Hello, Especially to Uplander/Venture Owners
December 27th, 2007 | 4:34 PM
#1
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Hello, Especially to Uplander/Venture Owners
Thought I'd introduce myself. Roy, from Midland here.
I've had a 1998 Venture for the better part of 7 years, pre-owned (off lease) with 30K on the clock. Bought it shortly after my wife and I becamea family rather than a couple. The Honda Accord coupe acquired in my single days just didn't shape up as the right vehicle -- we tended to travel heavy. The Venture seemed to be good value for a good price.
It took a while for me to warm up to the Venture, but after a year or so the bond was strong. Only modification I made was to put a Class 2 trailer hitch on it. With third row seating folded up there was lotsof cargo space.
Worked great for most of its life with me. Had only $300 worth of repairs over the first 5 years, for a faulty drivers-side window switch.All else was typical service issues. It was only recently that the Venture began to disappoint.
The lower intake manifold developed a weeping coolant leak that, for $950, was more of an irritant to the mechanic than to me to see fixed. However, after a $1300 transmission throttle body repair that, two months laterled me to belt slippage and a major transmission replacement, the Venture became to expensive to justify keeping.
Found a late-model Uplander that offers the equivalent features to what we had with the Venture. Being prep'ed at the local dealership. The folks there have been great on customer service. Though premium in charges, they fix what they find and if there's a problem with the work, there's no additional cost.
Once bitten -- twice shy. I got only 112K out of the Venture, a premature demise in my books. The Uplander was bought with extra Warrantycoverage. I must say I don't trust the reliability, but GM (and GE) is covering all thefailures for the next four years or 100K, so I feel better.
Did research and figure that all makes of Minivan are a crap-shoot. There are good and bad experiences reported. Maybe Toyota or Honda have the better products, but that's not the whole story when buying a vehicle. So I'm talking another shot with the Uplander.
Time will tell. Stay tuned...
I've had a 1998 Venture for the better part of 7 years, pre-owned (off lease) with 30K on the clock. Bought it shortly after my wife and I becamea family rather than a couple. The Honda Accord coupe acquired in my single days just didn't shape up as the right vehicle -- we tended to travel heavy. The Venture seemed to be good value for a good price.
It took a while for me to warm up to the Venture, but after a year or so the bond was strong. Only modification I made was to put a Class 2 trailer hitch on it. With third row seating folded up there was lotsof cargo space.
Worked great for most of its life with me. Had only $300 worth of repairs over the first 5 years, for a faulty drivers-side window switch.All else was typical service issues. It was only recently that the Venture began to disappoint.
The lower intake manifold developed a weeping coolant leak that, for $950, was more of an irritant to the mechanic than to me to see fixed. However, after a $1300 transmission throttle body repair that, two months laterled me to belt slippage and a major transmission replacement, the Venture became to expensive to justify keeping.
Found a late-model Uplander that offers the equivalent features to what we had with the Venture. Being prep'ed at the local dealership. The folks there have been great on customer service. Though premium in charges, they fix what they find and if there's a problem with the work, there's no additional cost.
Once bitten -- twice shy. I got only 112K out of the Venture, a premature demise in my books. The Uplander was bought with extra Warrantycoverage. I must say I don't trust the reliability, but GM (and GE) is covering all thefailures for the next four years or 100K, so I feel better.
Did research and figure that all makes of Minivan are a crap-shoot. There are good and bad experiences reported. Maybe Toyota or Honda have the better products, but that's not the whole story when buying a vehicle. So I'm talking another shot with the Uplander.
Time will tell. Stay tuned...
December 27th, 2007 | 5:59 PM
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RE: Hello, Especially to Uplander/Venture Owners
Thanks for the welcome.
Wish this holiday season wasn't so vehicle-oriented. Luckily I have some time to deal with it.
The Venture's transmission was burnt up in on the return leg of a 600 mile trip. The Drive gear wouldn't maintain 70 MPH (engine rev'ed without accelleration)-- hobbled home on the back roads.
Still bitter (does it show?). I fondly recall my '73 Pontiac LeMans (305 cu.in with 3-speed hydomatic) that accrued 210K before the body (floor panreally) and steering linkage woreout. Somehow I feel all cars should last that long.
Roy...
Wish this holiday season wasn't so vehicle-oriented. Luckily I have some time to deal with it.
The Venture's transmission was burnt up in on the return leg of a 600 mile trip. The Drive gear wouldn't maintain 70 MPH (engine rev'ed without accelleration)-- hobbled home on the back roads.
Still bitter (does it show?). I fondly recall my '73 Pontiac LeMans (305 cu.in with 3-speed hydomatic) that accrued 210K before the body (floor panreally) and steering linkage woreout. Somehow I feel all cars should last that long.
Roy...
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