Extend battery life,and have fewer breakdowns.

Sounds like your cable ends ain't making a good connection.

1st, are your battery cables in good condition? If you use the after market cables, there are two types. One clamps to the battery and you slip the cable through a clamp which you tighten down with two bolts. Those, I consider temporary repairs. Make sure the battery terminals are very clean. You can buy a battery post and cable end cleaner CHEAP. Buy the one with the brush which you can push through the cable end. They make terminal ends which bolt to the terminals and project out with a stud on them along with a wire end an a nut. This is the type I prefer. Always disconnect the negative terminal first! Make sure you have enough cable to cut it back to where clean copper is showing. If you don't, buy a new cable which is designated for that car. Now, with a razor balde or something of similar sharpeness, go about an1 1 /14 inches from where you cut it and cut around the cable., then cut from the first cut outward to the end of the cable and you can remove the cable insulation. The cable end is placed on the cable end as far in as it will go until it hits the cable insulation. Place the clean end you cut off into the cable end provided, With a pair of pliars placed on bothe sides of the end an partially start to fold the cable end in, not too far. Now, take the pliars and put one jaw on the bottom of the end and the other on one of the halves on the top (on the same side) and start to slowly squeeze it in. It should start to "roll inward torward the cable. Once it has, do the same to the other side. VERY IMPORTANT! Keep track of the cable position so that it is seated as far in as it will go before you make a final crimp. Use a large set of pliars to do this job or the crimp will not be tight enough. Clean the battery post (the positive one) place the cable on the post and tighten it down. it doesn't have to be gorilla tight. (make sure the cable you put on the post is the same one you pulled off! Do the same proceedure ofr the other side.
If you have a long period of cranking time before the car will start, it will damage one starter after another. Buying cheap brands to be thrifty by saveing you money even if they may carry a lifetime warranty NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THEM OUT! IF YOU HAVE REPLACED A BATTERY CABLE AND THE SIZE OF THE CABLE (DIAMETER) IS SMALLER THAN THE ONE WHICH WAS IN THE CAR, YOU WILL ALSO DAMAGE A STARTER. A starter hanging up after the engine has started up which could be caused by a bad ignition switch, can burn a starter up. If it remains in contact with the engine after it is running, it becomes a generator. I hope I have given you some avenues in which to follow up on. Good luck.

You may not have needed to buy a new battery, depending on the age of the battery and the year of the vehicle. I have owned these mini-vans for over ten years now and one problem they seem to have is build up under the positive battery post. This is usually an oxide of some kind building up on the battery post from the battery acid and then isolating the battery cable end from making contact with the post. All I've ever had to do is clean the battery post and cable end and tighten it back up and it works fine. Battery post treated washers (red and green) help this as well as putting battery terminal grease on the cable end once installed to keep corrosion from building up again.

If you have a side post battery situation you'll need to take the battery cable off the battery and clean up the bolt with a wire brush and inside the battery connection with a small wire brush kind of like a bottle brush since the threads are not very big. After cleaning apply a "thin" coat of dielectric grease. This grease is conductive and will give a better contact and keep corrosion away.

On an intermittent start problem like this you may be having a starter solenoid issue or your wire on the starter from the key switch may be loose. Or you may have a corroded battery cable or the safety neutral switch may be going bad. Is it a automatic? If it were it would be the clutch safety switch going out. So do the simple things first. Clean cables like the first guy said if that does not fix it locate the starter and if you have jumper cables the next time it does it put the positive lead of the jumper cable on the Positive battery terminal and the other touch to the starter wire with the key in the run position where the big wire on the starter is, if you here it spin it means the starter motor is ok if it don't it is bad or the connection on the starter is loose. Also a bad battery cable could cause this from the battery to the starter next put a small wire into the end of the positive jumper cable and touch the S terminal on the starter if you here a solid clung it means the solenoid is good. So check the connections on the starter and tighten the starter bolts as they may have worked loose and don't have a good ground. So if you want more as stance just post on my question and I will hell p more and if this is more informative please rate

Look at all cable and make sure the cable ends are clean and shiney,I do mean shiney.also the battery postneed to be shiney,not gray,or black.This will actually insulate the battery from the cables.If the cables are clean and in good shape at both ends,check for a fusible link to be burned out.It looks like a regular wire,but will pull apart(if burned out)like taffy.They are located on the big post on the starter solenoid.If the problem is not that,then the neutral safty switch,and or the ignition switch is bad.