2012 Minivan Buying Guide

The 2012 Minivan Buying Guide from iGuida.com looks at the most family-friendly and unfairly ridiculed vehicles in America. Minivans have roomy interiors with three rows of seats that can fold to create voluminous cargo holds, easy-access sliding side doors, and pleasing all-around performance.  With long list of features available to protect, coddle and entertain passengers, minivans are ideally suited to young families and active empty nesters alike.

Unfortunately, a consequence of all that versatility is relatively unimpressive fuel-economy ratings. The compact four-cylinder 2012 Mazda 5 leads the minivan pack with an EPA fuel economy rating of 21/28 mpg city/highway and 24 mpg combined city/highway with either its d manual or automatic transmission. But the Mazda 5 is by far the smallest minivan in the U.S. market, with a third row best suited for toddlers rather than adults. Still, the much larger and roomier Honda Odyssey Touring model fares nearly as well: 19/28 mpg, 22 mpg combined, and it has a powerful V-6 and generous three-row seating. Trailing the field are the 2012 Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan and Volkswagen Routan, at 17/25/20, and the all-wheel-drive version of the Toyota Sienna, at16/22/18.

Indeed, six-cylinder engines and automatic transmissions are the norm in this segment, with the 2012 Nissan Quest substituting a gearless CVT (continuously variable transmission) for a conventional automatic. Front-wheel drive is standard on all minivans, with Sienna the only one to offer all-wheel drive (AWD) for added traction on wet or snowy roads. There are no hybrid minivans for sale in the U.S.

Minivans are here to stay – virtually every one as fully redesigned or significantly updated over the past year or so – but their heyday is long past. For model-year 2000 there were 15 minivans on the market with annual combined sales of 1.37 million units. The popularity of minivans slipped dramatically as sport-utility vehicles took over much of the family market, and the category was on pace to log about 500,000 sales. 

There still remains a market for minivans among practical-minded motorists for whom some macho image is not a prime purchasing factor. After years of contracting, the segment is actually expanding and evolving. The Mazda  5 is freshened for  2012, following a busy 2011 model year in which an all-new Nissan Quest was reintroduced after a year’s absence, the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna received full redesigns and the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, and related Volkswagen Routan were freshened with a new V-6 engine and other touches.

Each of the eight models in the 2012 Minivan Buying Guide features large, sliding side doors. They’re great for close-quarters entry and exit in garages and parking lots and for reaching in to buckle kids into or out of car seats. Power-operated sliding doors are available for added convenience and can be opened or closed via a keyless entry key fob. A rear liftgate makes loading groceries or other goods easier, and can also be remotely power activated.

Another defining minivan feature is three-row seating that can accommodate between six and eight passengers, depending on the model and whether the second-row is a three-passenger bench or a pair of separate captain’s chairs. The second- and third-row seats typically fold flat to expand cargo capacity and the third row seat drops into a well in the rear floor to maximize cargo space. With both rear rows folded, most 2012 minivans can haul full 4x8-foot sheets of building materials with the liftgate closed.

The 2012 Town & Country and 2012 Grand Caravan (but not the related VW Routan) include Chrysler’s “Stow ’n Go” second-row bucket seats that fold completely into the floor, so you don’t need to remove them in favor of cargo space. With the “Stow ’n Go” seats upright, you get two generously size covered storage bins behind the front seats. The 2012 Sienna offers a unique power-operated center-row mobility chair that extends out of the vehicle, pivots and lowers itself to aid ingress and egress for elderly and/or disabled riders.

Every minivan comes with the full range of safety features, most of which are now required by federal regulations. These include antilock brakes for more controlled emergency stops, antiskid stability control to help reduce chance of sideways slides that can lead to rollovers. Head-protecting curtain side airbags for all three seating rows also are standard. Most minivans can be fitted with a rear backup camera for easier and safer parking. The 2012 Sienna offers an optional pre-collision system that, in conjunction with the bundled adaptive cruise control system, takes preventive measures – including priming the brakes to full stopping power – if it determines a collision is imminent and unavoidable. Unfortunately, you won’t yet find high-tech accident-avoidance gear like blind spot and lane departure warning systems available in this segment.

Today’s minivans offer myriad convenience and entertainment features including GPS navigation systems, Bluetooth wireless mobile-phone connectivity, USB iPod interface, and multiple-screen DVD systems. The Chrysler and Dodge models are available with subscription-based Sirius Backseat TV that delivers four channels of kid-minded satellite TV programming and can further be fitted with a Wi-Fi accessory that allows laptop computers and other devices to connect wirelessly to the Internet.

Minivans typically are typically costlier than midsize cars but tend to be priced lower than three-row crossover SUVs. The bargain-priced entry in this segment is the compact 2012 Mazda 5 with a base price in the low-$19,000 range. Among standard-sized models, the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan is the most affordable with a base price around $24,000. The 2012 Toyota Sienna and 2012 Honda Odyssey reach well into the $40,000 range in their top trim levels with a full assortment of options. That’s a lot to pay for a non-luxury-branded family vehicle, but once you’ve taken a minivan on a long trip or lived with one for daily family commuting, you’re very likely to laude its myriad user-friendly features, limousine-like comfort and sheer versatility.

Here is our 2012 Minivan Buying Guide:

2012 Chrysler Town & Country
A new V-6 engine and interior upgrade for 2011 helped the T&C keep up with the competition

2012 Dodge Grand Caravan
Getting the same updates but positioned it as the sportier cousin of the Chrysler T&C

2012 Honda Odyssey
Admirable performance, distinctive styling, fantastic room keep Odyssey a class leader

2012 Kia Sedona
This dated and dull South Korean minivan continues for at least another year as a value-leader

2012 Mazda 5
Restyled and with a new engine, this “mini minivan” is an amenable alternative to a small SUV

2012 Nissan Quest
Huge and surprisingly rewarding to drive, but a bit compromised for seat-stowage convenience

2012 Toyota Sienna
Redesigned for 2011, it remains a solid performer, with ample comfort, features, available AWD

2012 Volkswagen Routan
Based on the Grand Caravan but tailored for import tastes and sans Stow ’n Go  seating