WAY OT- Dodge Caravan- share your experience

[CheapMom]

I remember a while back there was a heated thread about Dodge Caravan / Grand Caravan. Some people had big problems (transmission I think)- others loved it...
I am minivan shopping and I am amazed at how cheap these are in comparison to the other popular brands.
So Caravan owners- please come and tell me why I should or should not buy a Dodge minivan.
(Sorry- this is so OffTopic- but you all seemed to know a lot about this if memory serves)

 

[marcyinPA]

We don't have a Caravan, but we did have a Plymouth Voyager once. Bought it used, and had alot of problems with it (engine....cha ching!). I will say that they Dodge Caravan's are not rated well in Consumer Reports. We are looking at the Toyota Sienna...

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Don't own one, but I did rent one recently (I think it was a Caravan). So I don't know about long term problems or anything. The one problem I had with it was a visibility issue. It had a HUGE blind spot on the right side, so changing lanes on the highway was downright scary. I was the only driver, and everyone else loved the rest of the features it had, especially compared to the mini-van we rented last time. One of everyone's favorite features was individual air controls in the back seat. If you test drive one you'll see for yourself if you think it has a blind spot.

In contrast to this vehicle, I recently test drove a Subaru Forester. It had AMAZING visibilty. It isn't as big as a minivan, but that was another thing I liked about it. It was bigger than a regular car, without being too big. I liked the Forester WAY better than the Outback.

 

[tinaluis]

My FIL always drove Dodge/Plymouth vans and ALWAYS had trouble with them. I don't own a Caravan personally, but have always stayed away from them based on my FIL's experience. I hope others chime in with more useful information.

 

[disneysteve]

We had a 1996 Grand Caravan. We loved it. It was spacious, drove nicely and had all the instruments and accessories laid out well.

During the 4 years we owned the van, it was recalled 4 times for different defects. One time, DW had to use her pocket knife to cut DD out of the built in child seat because the latch locked and could not be opened. It was later recalled for that problem.

Then, on March 15, 2000, the day after we got home from driving roundtrip to WDW, my wife went out for groceries. Moments after she returned home, I saw smoke out the front window. The van was on fire and was totally destroyed, along with a good patch of our lawn, a tree, our basketball court, garage door, outdoor light fixtures, driveway, etc.

The insurance company sent out a team of engineers to examine the wreckage to determine the cause of the fire. As soon as we told them that the fire started in the rear of the van, not the engine compartment, they said they knew the cause. The Chrysler vans have a history of problems with the grounding of static electricity around the gas tank filler tube and a spark can generate and ignite the fuel.

Thankfully, we weren't in the car, the car wasn't in our garage, it didn't happen a day or two sooner when we were on the road far from home with all our stuff inside and I saw the fire quick enough to move our other car out of the way and hose down the house to prevent the fire from spreading.

So, as you can imagine, even though we liked the van, we will no longer trust them. Even later models have had recalls for fire hazards so I'm not convinced that Chrysler has fully addressed this issue.

We've had a Toyota Sienna since then and have been very happy with it. To be perfectly honest, I liked the space and features better in the Caravan but I would never advise someone to purchase one knowing what I now know about them.

 

[dcfromva]

We purchased a Dodge Caravan ages ago (1994, I believe). We went with the extended coverage on the transmission because of the earlier problems. At about the 4 year point, we did have to replace the transmission. It was covered and the vehicle was only out of service for one or two days (it seems they were pretty practiced at transmission changing at the Dodge dealership. )

We gave the van to DH's Mom a couple years ago (she lives in VT). She says it has been running great, the only problem that she had with it is the paint came off in sheets (down to the shiny aluminum finish! ). We'd never seen anything like it. She has never received a satifactory answer as to why this was occurring. (We didn't have any trouble with the paint coming off when the vehicle was in VA. )

We loved our Caravan, but we went with a Oldsmobile silhouette for our replacement van as we liked the gadgets and doo-dads on the Silhouette just a tad better (and the dealer seemed more anxious to make a deal ).

-DC

 

[tlbwriter]

The problem with a question like this is that you're always going to get responses from people who say "I have a Caravan and I LOVE it, no problems here!" And while it's wonderful for those people, statistically it means absolutely nothing. I mean, it's like saying "I didn't make a single PS and I walked into every restaurant and was seated immediately!" Great for you, but I'm not going to count on having the same luck. Statistically, certain vehicles are more likely to have problems than others. And I believe the Daimler Chrysler vans are among them. Consumer Reports can tell you more - while I don't always agree with their vehicle reviews and ratings, I have more faith in their long-term owner surveys.

 

[Firedog]

Our last three mini vans have been Dodge/Chryslers, and we had transmission problems with every one, including the last, when it blew a 5" hole through the transmission case at 2 years. Unfortunately it was over the 36K miles limit, so it was a $2000 out-of-pocket cost to us.

I said I would never buy another Dodge vehicle, but guess what I did this past weekend... bought a Dodge Ram 1500 4X4. The only reason I considered it in the first place, is that they offer a 7-year warranty on the transmission. Just like the Caravans, Dodge trucks are lower-priced than all the other major manufacturers.

 

[tuki]

We have a 2000 Caravan. A pin in the differential broke requiring a transmission rebuild $1800. The kicker...we hadn't reached the 30-thousand mile mark yet but were a couple months beyond the end of the 3 yr warranty. Transmissions shouldn't fail like that with less than 30-thousand miles. We will not own another.

 

[tinan]

....was short lived with a Caravan. I found what I thought was an absolutely great deal when we were looking to add a van to our family. While my husband was aware of the purchase, I did so without him. So I did so and less than $2000 later I owned this van. My husband didn't really look at it until the next day after work. He thought all was well until he tried to sit behind the wheel. He is about 6' tall and around 275 lbs. Let me just say that his knees were literally hitting the steering wheel.

Lesson Learned: Never buy a car your husband is going to drive without making sure he can fit behind the wheel lol

Also, I contacted the dealership IMMEDIATELY as I thought our state had a 3 day law. Meaning that within 3 days you could bring it back. Well, I found out this is not the case and we were somewhat at the mercy of the dealership. They said they would help us with another vehicle and I fell in love with a conversion van that came in on trade. We were able to get the full purchase price out of the Caravan toward the conversion van, but I know they still made money on us. I was lucky enough to talk with the former owners of the van we have. Now that I have had a conversion van I will never look at another mini-van.

In the minis, you may want to check out the Ford Aerostars. I had one of those and ran it into the ground. I bought it with 100,000 + miles on it and it had about 200,000 when I sold it cheap. I drove that van everywhere with minimal problems. The only thing bad about it was changing the brakes. My dad and I did it once and swore we would never do it again.

 

[Focusdude]

I have a 2003 Grand Caravan - I love it! I put alot of miles on it (it has about 48,000 and is just over 2 years old). I did get recalled - but only once. The only things that I have had replaced are the brakes (at about 35,000) and some kind of rod in the front (this problem was caused by the terrible winter and potholes!).

I would buy another in a heartbeat - I wish I could - the newer ones have the seats that drop into the floor!

Hope this helps!

 

[CEDmom]

If I were you I'd get a copy of Consumer Report and go with one of their recommendations. Personally I don't have a lot of good things to say about Chrysler products in general so I'm not much help there.

 

[welovedis]

We had a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country minivan-like to Dodge Grand Caravan and ours was a lemon...it was in the shop more than it was out. For some reason it would just stall, the engine would completely cut out then it would re-start just fine. Not good when you are traveling on a highway or in a crowded intersection!

We traded it in to a dealership who knew about the problems and felt pretty bad for what had happened for a slightly (6 month old 8K miles) 2003 Chevy Trailblazer EXT & have been very happy with it, except for the gas mileage, lol!

From what we experienced some people just end up getting a bad vehicle, others don't. I met plenty of others in that service area waiting room with minivan issues, enough to make me walk away from any deal on a Chrysler/Dodge. I am a firm believer that while there are good deals to be had on some things, other times you get what you pay for. The price may seem really good now but would it be worth it in the long run?

Try looking at a slightly used Honda or Toyota minivan, or perhaps a slightly used SUV with seating for 7-you'd be surprised how many there are out there!

 

[lab_girl]

We don't have a Caravan, but we did have a Plymouth Voyager once. Bought it used, and had alot of problems with it (engine....cha ching!). I will say that they Dodge Caravan's are not rated well in Consumer Reports. We are looking at the Toyota Sienna...

Same as us.... I never thought I'd have a minivan.... but if - we are trying -we do have 3 or more kids, it's a must!!

 

[DisneyFan09]

I wish I had read this thread before I bought my 2005 Grand Caravan. I traded in a 1998 Caravan with 78,000 miles that I had bought used with 30,000 miles and never had any trouble with it. My mother and stepdad have had 2 Caravans and have loved them.

As for my 2005, so far I love it!! It has stow and go seating and lots of other little options that I love. We did look at others including a Kia Sedona (has a great warranty but it's small) and the Ford Freestar. I know the Fords had lots of transmission problems in the mid 90's so I was leary on that one.

Like someone stated above, I think that no matter what manufacturer you are dealing with you will have mixed reviews. Good luck with your decision, deciding on and !buying a vehicle is one of the most stressful things I have ever done

 

[thelittlemermaid]

We have a 1999 Plymouth Voyager SE. It started having problems with the engine about 2 years ago. It had to sit for 6 months so we could save up money for it to go into the shop {DH knew what was wrong with it and knew how much it was going to cost}. We ended up having to use mother in law's car for that time period.

When it finally made it into the shop, we were told it was the engine. They "fixed" what they thought was the problem and it cost us over $3K. They had it for 2 weeks.
About 2 weeks later after getting the van back, it started doing the same thing, so back to the shop it went. They looked it over for 3 days and couldn't figure what the deal was, so they asked for permission to pull the engine out. After they did that they found out that the manufactor{?} put something on wrong and that is what was causing the problem. By then the damage had been done. They had our van for over 3 months. The service manager tried and tried to contact Plymouth to let them know what happened and that we needed a new engine at "THEIR" expense. Of course that didn't happen, so he had to take things into his own hands and had a guy do some machine work on our engine.

DH wants to get a Dodge Durango, but I am leary about going with Dodge/Chrysler. But we still owe on this van cause we bought out our lease {BIG MISTAKE!!} so we have to wait til we get it paid off before getting something else. Dealers just don't want to give anything for a trade in. With all the money we have put into it, it is worth something, more then what they want to give.

 

[dizluvr71]

We have a 2004 Dodge Caravan and I love it! I have to say that I am probably biased since my fiance works for Chrysler, is a Dodge mechanic and when our family gets together it's like a Dodge/Chrysler reunion in the driveway/street (4 Caravans, 2 Durangos, a Cirrus, an Intrepid and 2 Dodge Rams). This was our first Caravan and we have not had any problems, the other three Caravan owners in our family have had them previously and have all recently purchased new ones. We love having all the space the Caravan allows, plus the kids love the DVD for when we are travelling. We also are able to tow our 4wheelers and all our riding gear.

Anyways, to each their own, hopefully if you purchase one it will run great and be satisfying as ours is.

 

[my3kids]

I loved the space, the shape, the interior....but everything else was horrible. It spent more days in the shop than in my driveway. I had the transmission go, the AC go, fuel lines, bushings, other big parts and I don't know what else. The power door locks also had a mind of their own, but that was monor compared to the nightmare that was the engine compartment. If you get the Caravan, get the extended warranty....it will pay for itself by the time you hit 37,000 miles, and sadly, I am not exagerating!

 

[Debbie]

We're on our second Chrysler. We had the 1992 Voyageur, which we traded in 2001. We've had some minor problems, as you would expect for a vehicle that was driven regularly. It had 5 trips to Disney on it. We bought the Grand Caravan in 2001 (4 more months and it is mine), and we've had some brake problems just this week. When I'm stopped at the intersection, I hear squealing brakes beside me, I say: "Chrysler brakes".

I love the space that my van has. I've never really noticed a blind spot (I'm short-so I always look carefully, and use my sideview mirrors religiously). We bought the original one FOR the integrated carseats (I had 4 kids at the time), and I loved those.

So, bottom line, we've been lucky, I guess. But I would definitely consider the Grand Caravan again. We really like our dealer, too. They never throw away my Mickey antenna ball and it comes off any time we have the vehicle in, since they wash it every time. Heck, sometimes I think my DH goes in just for the free wash!

If I had unlimited funds, I might choose something else, but I don't like the second seat in one sister's Plymouth, and I can't see out as well in my other sister's Ford.

Good luck in making your choice. BE sure to give it a really good test drive!

 

[shelly3girls]

We had a fully loaded 2002 Town and Country. Needless to say we should have bought an extended warranty. With 60,000 miles on it we had to replace the transmission and a couple other things went wrong (total of $5500 in 3 months). After the third time breaking down in 3 months we traded it in while it was working. The convenience of the minivan cannot be beat but we would never purchase another Chrysler. After owning 3 different Chrysler products we will never buy Chrysler again. The other thing we learned the hard way was that Chrylsers have terrible resale values. We considered selling our 300M special and were shocked at the resale value. We have sold many cars in the past and never took as bad a hit with any other brand.