Choosing our family car in Tokyo
20 Jul 2025 | #car | #japan | #moneyWe recently bought a minivan for our family, living in Tokyo. In this post I’ll cover how we chose the type of car that we bought.
Summary
- We have a 1.5 year old, and the second baby is on their way, with a third planned
- We wanted sliding doors to help with the kids.
- Initially we considered Toyota Roomy/Suzuki Solio, but the storage wasn’t big enough for weekend trips even with one kid
- One step up, Honda Freed/Toyota Sienta: we liked the space, but 3 kids would be difficult to fit. Also the third row is too close to the back (safety concern and limited storage), and we were missing some must-have options (parking sensor, AC for the second-third row, captain seat in Sienta)
- So in the end we decided to get a minivan, and ended up buying a second hand Toyota Voxy
Phase 1: we don’t need a car
Before we had kids, we were very happy not having to own a car. We regularly rented cars for short trips (once a month or so), but never felt the need to own our own. We also used Times Car fairly often, which further helped when e.g. we wanted to pick up some furniture from IKEA.
Phase 2: okay, we need a car
After our child was born, we found that having a car would be very convenient. We ended up taking taxi quite frequently (e.g. coming home somewhere on a weekend and taking taxi from the station), and also rented cars more and more often.
We also learned that life with a baby can be very unpredictable, and it happened multiple times that by the time we decided that we needed a car for the weekend, the Times Cars were all reserved around us. Also while with 2 adults we could pick up the car together, with a baby it is always one of us getting the car, then picking up the other one and the baby at home (where the childseat is).
New or second-hand
Since we don’t plan on driving everyday, and neither of us have strong opinions about cars, we decided to go with a second hand car to save on the costs. Our idea was to get something around 3-5 years old, when the initial depreciation is already gone, but it still has up to 10 years in it before any major issues would hit.
Phase 3: small car with sliding door
After renting various cars, we quickly learned that sliding door helps a lot with the baby (especially in narrow parking spots). So we started looking for a car with sliding doors. Since our family was only 3 people, we started with the smallest non-kei cars (we excluded kei-cars due to safety concerns, especially on the highway).
This left us with two options:
- Suzuki Solio
- Toyota Roomy (also sold as Daihatsu Thor)
They both cost around 2-2.5M yen new, and a 5 year old car with the features we wanted (parking camera, adaptive cruse control) was going for 1.2-1.4M yen.
Then we rented a Suzuki Solio for a weekend trip, and that made us change our mind: first of all the storage space was very small. A small suitcase and a folded up stroller could already barely fit, so it felt that any longer trip or more gear (forget about skis) would be impossible to carry. Moreover the seats just weren’t that comfortable compared to other rentals.
At the same time my wife got pregnant, so now we are expecting our second child. We are planning to have 3 kids overall, so this also pointed towards getting a bigger car.
Phase 4: medium-size car with sliding door
We are set on the sliding door, and one size bigger meant these two models:
- Toyota Sienta
- Honda Freed
Both of these have 3 rows, and 7 seats in 2+3+2 configuration (though Freed is also available in 2+2+2 with captain seats).
These would fit 2 kids comfortably and with ample storage space. Also their 3rd row provides 2 extra seats for guests.
However if we buy a car of this size, it would be nice if it could last long, and with the second baby already on their way, we had to think about fitting 3 kids in 3-4 years time.
ISOFIX and captain seats
ISOFIX is the attachment points where child seats can be installed, and these are usually only available on the 2 side seats of the second row. So thinking about putting 3 kids into the car, two child seats need to go there.
However child seats (especially for infants) are very wide, so putting 2 of them doesn’t leave enough space in the middle for a third kid (though there are intentionally narrower child seats, but we didn’t look into those in detail). But no problem: the third kid can just sit in the 3rd row, right? Except with the 2 child seats fixed in the second row, it is impossible to reach the third row, as neither side of the second row can be flipped forward.
The solution: captain seats. This configuration means that instead of 3 seats in the third row (in a bench setup), the car only has 2 seats (similar to the first row) leaving enough space in the middle to access the third row.
Great! Except captain seats are not available on Toyota Sienta, only on Honda Freed.
Looking for a second hand Honda Freed that fit our requirements we found that it would cost around 2-2.5M yen for a 3-5 year old car with 30-50k km on the clock.
So as the next step we rented a Honda Freed to try it.
The car was great, but with the current summer heat we realized that it is nice to have an AC in the second and third row (instead of having to run the AC in the front at full power). However double AC is an uncommon feature for Honda Freed.
Moreover thinking about 3 kids and how one of them would be sitting in the 3rd row, we started to worry about the safety, since those seats are very close to the back of the car.
This was pushing us towards the idea of starting with a Honda Freed and then changing it to a bigger car once the third kid is born. Then we learned one more thing about Honda Freed: the parking sensor is a paid option, so many second hand cars are missing it. This further pushed us towards getting a full minivan.
Phase 5: let’s just get a mini van
We have rented minivans in the past, and both my wife and I liked driving them, so we started looking for one. The available models that we found were:
- Toyota Noah/Voxy (the two are sibling cars, same base and engine, different design)
- Nissan Serena
- Honda Stepwgn
There are also more luxurious models like Toyota Alphard/Vellfire, but we care neither about the design nor the bigger engine (higher tax), so the higher price ruled them out from the start.
On our rentals we preferred the Toyota Noah/Voxy, so started looking at that first. Searching on the second hand websites, I was surprised how many more Noah/Voxy were available, compared to Honda Freeds. Also the prices weren’t that much higher than the Freed: we could easily find multiple nice options around 2.5M yen (so only about 200-300k higher than a comparable Freed).
Models, trims, and updates
My wife took the deep-dive into the various model refreshes, and different trims of Noah/Voxy. I would find a car that looked like a good deal, and she would point out that it was made right before a trim refresh, so while it was only a few months older, it still had the old tech (including safety system), and that’s why it is cheaper than the one few months younger.
FOr example when we saw a listing like トヨタ ヴォクシー ZS キラメキ2, we searched for the full name, then checked on the Toyota site about the release date: キラメキ2 was released in 2016 but it was sold until 2020, so you could be looking at a 5 years old car, however the tech inside will be almost 10 years old.
Desired options
In the end we arrived to the following list of options that we wanted to have in the car:
- pilot seats in the second row
- double AC (dedicated AC for the second row, also cooling the third row)
- electric sliding doors on both side
- adaptive cruse control
On the condition of the car:
- no accident history
- non-smoking
- one previous owner (it is suspicious if a car went through 2 owners in 3-5 years)
Hybrid or not
Most cars that we considered (including the minivans) are available in hybrid and gasoline versions. We found that for the Toyota Noah/Voxy, the hybrid ones are usually 300-500k yen more expensive than comparable gasoline models.
The ongoing costs of owning a hybrid are lower, with the savings coming from two sources:
- Fuel cost (assuming 6,000 km/year, typical for weekend driving): appr. 25,000 yen per year (Hybrid: ~23 km/L vs Petrol: ~15 km/L)
- Vehicle tax（自動車税）: 5,500 yen per year (Hybrid: 1.8L → ¥39,500 vs Petrol: 2.0L → ¥45,000)
Bringing the overall saving to around 30,000 yen per year. This means that the higher upfront cost only breaks even after 10-15 years.
There is another consideration: when selling the car after 5-10 years, the hybrid is probably still worth more than the gasoline one. Assuming the car lost half its value by the 7th year, then e.g. 400,000 yen extra for hybrid when buying it, might become 200,000 yen extra when selling. In this case the overall cost of the hybrid for that 7 years would be 200,000 yen more (cost 400,000 yen more, but sold for 200,000 yen more), and if it saved 30,000 yen per year, then the end result is a very comparable financial outcome.
Now if the cost of fuel goes up, then hybrids will do better in the future. But if the car crashes (and we loose any residual value), then the hybrid ends up being worse. Also if we drive more than planned, then hybrids are better, but if we drive less, then gasoline ones come out ahead.
Overall we concluded that hybrid or gasoline models are comparable options, and decided that we will go with the one that fits our other criteria better.
The final choice: Toyota Voxy
In the end we decided to get a gasoline Toyota Voxy: 4 years old with 22,000 km on the clock listed at 2,492,000 yen (but I will write about the real price in another post).
The trim, ZSキラメキ3 was released in October 2020., starting at 3.1M yen. So the first owner might have paid up to 4M yen for it (with options). Considering that we are getting it for 2.5M, the owner likely got around 2M yen max for it, which means that in 4 years they ate a 2M yen depreciation (or in other words, every 10km driven cost them 1,000 yen in depreciation alone). This is why I don’t buy new cars.
In my next post I will talk about the options for buying a second hand car and how we got ours.