I can break it down this way.

GM has the best trucks on average (although Ford is an equal or better in some respects).

Ford makes the best SUV’s (although the Suburban is better than the Expedition and the Wrangler is an island unto itself.) Late 1990’s Grand Cherokees are also great values if you get them loaded up and if you know that the prior owner took care of them.

Chrysler has the best ‘value’ in minivans. The Odysseys have historically had very serious transmission issues and the Sienna has a multitude of niggling faults that outweigh it’s more refined powertrain. The only issues I see with the Chrysler models have been head gaskets on the 2.4L engines and those aren’t frequent.

Overall I prefer minivans if carrying more than five people (or lots of cargo) is important and you don’t need to tow. Most folks who buy the first two would either be better off with a minivan or a compact to midsized car that can have a small trailer hitched up to it.

Then again, if everyone was truly practical they would drive some version of an early 1990’s Volvo 940 wagon.

The Pathfinder is a freak of nature. If it weren’t for the opportunity to roll back the odometer it would’ve been luck to sell for half it’s price.

A 10 year old domestic midsized SUV will typically go for $1000 to $1500 if it’s not heavy on the options and has normal miles. Better ones of course will go for $2000 and up and yes, there has been some upswing in this segment since the summer. In fact these are starting to hit the sweet spot of finance fodder again. Although some places are now tracking higher end vehicles for this purpose and requiring only $500 to $700 down. The Explorer was a perfect example of that type of inventory.

Some folks will actually remove the equipment and take it out of the state/country where it will never be seen again. Most don’t but you would be surprised how sophisticated some of the better managed buy-here pay-here lots are becoming as are the criminals who target them. The days of Old Tex selling the beat up jalopy to the folks down the street are well on the decline.

You are both delusional here – yeah, I get it you don’t like domestic OEM’s, but come on – the Explorer was the best selling SUV for how many years? Had extremely high levels of repeat buyers and it was not well built and reliable? Get real!

BTW, I have never understood the whole SUV thing, but have always had vans as they made a whole lot more sense – more room for passengers and cargo and still able to tow my boat and other toys while getting better fuel economy. I am totally bummed that I can’t get a new Astro or Safari any more as they were ‘right sized’. Of course, you will trash them too, right?

Seems to me a five or six year old 12 mpg domestic SUV with 100K or more miles on it shouldn’t bring a lot of money. On the other hand, I suppose Honda CRV’s and Toyota RAV4’s are still commanding premium prices.