Dodge Grand Caravan? Any opinions?

[Swimalie]

My first car was a Dodge. In 5 years I had to replace the engine, transmission and it was always in the shop. When I met my now husband he had just bought a Dodge for over $20,000. Six years later we sold it for $1500 because the thing shook constantly and no repay shop could figure out why. They were both pieces of junk and I will never buy a Dodge again.

 

[luv2mickey]

You get what you pay for! Owned 2 Chrysler minivans and will never buy another now own a 2004 Honda Odyssey and can't say enough great things about it has 145000 miles and doesn't give us a bit of problems.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

2008 was the first year of a major redesign, Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy, and reviews of reliabiltiy has been poor. I know the used prices may seem attractive, but the vehicle is not respected for its quality or reliability.

 

[zeferjen]

We have a 2009 town and country. I have had to have the brakes fixed 2x in 50k miles, but other than that, no problems.

 

[tarheel618]

Worst vehicle we ever owned. So many problems, it was a nightmare.

 

[Dizzyworld]

We had two in the past. Never again. The last one I love because it was paid for and I hate paying for cars/vans. The last made it to 79,000 miles when we got rid of it because it started to become unreliable. Driving down the road and all the electric went out. Weird and scary. It's last summer it spent too much time in the repair shop. I needed a relaiable van to pick up the kids from camps and other places. The van before that one I was nickled and dimed to death. I wasn't going to get into that again. We now have a Honda. After almost 5 years I can say I still love this van. It rides well and has given us no problems at all. It is so nice to get in my van and know I'm going to get to my destination.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[AirGoofy]

Consumer Reports lists the 2008 Grand Caravan as worst for used car prediction. It has the listed price range as $8,775 - $14,075.

It lists the Grand Caravan from 2001 to 2009 as a used vehicle to avoid.

For the Worst of the worst: These models, listed alphabetically, have multiple years of reliability that's much worse than average among 2001 to 2010 models. The Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan are both listed.

Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey are listed as best minivans.

I have a 2002 Caravan with almost 200,000 miles. But, I do in-state driving, so most of those are road miles (and trips to WDW). I liked the lower cost (compared to a SUV) and the V6 has enough horsepower, but it is just the thought of driving a minivan - . We had a recall and then just routine maintenance. It was probably just luck of the draw.

 

[Bell30012]

Back when I was a district manager in newspaper circulation, we used to have an unofficial rule... Don't contract a carrier driving a Plymouth Voyager, Dodge Caravan or Chrysler Town & Country on any route farther out than you want to drive and get them WHEN the transmission fails.

There were managers who broke this, there were carriers that purchased one of these after getting the route... The rule always seem to hold true. These vehicles transmissions just aren't that great especially in any type of hard use.

The absolute worst for transmission failures were the 2001-2007 models.

 

[the5marions]

We own a 2008 Grand Caravan that we bought new. We love it. The older ones had a different transmission and had lots of problems, but the new 6- speed that they started in 2008 have not had the same problems. The problems we have had have been covered by warranty, even after the warranty had run out. We recently had a recall for the electric door and for the air conditioning hose - no charge to fix them. It seems that Dodge is really standing behind their vehicles now.

 

[Disneyworld Kirk]

We just bought a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan in April. We love it! It easily fits our 2 kids (5 and 1) and us and it's nice to take 'Grandma and Grandpa' with us rather than drive 2 vehicles when going places.
I recommend it!

Kirk

 

[preschoolmom]

I'm afraid to post to this thread, for fear I'll jinx myself

We drive a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's had just normal maintenance/wear and tear issues over the last 8 years. And that's 8 years of HARD city driving. It's been paid off for 3+ years now, and I hope to drive it for at least another 3-4 more.

I have no regrets with this purchase (and trust me, I went in kicking and screaming - I cried when I saw all the new happy Dodge Durango owners driving off the lot, because I so did not want a minivan - I was pregnant out to here with twins and holding my infant son when we bought it).

No complaints. I feel it was a real bargain.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

We purchased a new Caravan 10 years ago and it's still going strong. We've had a couple of minor repairs which I think have been related more to age than make or model. I would not mind another one at all when this one finally dies.

 

[monkey30]

IMO I like the Honda over the Caravan, you get what you pay for in the way of less matenince and such.

If you go the route of the Caravan make sure you have all the matience records and if you can warrenty, I would hate for something to go wrong with it right after you buy it

 

[MSLRAC]

We bought a 2009 last February and we love it! The only issue we have had is a screw coming loose in the power doors which caused them to stop working. After the second time, the dealer put lock tight on the screws and we've not had another problem.

I will say that if given the opportunity again, I would get power stow and go seats (thought they were foolish at the time) because I have a hard time with the middle seats (I find them to be a bit heavy and awkward to deal with).

 

[EMHDad]

Didnt read through everything on here, so not sure if this is a repeat...

In my opinion (we have a grand caravan), the stow and go feature is one of the greatest features for a vehicle that I have ever seen. We have two small kids and we LOVE it!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We had a 2005 Grand Caravan with 90,000 miles on it. It got totaled in an accident in Oct.

We decided to get a used 2009 Town and Country. I think it does ride a little rougher than the Caravan.

Love the stow and go.

I have read that possibly 2012 might be the last model year for the Dodge Caravan. Some car guy wrote that the company might want to just focus on one model and that would be the Chrysler Town and Country.

 

[FloridaPixie]

We own a 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT that we purchased with under 10,000 miles on it in July 2010. It had been a corporate rental vehicle in Ft. Lauderdale and we researched prices and features on a new Caravan, and decided to go used because we got such a good deal on the van. We also looked at Odyssey's, as I have always preferred Hondas, but we fell in love with the Grand Caravan when we rented one (free, using Delta points!) for a cross-country trip in June 2010.

Knock wood, we have had no issues whatsoever with our Caravan so far, and I LOVE the space inside of the van, and the way everything is laid-out in the van. Much more so than the Odyssey. Of course the stow-n-go is fabulous for trips providing a ton of extra storage, but the inside of the van itself just feels so roomy and there is a place for everything. We did not purchase the van thinking in terms of resale, as we plan to drive the van at least 10 years or longer.

 

[patsal]

The price difference is paying for the vehicle up front rather than the repairs you will put into the dodge throughout its lifetime. I am on Caravan #3, I am done with with Dodge. If I get another mini van I will get the Honda Oddessy. I'd rather pay for something that won't be in the shop than pay for all the time in the shop, all the repairs and the very low resale value.

Last Caravan dropped tranny as soon as warranty was up, my 2004 is a rust bucket...noticed bubbles 5 days after warranty was up, they refused to fix it...not to mention that I have put $1500-2000 in not covered repairs into it yearly. Not a good value IMHO.

 

[NYEmomma]

Consumer Reports lists the 2008 Grand Caravan as worst for used car prediction. It has the listed price range as $8,775 - $14,075.

It lists the Grand Caravan from 2001 to 2009 as a used vehicle to avoid.

For the Worst of the worst: These models, listed alphabetically, have multiple years of reliability that's much worse than average among 2001 to 2010 models. The Dodge Caravan and Grand Caravan are both listed.

Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey are listed as best minivans.

I read the exact same thing in my parents Consumer Reports and that's why I'm only looking for a Sienna or an Odyssey.

But like OP said, they're considerably more expensive & we're having a hard time finding one in decent shape in our price range. Thankfully we have around 5 months before we need it so we'll just keep on looking.

 

[tinker&belle]

Thanks for all the opinions...it helped us to decide.We plan on keeping the van for a long time so we decided to bite the bullet and spend a bit more on the Odyssey. We bought it today, and I really love it. I liked the extra feature on the Dodge ( I actually preferred the Dodge in that respect, it has really cool features!), but it seems like the reviews for the Dodge engine/brakes/transmission tend to be mixed. Thanks for all the help.