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Should I buy a Mini Van in Tokyo?

I am sure at some stage in all of our lives – before marriage / before kids – we said “you’ll never see me in a family van!” how things have changed.
10/15 years later – how things have changed – its time to start thinking about practicality. How are we going to fit 3 kids and the family pet in this sedan? Damn the kids want to bring their friends to the park. All the time still dreaming about the Porsche 911 / BMW 6-series Cabriolet.

As we all know it is very hard to make a sliding door family van look Cool… If you want luxury the new Toyota Alphard or Toyota Vellfire could be for you, spacious, reclinable seats, leather seats, entertainment units really these are the first class seats of the family vans. Mind you with a price tag that goes with it. Yes, you can get the base grade relatively cheap but if you want to deck it out and make it the best it can be, you will be paying for it.

What about the Honda Odyssey? Personally, I like the old shape better it’s sleeker and looks more like a station wagon with an extra row of seats. I like the fact is lower and easier to put a surfboard in for a solo trip to the beach or if the kids and their friends want to go somewhere you can fit the whole futsal team in it! However, since the end of 2013 Honda designed a new sliding door model and to me, they look nearly the same as a Toyota Estima and if you like that shape I would stick with the reliable Estima all day every day.

Now speaking of the Toyota Estima (as we speak July 2016) Toyota has stopped selling the current model at new as there will be a new model/shape change fitting with the recent changes to other cars in their line up. Still waiting to see what they look like but our guys at Toyota said we will be able to see them shortly.

If you like winter sports and want a family van that will work up in the snow in Hakuba or where ever you like going skiing in Japan (my favorite is Myoko) then perhaps the Subaru Exiga is for you. If you grow up in Australia, Subaru was known for there AWD Legacy or Outback – nearly unbreakable in the Australian country conditions so Subaru decided to release a family version of this car in Japan and that was the Subaru Exiga. Like the older shaped Odyssey’s they have side opening doors and a third row that folds flat so you have a large trunk space but this is the only one that was meant to be an AWD (some of the others have 4WD options).

I know coming to Japan and having a huge amount of chooses in the – not so cool – family van range can be tough so we at MickLay Motors decided to give you a small dose of what cars are available. Now there are many others out there and we can help you with any of them (and might even write some more on those at a later date) but to start with check out these models and the videos we have below of some of the ones currently in stock. If not for you I am sure you know someone in Tokyo looking for a used or new car – we can help them!