major has happened. This seems to be the case with most MINI owners, small niggles come up but overall nothing major happens.
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It may have won awards in Germany, but here they are crap. Here's another quality survey that ranked them last in dead last: http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/quality-ratings-by-brand/sortcolumn-1/ascending/page-#page-anchor

And in reliability MINI did only slightly better ranking 5th from the bottom:
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/dependability-ratings-by-brand/sortcolumn-1/ascending/page-#page-anchor

According to MINI, they aren't problems, they are quirks: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7940365
 
Adamgp
Just a quick thought, did you bother to get it fixed, or did you just live with it drinking oil then write off everything GM has made since then as crap? Ford, GM, and Chrysler have made huge gains since the time your Blazer was made.

And ours has been great, as well as our friends who own or have owned Astros, S10's, Blazer's etc.
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No I thought I would leave it broken :rolleyes:. I was however out of warranty and was going to be quite costly. That combined with the crap transmission and a brake system that had a mind of it's own, it was more economical to get a new vehicle.

And I don't know why you brought up Ford, I have written anything off from them.

Adamgp
It may have won awards in Germany, but here they are crap. Here's another quality survey that ranked them last in dead last: http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/quality-ratings-by-brand/sortcolumn-1/ascending/page-#page-anchor

And in reliability MINI did only slightly better ranking 5th from the bottom:
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/dependability-ratings-by-brand/sortcolumn-1/ascending/page-#page-anchor

According to MINI, they aren't problems, they are quirks: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7940365
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Wow. J.D. Power. Because there's a good source of information. That's like saying Consumer Reports is the final word in buying a car. Also I know a lot of those surveys don't distinguish between the R53 and the R56 Coopers. The first generation MINI's are known to be poorly made cars, I'll whole heartedly agree with that. The R56 though, not so much. BMW improve the quality of the car quite a bit with the redesign.

As I've said, MINI's issues tend to be small niggles instead of large problems. Negating all the problems I caused the only issues I have had with my car in 50k miles is a faulty boot latch, a loose rear trim piece, a blown tone in my horn, a faulty rear fog light and a CEL for some emissions valve that had gotten clogged or something.

Compare this with the GM vehicle I owned and the results are completely different. In the end GM has pretty much shown me that their vehicles are crap. I mean why would I purchase a $25,000 vehicle when the last one I had was junk? That's a lot of money to throw at something that sucks.

Any way though, to put this back on topic....

I like Astro's when they are done up properly, I remember at truck shows someone would always have one on bags with a huge sound system in it. I kinda wanted one.

IMG_0925.jpg
 
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Joey D
No I thought I would leave it broken :rolleyes:. I was however out of warranty and was going to be quite costly. That combined with the crap transmission and a brake system that had a mind of it's own, it was more economical to get a new vehicle.

And I don't know why you brought up Ford, I have written anything off from them.
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If it was that bad, did you ever hear of the lemon law? Your car may have been one, but you instead sold it and swore to never buy GM again.

Our van hasn't had near as many problems. It's on it's 2nd tranny, but it's had a hard life. (survived 2 teenage drivers) Brakes are fine.

I brought up Ford because they along with GM and Chrysler have made huge gains since the time your Blazer was made.

Wow. J.D. Power. Because there's a good source of information. That's like saying Consumer Reports is the final word in buying a car. Also I know a lot of those surveys don't distinguish between the R53 and the R56 Coopers. The first generation MINI's are known to be poorly made cars, I'll whole heartedly agree with that. The R56 though, not so much. BMW improve the quality of the car quite a bit with the redesign.

As I've said, MINI's issues tend to be small niggles instead of large problems. Negating all the problems I caused the only issues I have had with my car in 50k miles is a faulty boot latch, a loose rear trim piece, a blown tone in my horn, a faulty rear fog light and a CEL for some emissions valve that had gotten clogged or something.

Compare this with the GM vehicle I owned and the results are completely different. In the end GM has pretty much shown me that their vehicles are crap. I mean why would I purchase a $25,000 vehicle when the last one I had was junk? That's a lot of money to throw at something that sucks.

Any way though, to put this back on topic....
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I should have post a European quality survey like you did. :rolleyes:

You admit MINI's were crap, but have made improvements. Yet you bought one. Why not write them off too? You swore off GM and American cars because of owning one problematic Blazer.
 
Adamgp
If it was that bad, did you ever hear of the lemon law? Your car may have been one, but you instead sold it and swore to never buy GM again.
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Yes I heard of it, I pursued it. It's a royal PITA to follow through with it.

Adamgp
I brought up Ford because they along with GM and Chrysler have made huge gains since the time your Blazer was made.
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I don't think Ford has ever been bad in terms of reliability, quality yes (rusty Taurus's). My dad had several Fords, they never had a problem. My next vehicle will more than likely be a Ford, or Ford owned product...I really want a Mustang.

Adamgp
You admit MINI's were crap, but have made improvements. Yet you bought one. Why not write them off too? You swore off GM and American cars because of owning one problematic Blazer.
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I didn't waste $25,000 buying one and having it turn to crap. Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice shame on me. I bought a GM, had a ton of problems. Why would I waste my money on one again? If the MINI was a problem child I would write MINI, and probably BMW, off completely. It hasn't and I've had a great experience with the car. The dealer is awesome, the service techs are fast, and car is everything I expected.

Every company gets an equal chance from me, you blow it then I'm all done.

And it's not just the Blazer, it's the crap my family has owned too. Pacifica, PT Cruiser, Intrepid, and Chevy G-Van, just to name a few of the crap American products we have had. The only one that was worth it's salt in the past 15 years was my dad's Econoline. It has almost 300,000 miles on it when he sold it and the only thing ever to go wrong with it was that the exhaust rusted through and it was loud.
 
The coolest minivan that never was has to be the Bertone Genesis concept of 1988 IMO which was powered by a Lamborghini V12 ( FR, coupled to a three-speed auto ).

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Adamgp
You admit MINI's were crap, but have made improvements. Yet you bought one. Why not write them off too? You swore off GM and American cars because of owning one problematic Blazer.
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I really just have to laugh at you attempting to compare GM quality to MINI/BMW.

I mean, really? Really?

Sienna commercial is pretty funny, and I can see how a lot of people would like it.
 
Philly
Somebody actually liked the Astro Van? They were always the junkiest vans around to me. Well, second to those Ford things.
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My Dad liked them so much that we had three, oh and a Safari while we were at it as well. Despite the general stereotype that they are poorly built, unreliable pieces of junk, I would say that our experience was quite the opposite. Aside from burning through some brake pads at an exceedingly fast rate on one Astro and having an intake issue (that we fixed ourselves) with the Safari, they were entirely rock-solid.

Hell, I even learned to drive in the damn things. They had their quirks, but you got used to it. Changing the air filter was a hilarious endeavor on the oldest Astro and the Safari, requiring you to dismantle the interior to get at it. The digital dashboard drove me crazy, but it was made up for with the rather powerful (weird!) sound system that came with the later models.

*sigh*

Any way we want to look at it, however, I'd much rather have the Avalanches and the Envoy that eventually replaced them.
 
Y'know, we haven't discussed the Sienna since...page two, I think...

Perhaps we should create a Van thread.
 
No, Omnis killed it with the A-Team van. That should've been some kind of illegal move, that mother trucker...... :lol:
 
Adamgp
I wasn't comparing GM's quality to MINI's, you misread the statement.

Glad you got a good laugh though.
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Thought you were with the discussion of reliability and what not. I meant overall quality, not just how the body panels fit.
 
Omnis
These are the only cool vans:

the-a-team-van.jpg

mercedes+sprinter.jpg
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Yeah I remember back in the 70's when vans were cool. The MB van is borderline RV than a van. I like those GMC minivans that are mod with Corvette engines.

0202_01zoom+1999_chevrolet_astro_van+front_side_view.jpg

Yeah this with a 'Vette engine. Maybe a little more suttle with the paint job.

vw_van_rex_350.jpg

But this will always be a classic.
 
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