If you can find a Chrysler Town & Country van (with AWD and quad seating preferred) in the 1996-1999 window, with even vaguely reasonable miles on it, that's a good car.
We drove one we bought new in 1997, and another (1998) that we bought used. Dumbest thing we ever did was talk ourselves into trading that '98 minivan in for our Durango.
Don't get me wrong, the '04 Durango has been very kind to us from a maintenance standpoint; we're at nearly 200K with no major work, and it gets up to 24 mpg highway (summer fuel, flat road), but the seats don't recline, the "7th seat" is poorly placed, and it simply doesn't drive as easily and smoothly as the T&C. If we really needed the hauling capacity or off-road/bad-road capability, then maybe the Durango would be justified, but frankly the T&C drove in the snow every bit as well as the Durango does.
I've had eight years to evaluate the Durango against the seven years we had Town & Country vans, and if your driving is primarily on paved roads, the T&C is the better choice. Four fully reclining seats, plus the third row = 7 real seats.
We got rid of ours for the usual "it's starting to cost money to maintain" reasons, only to realize later that even if any repairs cost more than half the book value of the car, we would still have been money ahead to just fix whatever came up. The money we spent on our first year of payments on the Durango was more than it would have cost to do any repairs, reupholster, and possibly repaint the van. (No, it didn't need painting, just using that as an example.)
Tough lesson.
I now have, as my "second car," an old 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 5-speed manual transmission (only available in the Grands for years 1993-1995). It's gonna cost me maybe 10K to restore it, and I will still be way ahead on cost, compared to buying one of the newer models.
I've tried to teach both of my younger kids that every car -- new or not -- costs a certain amount monthly to maintain, and that if you set aside whatever that amount is (like $150 or $200) every month in a coffee can, when the car breaks (which it will) you will always have the funds to put it back on the road. I told them both, "if you can't afford to put aside $150 a month in addition to your car payment, you can't afford that car." My son learned it, my youngest daughter ... not so much.
Oh, and Dave Ramsey rocks.
