My 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager (a Chrysler product) was in the shop 25 times in 5 years for non-recall work. Tack on another 5 or 6 recalls and I was without the van for about 3 months of use. 3 van payments right down the drain. Chrysler did NOTHING about it and they KNEW they were putting out an inferior product. This happened to ALL of the other Chrysler minivan owners we knew. Ford? Oh yeah, as Dave Sinclair says…”Follow the money trail”. What he doesn’t say is follow the money all the way into the pockets of the big-wigs who move American jobs to Mexico and Canada. At least Toyota and Honda put money INTO the American economy by building US plants and employing US workers. Ask a Ford or GM executive about all the plants they close and move to other countries — now that’s patriotism (NOT!). And even the US built “American” cars are approx. 50% foreign made parts, so what is an “American” car now anyway? When my Odyssey is still running at 250K+ miles and you’re ready to buy your third “American” minivan in the same time period, you’ll understand the difference in quality and reliability over time.

To SLRebel:
AMEN TO YOU BROTHER, AMEN! I am 100% with you.

89 caravan, blew the head around 70K miles, was in the shop about 2 times a year for a week at a time, at around 150K miles, the radiator gave out, and it would randomly overheat the engine until it blew up some hoses. Oh, and the sliding door froze in the locked position, so it was useless.

94 caravan, major electrical problems since about 20K miles. Every time you make at least a 30 degree turn, the wipers come on. Brakes were horrible, have been replaced several times, and major problems with the suspension.

99 caravan, other than about 6 times where it wouldn’t turn over and needed to go in the shop, has been the best of the bunch so far with no major structural or engine faults, outside of fixable things breaking.

06 caravan, already been in the shop three times due to breaks, suspension, and engine troubles.

Go dodge.

Get one to drive, and one for the shop, and just switch them out.

I drove three Plymouth/dodge mini vans between 1984(when they first came out) and 2000. I loved the space and flexibility. the gas mileage was good. The repairs were not so good. Each one needed and engine or transmission at between 80 and 100 k miles.

I had three small daughters when I bought the first one and it was great with the kids. I put the two oldest in the back separated from each other and the youngest in the middle so I could reach around with one hand while I was driving(pre Cell phones)
I loved the sliding door and the last one had two sliding doors.

My daughters are now grown and have their own kids, if I bring up to them buying a minivan they throw things at me. I don’t know why they hate them so but they do.

If I had young people in my life again I’d surely get one ( though never a Chrysler again).

Hey Harbl - Just curious, why did you keep buying Dodges after you had so many problems? Here’s a funny one for you. The service manager at the Chrysler dealership said the “Zone Manager” (roaming regional service director) for Chrysler would not speak with any members of the public about problems with their vehicles (what a joke that was). Then the customer “care” person in Detroit claimed that they don’t get regular service history reports from their dealers (another joke) and he would only have incomplete records about all of my van problems. This all happened before hitting 75K on the odometer. I told them that if they offered to trade me a brand new minivan for my lemon one-for-one, I would tell them to “stick it” because I wouldn’t want to have a whole new bunch of problems with another Grand Lemon. I’ll NEVER own another Chrysler product (and my daughter won’t either - since she saw firsthand all of the problems we had).

Two of my big SUV drivin’ outdoorsmen buds asked me to go camping with them in Tennessee for 4 day. Who’s car did we take? The only one that had a prayer of carrying all the gear, with 4 reclining bucket seats to boot. My Dodge AWD minivan. Their two trucks sat in the driveway, empty and dumb. The SUV is a masterpiece of consumer marketing, an absolute bullseye that made a lot of people rich while the sham lasted.

Oh, and the van has had NO major mechanical issues. It is 8 years’ old, 112k, tows a camper at 70 mph no sweat. In fact, recent versions have tested alongside Honda in reliability ratings.

I miss my Dodge grand caravan someone ganked her if you have seen her she”s a sky-blue 95,I’m sure she misses her family!

I didn’t keep buying them, they were all owned by my immediate family, and we all got burned on them.

I wouldn’t buy another dodge product if it was 1/10th the price of every other competitor, and the whole experience has soured me on minivans in general.

I’ve been driving GM minivans since graduate school (mid-1990’s), and in fact, I’m on my third one right now. My first was a 1994 Pontiac Trans Sport, my second was a 1997 Chevy Venture, and my current van is a 2003 Chevy Venture.

Before the Pontiac, I was driving a 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88. However, at the time I traded that in, I was playing bass fiddle in a bluegrass group — and you can’t fit those things in a REAL car. LOL

Even after the group broke up at the end of 1995, I’ve still stuck with them, because I’ve moved quite a few times since then, and minivans are a GODSEND when moving. In fact, my most recent move was to here in Ballwin from Lexington, Kentucky in May of 2006. Besides, if I should get another job as an upright bass player in a bluegrass group, I’d like to stick with minivans if possible, I don’t care how uncool some may perceive them to be.

I’m so sorry to see GM drop minivans altogether. Looks like when I trade in Vinny II (my nickname for my current minivan LOL), I’ll have to go with one of the imports, depending on who’s still making them whenever that time comes. Reading some of the other comments on here, Chrysler is out of the question due to problems others mentioned about them, which may have been the main reason minivans got such a bad rap, deserved or not.

Also, when I’m out on the freeways around St. Louis, it seems like even when I’m doing faster than the posted speed limit, quite a few people ALWAYS pass me like I’m standing still. In fact, I limit myself to no more than five over the speed limit, and to me, 65 would make more sense for a speed limit on most of I-270, but that’s another story entirely. Even so, I get passed all the time, and that’s OK with me — I’ll be more than happy to let all the hot-rodders and other maniac drivers have all the speeding tickets. :-p

Around 10 years ago, I was out looking for a mini-van at Leta Honda on Rock Rd. There was a woman in her mid 40’s looking at the New Odyssey van that Leta had on display at the time. We struck up a conversation and she told me that she was 6th on a list for an Odyssey. I asked her what she was currently driving, and she said a 6 month old Chrysler Town and Country, that was fully loaded and stickered for over 30K. I then asked why she was looking at an Odyssey. With a frustrated look on her face, she told me that in the 6 months that she owned the T&C, it was in the shop all the time. She was quite angry since she had spent so much money on a lemon. We did not buy a Honda nor did I buy a Chrysler van either.