We're expecting kid #3 this summer, and finally going to get a second vehicle for our family. It seems like Siennas and Odysseys have the best ratings/most reliability, and our preference would be to get one of those two.
However - the issue I'm running into in our area is that it's really tough to find something I feel good about buying. Many of the used ones for sale are quite old (2004-2006), and even if the mileage is decent for that age (110-130,000) I worry about buying something 10+ years old (we live in Michigan, so rust and wear accumulate more than other areas).
The alternative it seems, is to take on a car payment for something made in the last five years, and even then it might have 80-100,000 miles on it already. In order to do this, we would likely need to take a car loan between $5-10,000, at about 2% interest.
I'm wondering how others have navigated this situation. Were you comfortable buying an older vehicle if the mileage was good? Is it worth it to do that so you can pay in cash? Or should we take on some debt to make sure the vehicle is reliable?
Or - do I need to consider another option besides those two, admittedly more expensive models.