Needing something bigger than the toyota yaris thats next to the dodge in the driveway and I've been looking quietly at the soon to be discontinued uplander/montana since they seem to be affordable and will probably sell cheap when they are done for good.

Problem is, I've only read bad reviews about chronic failures but dont want to completely trust consumer review "bitching" sites yet I'm cautious about deciding on this, does anybody have one of these that can give me real world info on reliability? Issues I've read about are chronic wheel bearing failures, fuel guages, driveline shimmies and automatic sliding doors that either wont stay aligned and close properly or open while driving.

Thanks!

The Pontiac Montana, Chev Venture and Olds Silhouette were the same minivan, and we only had stupid electrical stuff annoy us. Know nothing about the Uplander...

from what I read they are mostly the same as the previous generation (venture) but they have a different powerplant, redesigned interior and many more gimmicks

Raised ride height and boxier nose too. They tried to make em look more SUV less mini van. If they have the same transmission as the venture stay away.

Back in the day, my mom had a venture, from 98-01, new. It did start to fail after a while. The A/C unit's electrical went to hell, and the power sliding door got all messed up too. It did all that stuff within weeks of trading it in for a trailblazer. Now that was a truck.

It was a good van for what it was. Had lots of space and cozy.

we had a montana and venture both with the 3.4l stay away. The lower intake gasket go out and lots of $$$ to fix. We had ours under warrany. Around $800 to fix. The Venture had 60000 miles and needed to be replaced. If you get one and already replaced shouldnt be a problem for a long while.

We just bought a 2008 Uplander 3.9l had it for a week so far so good. Has a lot of power and it kind of rides like an SUV but corners excellent. I was surprised to see 17" wheels with hubcaps. We got the LS so its a pretty base model. No power sliding doors but they do close very easy.

had the Uplander for a couple of months now. We love it. No complaints really handles really good too. Doesnt feel like a mini van.

Got a good deal on a used '08 Uplander LT long wheel base, traded the toyota on it so I now have 3 vans in the driveway till the windstar is sold lol.

The Montana and Venture vans are good little vans...the 3.4 engines had a issue with intake gaskets but that was because of the Dexcool(red)antifreeze GM was using in them...the Dexcool would go acitic and eat away at the gaskets...if you do buy a GM vehicle with Dexcool(red)antifreeze in it and it does not have a warranty on it still drop the Dexcool(red)antifreeze and flush it out and go with the trusty Prestone(green)stuff....
If you change from the Dexcool to the prestone during warranty they may void it as the vehicle wasn't built with the prestone in it....
There are strips like pool test strips that test the acitic value of the antifreeze, if it is acitic change it with the Dexcool until out of waranty then switch...and this will prolong the life of your GM engine

Good tip I havent seen before, I'm not too familiar with dexcool

When we had the gasket replaced on our last Venture they did say it should last the life of the vehicle then. Not sure if they used a different material for the gasket or not.

I'm happy with it so far, 25 mpg on the highway is better than the windstar was, but the large captains chairs hide a lot of the side rear window view

well, all isnt too well with it, looks like the tranny is on it's last legs at a time when I cant even get my dodge to turn over! Good thing it has a LONG warranty

Sold this POS. long story short, inside of a year I had to replace the ball joints, both front wheel bearings (and the tires at that point were still wearing funny), front main seal blew out twice, oil pan gasket leaking badly, tranny output seal leaked, rear heater stopped working, severe vibrations at highway speed and at braking, abs modulator failed, untraceable evap code tripping the check engine light, severe rust on the tailgate lower seam from one end to the other that GM wouldn't cover because it wasn't a hole yet(this vehicle never left northern Alberta)and I'm sure there's more. This from a 2008, so I figured there would be much more to come. Traded it for a 2011 Grand Caravan and I've never looked back!