vehicle purchasing advice

[SteveDallas]

Urrrrggggggghhhhhhh... so.. having a 1991 vehicle and a 1995 vehicle, and having acquired both of these under duress (when the previous respective vehicles died premature and ignominious deaths) I have undertaken to start considering the purchase of a new vehicle to replace the 1991 Civic--it would be nice to get rid of it while it's still worth something other than scrap.

The other piece is that with the addition of munchkins to the clan, the Powers That Be (aka everybody in the family except me) have decreed that the next purchase will be a minivan. :whofarted (I personally could go with a nice sedan, but my opinion doesn't seem to be counting in this case.)

So, any advice on what to buy and where and how to shop? I have been leaning toward a Honda Odyssey or maybe a Toyota Sienna, with a Dodge Grand Caravan in a somewhat more distant third. The cost of any of these (sticker prices in the mid 20s) is a stretch for the budget, so my thought was to buy a low-milage older model, maybe a 1999. Old enough to knock the price down at least a couple or three thousand, but new enough that we can get 10 years or so out of it. But jeez---the idea was to SAVE money!!! In some quick price comparison online, I don't see any savings in getting the used models! For example, at carsdirect.com, I just found a 1999 Honda Odyssey with 30K miles that is priced HIGHER than the MSRP for a new 2002 Odyssey!! Yes, I know this is the initial asking price, but the MSRP is just an asking price too. Either buying used is not as helpful as I thought it would be or looking online is useless.

So, I await your wise counsels.