I'm not much help on buying cars - I have owned beater and new Toyotas since I could drive. My sister though who is a careful and frugal shopper bought a Honda Odyssey to move her brood + frequent moves with a chunk of the soccer team, and likes it alot. I think it sits 7.

If I were on the market for a family van I might go retro, and get an old style VW van. Our family of 10 grew up in two of them, one with the old style double doors and one with a sliding back door. Besides a weak engine that seemed to blow up on steep mountain passes (part of the family adventure) it was a great, great vehicle for kids and to drive. No seatbelts, you could stuff an infinite number of kids in it in the day. Fond memories in later life of getting a ride home from school with a cheerleader on my lap (thanks mom!) Also learning to drive, the manual transmission was so smooth you could skip lower gears with ease (which both freaked out and impressed the driving inspector). Does VW have a more modern equivalent?

Every vehicle I've owned has been a GM save 1 Chrysler, I just bought a Toyota Sequoia. Question answered,

Honda. Hands-down, the Honda Odyssey. It's the #1 minivan for good reason.

After over four years with my Honda Element (built in Ohio), I still adore it. Could not be happier, it's been 100% trouble-free. If I were minivan shopping, Honda would be my first and last stop.

Just this weekend I was talking to a fellow camper who was raving about his Honda Civics. His first one, '97, lasted over 200,000 miles with little trouble. So he went out and bought another '97, a lower mileage Civic.

Toyota's are synonymous with quality, too.

GM or Chrysler - no way in the world, especially now that GM is Government Motors. They're toast. Burnt toast.

I'd look at Ford in another year or two, assuming they'll still be in good shape (I'm hopeful for Ford).

Good luck!

If I had my druthers I would buy a Jeep Commander fully loaded and set up for off road. I have a couple friends who took the plunge and they say the platform is solid. I might consider a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Turbo Diesel, but that would be a stretch.

I may look into the dodge/cummins next, the half ton limits the size of camper I can haul/tow. I have a small one now, a guy bought it who had one of the new Toyota "full size" and it couldn't handle it so he sold it. He was impressed that mu 1/2 ton truck handled the weight so much better than his and couldn't beleive I was getting better gas mileage too.

I always laught when I see people talk about how their Toyota/Honda went x# of trouble free miles that it was so great, but all the GM cars/trucks on the road going the same amount of trouble free miles are somehow not as good.

Eugene,

Is it your belief that GM has as good a track record of manufacturing reliable vehicles as Honda and Toyota?

I work for a major automotive supplier (4th or 5th largest, depending on the state of bankruptcies right now). We supply to most every automotive company out there, though by far most of our parts to to U.S. or European companies. We make a few parts for Asian companies - but not many. It is VEEERRRYYY difficult to sell to them.

Folks see a Toyota or Honda plant in the U.S. and think it is a "U.S.-made" vehicle. It is simply not the same. Almost every single part comes from an Asian plant. It is only assembled in the U.S. Yes, some parts for the big three come from offshore, but a lot of those are from factories owned by U.S. companies. Much of that money stays in the U.S.

Quality was a huge difference back in the 70's, but things are different now. Very different. People are fooling themselves if they think that is the reason not to by from the big three.

I used to work for GM 20 years ago. Even back then they would buy Hondas or Toyotas for comparative testing, and they would find that the quality of some models - especially their first year models - were so poor - in a relative sense - they'd stop testing them. 20 years has brought an amazing change in quality to U.S. cars AND trucks.

J.D. Powers' 2009 dependability ratings - the top two spots are Jaguar and Buick, Lexus at #3, Toyota at #4, and Mercury at #5.

In J.D. Power's 2009 dependability ratings the Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion beat out the Toyota Camry, and Honda Accord. The Pontiac Grand Prix beat the Toyota Avalon. The Dodge Dakota and Ford Ranger beat out the Toyota Ridgeline and Toyota Tacoma. The Dodge Dakota beat the Toyota Highlander and was much better than the Honda Pilot. The fullsize Chevy Silverado 1500 beat the Toyota Tundra. You see a pattern here?? The only categories where the Asian vehicles have full quality advantage is the compact, subcompact cars, and minivans.

All orders are down. Its not a quality thing. Its just that folks in the U.S. are not buying new cars.

Chrysler orders have already started to ramp up toward pre-bankruptcy levels. They are coming back.

GM will come back too. No doubt.

Folks who bought Pontiacs will probably buy other models.

What does it mean when someone buys Saturn & Hummer from GM. Many (most?) of the models are on GM platforms (Hummer H2=Tahoe, Hummer H3=Trailblazer, Saturn Aura=Chevy Malibu). GM will still be selling them the platforms for a while at least.

Parts and dealers won't be an issue.

Please, do buy from the big three. I don't care which one. Most of that money stays in North America (mostly the U.S.). If you buy a European car, at least some of that money stays in North America. If you buy an Asian car, VERY little of that money stays in North America.

I'm not a protectionist, but I do believe in national pride and doing what is right for my country. I think it would be disastrous for the U.S. send all manufacturing off-shore, but it is happening. I want my kids and their kids to be able to find jobs and earn a living. That is not a political statement - just a personal view.

I was listening to a talk radio program this week and someone who called in stated they were a current large American auto dealership in California that is not suffering as bad as his competitors. However he did say that part of his current money woes was not selling vehicles it was servicing them.

Where he used to do $25,000 a month in warranty repairs, now he is lucky to do $5,000 and as he somewhat admitted, that is where a lot of his company income/profit comes from. But what he was attempting to do was speak to the quality of the American brand.

About Thanksgiving time I purchased a new-to-me 2002 Chrysler Town & County minivan from a Chrysler dealership. I got a great deal on the van, and was comfortable that the government would ensure that the 5-year/50,000 mile warranty would be honored. Overly optimistic? Perhaps, but so far I've seen nothing to make me question the assumption.

The Town & Country has been great. Much more comfortable, if not as much fun as, the Subaru Outback that we also own. I hate that I drive a minivan (I wanted a truck) but I have to admit that it is a supremely useful vehicle that can carry my wife, kids, me and a set of grandparents in comfort, if not style. If I take out the rear bench, it swallows up a surprising amount of stuff as well.

So far maintenance has been what I would expect of a car it's age: a vaccuum line developed a pinhole from dry rot and needed to be replaced, and I'll need to spring for new tires soon.

I guess I'm saying I wouldn't discount the very aggressive pricing that is being offered by the American dealers right now, if I were looking to buy a car.

With all due respect, corporate wellfare is not something we should be supporting. We all lose when the taxpayer is forced to subsidize one industry over another.