Rented a Dodge Caravan for a family road trip...

My sister in law got married last week, which a prompted a rare summer road trip for my wife and I. The wedding was in Silver City, NM so instead of driving from Alaska we flew in to Tucson where met up with friends from Chicago who were also going to the wedding and drove in from there. Four women plus myself, with luggage, going to a wedding? Guess we're not renting a mustang convetible... Nope instead I find myself behind the wheel of a 2014? Dodge Grand Caravan.

And ya know? It wasn't hateful. The last time I was in a dodge van was a late 80's version in the late 90's and a lot has obviously changed. A friend with a couple kids has a newer Sienna that felt like a monstrous beast whereas the caravan still felt like it was a managae size for something that seats 6 comfortably and 7 in a pinch. Handling was far better than expected, it rode well, and was quieter than my 2014 Mazda 6 on the highway. It also got a solid 25mpg on the highway at 80mph, closer to 20 in town. Plenty of room for us and luggage. The fold flat seats rocked when it came time to pack up the reception, same with the sliding doors.

Dorky? Yeah. But it's a great people hauler. And the Dodge isn't all that expensive...

And maybe that's the problem with vans now? I looked up the prices of the competition and most of them start at $30k+ and easily get to $40k+! Really?!? And they get horrible mileage comparable to a full size truck. No wonder people by crossovers and large SUV's.

My father just got a new Caravan and loves it. For about $20k it's a nice van.

Let the suckers buy them new, you can get 2-year old ones for $20k with low mileage, or 5-year old ones for about 1/2 that price.

When we went shopping he had his choice of brand new for $20,500 at 1.49% interest or two years old for $18,900 at 3.99%. Why even think about a used one.

Wally wrote: When we went shopping he had his choice of brand new for $20,500 at 1.49% interest or two years old for $18,900 at 3.99%. Why even think about a used one.

The depreciation hit is much worse when you get higher on the luxury food chain. About 4 months ago I bought a 2012 Chrysler T&C with literally every available option except the tow package. This car stickered around $40k in 2012 and I bought for $23k all in, with under 50,000 miles on it.

skierd wrote: And they get horrible mileage comparable to a full size truck. No wonder people by crossovers and large SUV's.

While I agree that gas mileage is not great, show me a full size truck or SUV that gets better mileage?

A 2-3 yr old T&C is what I've got my eye on when my wife's 95 Odyssey is ready to go. The thing just won't die though!

Duke wrote:

Wally wrote: When we went shopping he had his choice of brand new for $20,500 at 1.49% interest or two years old for $18,900 at 3.99%. Why even think about a used one.

The depreciation hit is much worse when you get higher on the luxury food chain. About 4 months ago I bought a 2012 Chrysler T&C with literally every available option except the tow package. This car stickered around $40k in 2012 and I bought for $23k all in, with under 50,000 miles on it. And while I agree that gas mileage is not great, show me a full size truck or SUV that gets better mileage?

Anything with a diesel.

Typically not priced too closely, though.

However, you can pick up current gen Diesel Grand Cherokees in the price range.

I had a T&C a few years back. On returning it I almost wanted to buy it.

In reply to neon4891:

Same here. If I was willing to accept a car payment, this would be the first vehicle I'd buy. Not sure if that's a sign of my age or pragmatism, but whatever.

I've been loving mine for the past 19 months. So much so I've had little enthusiasm to finish fixing my '03 TDI wagon. Yeah, the TDI gets 2x the MPG, but the van is so much more useful. Mine is an '08 I bought with 78K miles for about $10K (end of '13). It now has 129K and I've done brakes and had a coolant line replaced. Just put new tires on it last month.

Occasionally I wish I'd splurged a bit and bought the nicer T&C van the dealer had. It was twice the money, but was two years newer, loaded with the 4L engine & 5 spd auto and had half the miles. But then when I'm tossing a muddy mountain bike in the back and my tool box is sliding around into the door panels, I'm glad I bought the cheaper van.

It does need a new stereo...

My only hold out would be '11 or newer for the pentastar engine. One thing I liked about the T&C over the GC was the gear selector. Straight up and down, none of the zig zag nonsense.

On new Vs. used, my sister went new due to interest rates trumping the minimal price difference.

neon4891 wrote: My only hold out would be '11 or newer for the pentastar engine. One thing I liked about the T&C over the GC was the gear selector. Straight up and down, none of the zig zag nonsense.

I hate to tell you, but the '11-up T&Cs have the zigzag. It's not that annoying and you can even set it to manual mode and flick it left / right from the steering wheel. I suggest holding out for a '12 because that's the first year they all got the big 2-pot front brakes. The 1-pot setup is notably smaller and people have reported lots of issues with hotspotting the rotors.

We rented a Caravan Crew for a bowling tournament. Drove from Cleveland to Milwaukee with 5 adult men, bowling gear, and two nights of luggage. Not the most comfy in the sitting department, but had good headroom, ac was icy, and we did 80mph on the freeways and turnpike. Got 20 something mpg and no one complained about it. My 2 cents.

My 2014 Grand Caravan just passed the 8K mile mark. So far, it's been perfect. No flaws, no problems, no trim falling off, or any other manufacturer faults. I'm extremely impressed, as nearly all new vehicles have something wrong....be it crude trim flashing, ill-fitting interior panels, etc.

I'm averaging about 20mpg around town, 25 at 80mph, and I've even gotten as much as 30mpg going from Daytona to Jacksonville on A1A. (mostly 45-55mph)

It easily tows my small boat, is always comfortable, and my dog loves it!

I went with the 30th Anniversary edition, as it enabled me to combine options without getting an huge option package. So mine has Sat radio, Front and rear A/C-heat , full stow&go, upgraded cloth, bluetooth, and sliding door windows that power down. My MSRP was only $26K and change, and I bought it for $22,600 at 2.5%. With prices that low, it made more sense for me to go new, and get the warranty / 4 free oil changes, and all that jazz.

It's a great tool for a variety of jobs. I wouldn't want one as my only vehicle, but it's utility is pretty hard to beat.

Mainstream minivans are like 3/4 ton pickups from the big 3 - a tool for a specific job that's been ruthlessly honed by decades of cutthroat competition.

And they get horrible mileage comparable to a full size truck.

LOL

Anything with a diesel.

Still nope.

Although the Ecodiesel 3.0 Grand Cherokee and Ram in particular will beat it on mpg, NEARLY equal it in passenger capacity, and then lose it all again on up front cost, higher per-unit fuel cost, and not being nearly as versatile with their (covered, climate controlled, interior) spaces. But at least they come close! Any other diesel pickup is going to have to be driven carefully to even come close..

Oh yeah... did I mention mine swallowed a 900 lb scissor lift with nary a burp? I won't say it was the easiest rigging/hauling operation I've ever done (unloading it solo was especially fun), but it was way cheaper than renting a truck.

I took my mpg figures from a C&D(?) review I read on the plane trip home, most of the tested vans got in the high teens to low 20's which I thought was full size SUV/pickup territory.

Glad to see, but not terribly surprised, that the GRM world still appreciates vans. Practical vehicles make the world go round and make it easier to haul the toys I guess? I never thought I'd say this but I could see getting one once we have a few kids to haul. Especially if Allpar is still a somewhat accurate source for all things Mopar and the 2016+ models get a hybrid/awd version.

I had one as a rental that I drove for 9 hours to get to New York, and it was great except for the transmission. Maybe the newer ones are better as this was a 2012, but it would hunt between 5th and 6th badly enough that I ended up just locking it out of 6th whenever I turned cruise on. Didn't seem to hurt mileage much, and made it much better to drive. We had 6 people and lots of tools in the van, so it may have been due to weight. Otherwise, not a bad vehicle.

We love our Town and Country....or what's left of it. This is our second Chrysler minivan. They both rotted away. They both were showing rust at less than 5 years old. The rust warranty is basically impossible to use as it has to be rust, from the inside, that's all the way through a panel, and the rust through has to happen on either the 3rd or 6th wednesday of the month during a blood moon on a leap year.
Anyway, there's no excuse for 5-year old vehicles to rot like this today, not when my 1992 merc and 99 golf are rust free with 310K on one and 276K on the other, all in the rust belt. My next car will not be a Chrysler for that fact alone.

In reply to DrBoost:

I haven't seen any rust on my '08 yet, but I'll admit I was surprised at how much my '95 Cummins rusted. Especially the rockers. The passenger side was essentially gone.

In reply to DrBoost:

Where do you live? In Delaware I had a '92 that was killed in 2003 with no body rust. That was replaced with a 2000 that was killed in 2015 with no body rust. Neither one spent more than a few years under shelter.

[edit] I won't say that I haven't seen very rusty ones; that's just not my experience.

Ian F wrote: In reply to DrBoost: I haven't seen any rust on my '08 yet, but I'll admit I was surprised at how much my '95 Cummins rusted. Especially the rockers. The passenger side was essentially gone.

My 92 D250 rusted, but ONLY on the pass-side rocker. Odd....

Duke wrote: In reply to DrBoost: Where do you live? In Delaware I had a '92 that was killed in 2003 with no body rust. That was replaced with a 2000 that was killed in 2015 with no body rust. Neither one spent more than a few years under shelter. [edit] I won't say that I haven't seen very rusty ones; that's just not my experience.

I'm in Michigan. Here, 75% of the ones you see have significant rust on the rockers and/or rear door bottoms. Our was washed weekly (at least) and dried up until the rust was bad enough that I felt silly having it washed and dried weekly. Currently, I'm pretty sure there isn't a body panel without some rust. The other day I found some on a roof seam near the rear hatch, that was the last hold-out. Wait, I think the two front doors are rust free.

most of the tested vans got in the high teens to low 20's which I thought was full size SUV/pickup territory.

Guessing you havent owned full size pickups before? I don't blame you! Those numbers represent the average for a minivan and the highway-only numbers for a completely unloaded full size pickup. There are a few outliers that will do better, but MANY more that do worse.