Entourage anyone?

I haven't read much commentary here about the Entourage. Anyone here
own one? I've owned Chrysler minivans for 12 years now, but do not care
much for the new design they came out with in 08. I'm wondering about
the Hyundai, but haven't taken a real close look yet.

Comments or experiences?

Matt

 

Own the ... well either twin sister or kissin' cousin, the Kia Sedona. And
actually, the 2007 is my third one.

While Consumer Reports may or may not be your favorite magazine, they JUST
released a report on the new 2008 Chrysler. To say the least, they were NOT
impressed with it, even with the pleasant new (and VERY welcome) 4.0L V6
engine. Handling is not up to the standards of the other minivans, and not
even up to previous Chryslers, and braking is MUCH worse than in previous
models.

What is worse is that you have to spend thousands more $$ to get that 4.0L
V6 engine, along with tons of options you may or may not want. For
Hyundai/Kia (and all the others), they only come with one very impressive
engine - all models get that.

As opposed to the Chrysler/Dodges, the Hyundai/Kia is fairly impressive. It
is competitive in most areas with the other minivans. But Hyundai and Kia
offer their minivans for thousands less than the others.

Bluntly, I got into Kias back in 2002 because even that was more minivan
than I could afford, but it was the only one that could even came close.
But I wouldn't trade them now (except for newer models) for any other make
and model. For the money, you can't do better.

Test drive one, and then see what kind of a deal you can make - compared to
other brands you will be stunned for what you can have this minivan for.

Hyundai or Kia? Whichever one has a better dealer and a better service
department. Those are important.

Hope this helps.

 

Reply to message from Matt Whiting <> (Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:
21:14) about "Entourage anyone?":


MW> I haven't read much commentary here about the Entourage. Anyone here
MW> own one? I've owned Chrysler minivans for 12 years now, but do not
MW> care much for the new design they came out with in 08. I'm wondering
MW> about the Hyundai, but haven't taken a real close look yet.

MW> Comments or experiences?

Excellent minivan (based on my test drive and close inspection. The
Chrysler products still don't compare - even Consumer Reports alludes to
this.

Bye
Wayne Moses <> Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:18:18 -0600

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 3.3

 

We love ours. We bought one the first month they went on sale. We have
almost 18,000 miles on it now and still enjoy it as much as the day we
got it. We were hit by a tractor-trailer on our way home from vacation
in July, and all 4 of us walked away without even a scratch. Mind you,
it was a low speed crash, but it was also a tractor-trailer!! The final
cost to repair was just over $10k!! Since then, we've put about 4,000
miles on it and have no issues with the repairs either.

But it isn't perfect. A few sqeaks and rattles have developed inside
the cabin. Mostly from the large, adjustable front tray that sits
between the driver and front passenger. I've been able to quiet it
myself without any problems, but it can be annoying if it happens on a
long trip.

While the engine and tranny are smooth 95% of the time, if you get
towards redline, we have a weird vibration that develops. Kind of a
hum. Luckily it has plenty of power at lower RPM's, so you don't need
to wind her out much.

The passenger side sliding door has done some weird things from time to
time. Like close almost all the way, open about 6" and close again
without any obvious cause.

Oh, here's another weird one....when you have the sliding door windows
open (even a crack) the doors will not slide all the way open. They
still open 90% of the way, but they won't finish, and the alarm beeps to
tell you the door has something blocking it.

Overall, we get almost 17 MPG, which I think is pretty good for this
vehicle.

If you have any other specific questions...fire away!

Eric

 

Thanks. Yes, I subscribe to CR and just read the report. I'll admit to
also being skeptical of CR as well as I've personally driven many of the
vehicles they test (I travel a lot on business and rent a variety of
vehicles), and I often disagree with their results. However, I don't
much care for the looks of the new van. They have made it look like an
SUV and I'm not an SUV fan. And if the brakes really are worse, then I
don't want one.

My Hyundai dealer is closer than the nearest Kia dealer so I'll probably
lean that way. I'm not in the market immediately, but my current Dodge
van has nearly 100,000 miles now and the AC compressor just failed and
that will likely be a very expensive repair ... once they find a
compressor as there is a nationwide back order for some reason..

Matt

 

What is your driving mix? My wife drives our van about 50-70% highway
and the balance in town and we average 21 MPG or so, a little lower in
the winter. We get 25 on the highway. Have you taken any long trips to
get enough tankfuls on the highway to have a feel for mileage there?

Matt

 

Figure $400 to $600. You can get a rebuilt for reasonable cost, but the one
I had was replaced twice under warranty and failed again after. It was
cheaper to replace the car at that point.

 

My wife drives it primarily during the week, and while technically it is
almost 100% highway, unfortunately it is usally in moderate to heavy
traffic. As an example, it's an 11 mile communte that can take anywhere
from 15 minutes to about an hour. Longer in bad weather. The longest was
over 2 hours in a heavy snow storm once.

So most of its use is city.

On our trips to Ocean City, MD, and Virginia, we average around 22 MPG or
so...a little better to VA. I think our best tank so far was 24.2 MPG, but
I'm not looking at the numbers right now.

Eric

 

I was guessing $600 so looks like I'm in the ball park.

Matt

 

That sounds a fair bit worse than our Chrysler minivan, but we have the
small 3.3L engine and I believe the Entourage is a little larger than
that. My 96 Chrysler did even better routinely getting 27 on the
highway, but the 03 van isn't quite as good.

My Sonata fuel mileage is disappointing for the car and engine size as
compared to GM and Chrysler cars so I guess it isn't surprising that the
Entourage is lower than similar minivans. I guess you have to figure
you save enough on the purchase price to pay a little more for fuel.

Matt

 

Hey, I certainly wasn't claiming it was a fuel miser, and I agree that it
could and should be better, but I actually thought it would be a little
worse than it is.

It also seems that each year these vehicles get heavier and heavier with
all of the safety and other "features".

And it is a 3.8 V6, just so you know.

Eric

 

Backorder? HHHmmm....

Sounds like the ol' Ford F53 Motorhome chassis fuel pump nationwide
backorder...

At least that's what I heard. Mine's a NAPA.

 

I have a LeSabre with the 3.8 V6 and the Sonata with the 3.3 V6 and both get
identical mileage. The Sonata is faster and handles better though.

 

I had a Park Avenue rental car that got identical mileage to my 2.4L
Sonata on the highway! I drove that car to Boston and back from Elmira
and it got over 30 MPG at 70+ MPH. It was faster and larger than my
Sonata yet got the same mileage. I was impressed. I'm not sure the
engine size, but I think it was a 3.8L.

Matt

 

The buzz I see is that rattles and squeaks are the number one complaint. I
think I've only seen one or two in service like this.

There's a safety reason the sliding door won't open fully when the window
is down. It prevents someone being injured in the event a body part is
through the window when the door is opened. In fact, the reason you hear
the blockage alarm is that there's an arm that comes out and blocks the
door.

 

Call me slow, but I never even thought of that. I knew it was designed
that way for a reason, since my van isn't the only one to do it, but I
never put it together for that reason. I bet a 5th grader would have known
that too. Oh well, we can't all be brain surgeons

Eric

 

Reply to message from "hyundaitech" <> (Tue, 11 Dec
2007 11:55:43) about "Re: Entourage anyone?":

h> The buzz I see is that rattles and squeaks are the number one
h> complaint. I think I've only seen one or two in service like this.

Hmmm .... interesting. Rattles and squeaks are usually a result of poor
quality and we all know that Hyundai has pretty much arrived when it comes
to [initial] quality.

What tends to be the source of these noises? My latter Hyundais have all
been pretty tight.

Best Regards
Wayne Moses <> Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:36:45 -0600

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 3.3

 

Having only seen a couple, it's hard to say where the sources of the noises
are. We did have one van which seemed to have a squeak from the rear which
was cured by lubing the tailgate stop pads.

 

I had them from the center cup holder tray thingy that sits between the
driver and passenger. It rattles violently at times with no obvious
cause....and that's without a drink or anything else in it. With the wrong
size beverage, it can be down right deafening at certain speeds. There are
two bolts that need to be tightened on the "arm" that supports the cup
holder in the upright position.

Also, the drivers side middle seat has made some noise on me in the past
but I found that if it doesn't secure PERFECTLY, then that noise will
persist. I consider that a safety warning I guess (although certainly not
designed that way) since it alerts me that it isn't completely secured. It
is difficult to do it right too, but after some practice you can get it on
the first or second shot.

The folding rear seats have also had a few rounds of noise from them for
me. It seems to have no rhyme or reason to it, but if I change the
seatback angle it stops. I can then change the seatback to the original
poisition and it remains silent. I have to guess that something there
doesn't secure right either, but that's one that I can't really see what's
going on.

With all of that said, the body, door panels and trim have been rock solid
so far.

 

I haven't investigated anything with the rear seats on one yet, but if the
seat has a left and a right side latch, I'd suspect that one side is
latched and the other side isn't.