What is the average life span in miles for a Dodge Grand Caravan? We have a 2001 with 100K and are wondering if we should replace it now before it goes.
If You Like It, Have Had A Good Experience, And Have Maintained It Fairly Well, Keep It!
Unless, you’d like to make somebody happy with a good used car. I mean, the resale/trade-in value of this van isn’t much and under normal conditions it should go well beyond 2009 and 100K. That’s actually low miles. Get your money’s worth and drive it!
CSA
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If you have performed the required maintenance, especially changing the transmission fluid & filter, and have changed engine coolant, your vehicle still has quite a bit of life left in it. Most problems encountered are the above two when the maintenance is ignored or someone tries to pull a trailer. The transmissions are not ROBUST, and must be treated with care.
One of the good things is that the rest of the vehicle is not that expensive to repair, should anything go wrong. There are also a lot of wrecks out there if you need a body hardware part.
So, I would bring all the maintenance up to date and just keep driving it, since on a trade it will be worth very little. We’ve seen these vehicles reach 300,000 miles without major problems, if cared for properly.
Good luck!
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Should You Decide To Have The Transmission Serviced, It Is Imperative That The Proper Fluid Be Used!
A dealer should know this, but some independent shops may try and substitute a “universal” transmission fluid. Do not let anybody do that. Use only what is specified in your Owner’s Manual or the fluid that supesedes it, according to Chrysler.
CSA
I had a vehicle that I was wondering whether I should keep at 100,000 miles. I kept it.
Then when I hit 200,000 miles I wondered. I kept it.
Then when I hit 300,000 miles I kept it. Well gave it to my daughter actually.
It got totalled at 338,000 miles.
Keep the maintenance up, fix minor problems as they arise, and keep going. When it gets to the point where it becomes unreliable, unsafe, something major fails, or it no longer meets your needs then you can trade it in. There’s no way of predicting when that will be.
I have a '95 Caravan right now that has 217K on it. I bought it at 100K. I did have to have the transmission rebuilt at about 130k, but I bought it expecting that since all minivans have transmission problems (they tend to be a bit undersized for the vehicle). But some of those Caravan transmissions will just go forever with proper maintenance.
Anyway…overall this has been the most reliable and all around useful vehicle that I have ever owned - for the most recent 117K of its life.
A weak spot is the automatic transmission but with proper maintainance/easy driving they last. Personally I think another 100k is easily attainable with a chance of a tranny.
The car has little value($3500 tops) as trade or private sale.
Hello,everyone I’m new here to this site.
I have a question that hopefully someone can answer for me.
I’m in a wheelchair and I’m in the need of a wheelchair mini van. My wife found one on Facebook from a local town near us. It is a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan. 6 cylinder automatic transmission real manual fold out ramp. It does need 3 miner things to fix. We tried it out and runs very well. The owner is willing to repair the things it needs before selling it to us. The only thing is that it does have a little over 2 hundred thousand miles on it already. And he’s asking 8,250 for it. I was wondering if it was worth it or not for what he’s asking. I only plan to use it here locally. Especially to be able to go to the doctor when I need to. Thank you in advance for your help.
Hi Johnny_Rock:
Good question.
However, I encourage you to open up a new post where you ask it again. That works better than trying to add your new question to an existing old thread. It keeps the discussions focused and your post may get more visibility.
Thank you.
JoeMario is correct. I will withhold comments until this question appears as a new topic, as suggested by JoeMario.
CSA
P.S. Welcome to the community. Up on the top right of the Car Talk Community web page (where the list of discussions topics are) is a button that says, “+ New Topic”. That’s where to begin.
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