Buying a used 15 seat van to go on tour in... Help is MUCH appreciated!!

[andrewrs]

Hey guys,

Im in a band that will be going on tour in 10 days (yeah... we're cutting the car thing REALLY close). We've been searching for a van for a little while now, and its tough since we have such limited funds.

Basically, we want to lease/finance a 15 seat van thats about $8000 or cheaper. We've found some cars (92 Chevy with 80,000 miles for $5k, 97 Ford Econoline with 92,000 miles for $8k), but we're really not sure how well these cars are gonna hold up. We're going to be driving easily upwards of 8000 miles in the car in the next month going all across the U.S. with tons of equipment in the back, and we can't afford to be breaking down (we're playing 10 shows back to back all in different states on the first leg of the tour, so figuring out the car wont hold up during this time would be extremely costly to us).

Basically, I was wondering if you guys have any advice for us. Anybody know which company makes vans that seem to hold up the longest? Any models you guys suggest? Any advice on actually purchasing the car (lease vs. finance, length of lease, etc)? Thanks so much to anybody who responds... all help is MUCH appreciated.



oohh p.s. check out the music if you feel like it: myspace.com/Carlotta (gotta promote nonstop haha )