Reliable Used Minivan????

[daveran2008]

I am trying to purchase a used minivan. I have $2800 Canadian maximum. I have done research and have determined that all domestic makes have serious issues. Villagers have defective exhaust manifolds, causing them to break. Chrysler and Dodge still, even after 15 years, have a bad track record for transmissions, as well as strut post roting in the wheelwell. Chevrolet I am told has crappy engines with frequent head and intake gasket failures, as well as poor bearings in their venture class minivans, the astros have poor front steering and suspension, poor rearend differentials and have had fuel pump issues.
For the above reasons I have been pursuing ford windstars, model years 1998 to 2000, yet my searches today indicate that they too have their share of transmission issues.
My question is this, which domestic minivan has the most reliable engine and transmission for these model years?
Daveran2008

['97ventureowner]

Well since no vehicle is perfect,you could sit down and make a chart for each minivan. On the chart put the pros and cons for each one and if possible the worst case scenario for repair costs. Then you can tally the results and see which vehicles come out better than the others. Not all vans in a specific model will have those issues and if you happen to come across a vehicle where the specific "known issue" has already been repaired then that could be considered a plus. Having owned 2 Chevy Ventures I can say that the LIM gasket is an issue and it has been traced to a poor design with the gasket. The good thing about that is the problem manifests itself around 60,000 to 100,000 miles and there is a revised gasket to fix that issue and by now most vans have experienced that problem and have been repaired. The issue on the bearings ( wheel bearings I guess?) isn't as common. I really haven't seen but one or two over the years and both had a lot of miles on them making the repair a typical "higher mileage repair."
But hopefully by doing a chart you might get a better idea as to what would be a good choice for your needs.

[daveran2008]

I thank you for your reply. Do you have an opinion regarding the windstar line?
Daveran