“BUT 12 YEARS for someone to lose faith or finance in a vehicle!!??
Lemme see; at my current mileage that would put my van in 2018 at 240K miles!!”
This amount of economical use has been what buyers of Japanese cars have been expecting, and getting (with proper maintenance) for the last 25 years or so.
Lately it seems you can expect this from the better American cars too.
I haven’t read the whole thread, so I hope I’m not being redundant.
Thanks “badaging & geeea” for your diatribe… don’t think the nastiness was needed though. Wow & spanks!
THANK YOU ANDREW!!
Very objective & experienced piece of advice.
The thought of stomaching 240k miles with this particular van is just not ok with me based on my experience with my last van of this make & model … I mashed that one out at 150k & it was scrap metal! I wasn’t even through my payments on it when at 85k I get recall after recall notice & then murphy’s law, payments done, all sorts of other stuff started happening(i.e. serpentine/timing belt, fuel pump x 2, suspension/struts, etc. etc…
I’m totally game to try to get another 80k out of this vehicle (yes, even though I hate it)… I just don’t know if that will be worth our time, effort, money or yes, inconvenience… or risk.
I don’t have family or a family mechanic close by, let alone anyone to come bail me & our dogs out when/if this van goes south & I’m on the road 600 miles away. (I’d appreciate no nastiness again from other parties when I’m just sincerely trying to weigh things out)
Thanks Andrew. We were strongly considering a slightly used vehicle when I said “new” — hey, new to me!
Nice to know I’m not expected to be a mechanic or risk a lot to post an honest question or response on this blog.
Sarah
THe difference is that you or your wife are driving in New England … even that much mileage, you would never be stranded 250 miles away from a repair shop. That is the reality & risks I am facing in my travels in this area & having a vehicle I am starting not to trust.
Travel here is something I did not know could exist still…
Thank you, another logical & rational response.
Maybe I have a bad “taste in my mouth” of memory of my last Dodge GC once it hit 85K, but it is really making me leary.
Not in a hurry to make a decision about keeping or trading my van so not sure about what vehicle would be the replacement. It depends upon rear cargo space width dimensions to haul dogs in their crates (And THEN the other important aspects re mechanics & safety)… so far the contenders are:
GMC Acadia, Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Traverse, Honda Pilot, possibly Nissan Pathfinder.
don’t think the nastiness was needed though. Wow & spanks!
Oh ye of stone first castith 
“Are you CRAZY?”
My words have been echoed here by a number of seasoned vehicle owners. You just haven’t tired of pumping good money after good money into new vehicles. They’re a waste of money to begin with. But if you can live with a perpetual $500 car payment, then get what you want. You put too much mileage on your vehicles to NOT pay them down in the time you’re going to keep them. That means that if you’re not in the position to shell out $30K in 5 years, then you’re going to have to put more years into your rides. Long mileage does nothing to a vehicle that’s properly maintained. More than likely, on top of just being tired of it, you’ve got some interior wear and tear to deal with.
In any event, good luck. I’ll never have another car payment if I can afford fuel in what I have. Gas will have to reach $9/gallon to make sense of getting something new, and then the car would have to be free. I’ll find a beater NEON that gets 30+mpg or something. No, I don’t drive junkers either. If my 92 Caravan hadn’t been stolen, I’d be set for life.
Oh, don’t bother trading anything with 100k+ on it. You’ll really be paying them to take it. Just go get a new vehicle and give it to a relative. It’s worth more in scrap from your end of it.
Yes I will stand by my statement of “are you CRAZY” re me driving a Dodge Grand Caravan at 240k miles where I live, the distances I travel by myself in very desolate areas with very volatile weather… to do so would only be risky or even reckless.
Sincere kudos that you might not have any car payments. If you can swing wasting sick time from work to deal with major repair time & wanna risk driving on the highway in a death trap like a Neon… go for it!
I didn’t call you spoiled or post diagrams in a public forum to gang up & make fun of you. That was nasty, spiteful & uncalled for.
I just wrote in to this blog hoping for good advice … thankfully I got it from other people.
Sarah
Economicaly you’d definitely be making the better move to keep the Caravan. But unless I miss my guess your hubby is concerned with the fact that you travel far away to do your doggie stuff, and he’s concerned about your welfare and safety. If you primarily drove locally I’d say “keep it”. But under the circumstances, since he’ll sleep better knowing you’re driving a better and newer vehicle on your trips, I suggest trading it. His sense of peace and security has value beyind the dollars you’d save by keeping the beater.
Yes I will stand by my statement of “are you CRAZY” re me driving a Dodge Grand Caravan at 240k miles where I live, the distances I travel by myself in very desolate areas with very volatile weather… to do so would only be risky or even reckless.
I was an owner operator courier for about a half million miles. If I subscribed to your schools of thought on the matter, I would have been broke instead of making large.
Any car can break down on you. Brand new. So that’s a random occurrence. Other than that you’re down to sensible “comprehensive” maintenance.
As far as taking sick time for major repairs…there’s always a rental car for the few brief days that something would lay up the main ride. There is simply comes down to money management. You don’t keep yourself 4 days to broke so that you have economic mobility and liberty to spend large when you have to …and spend nothing while others are gouging DEEP into their running balance …as the also run their credit cards toward MAX. There’s always the home equity loan to reset the counter somewhere down the road (not).
Don’t be so sensitive. You’re reacting as though this is something personal. I guess I could powder puff it if you need it that way.
At the 100,000 mile mark, the transmission will fail. Call a few transmission shops. If not the transmission, it will be the wiring or computer.
Sell the vehicle if you can get the doggy smell out of it.
Otherwise put the title in the glove box and walk away from it when it breaks down.
This is only likely to happen if the vehicle has been brutally beaten, neglected, or the transmission filled with the wrong type of fluid. Chrysler beefed up the transmisssions in these cars sometime around 2003, making failures much less frequent and less likely to happen. I still hold the unpopular opinion that the trannys in V6 Hondas from 1998 to 2002 were far worse than the A604 could ever dream of being.
At first, from your post about living in geographically isolated NE, I thought you meant New England. Later on, I read where you clarified that to be Nebraska. Really confused me when you said 500 miles to Denver. I wanted to ask you how to get from New England to Denver in 500 miles, because I would have really wanted to know your route. 
I have several questions for you:
First, what year was your previous Dodge Caravan?
Second, if you hated it so much, why did you replace it with another one?
Anyway, I agree that you should be driving a vehicle you would actually feel confident in traveling around in.
So, what do you want to replace it with is really the only question to ask yourself.
I’m guessing you’re thinking of a station wagon type vehicle, or a small cross over SUV, since you don’t want a minivan anymore. What’s on your list?
BC.
Anyway, I agree that you should be driving a vehicle you would actually feel confident in traveling around in.
And what will that be when it’s @ 100k? As I told her, she had better get used to shelling out about $700+ in payments since she runs up the mileage at about 140% of average. She needs to have that thing paid off IN FULL when she, once again, feels that driving it any more would be CRAZY!!!
I’m wondering why she started the thread. She asked if she should get rid of it or keep going. She obviously didn’t want to hear the opinion on one of those choices.
So I should consider replacing my 2000 Grand Voyager? (220k miles and on its 3rd transmission – but about $300 in other service, not counting oil and tire changes). Tire costs are excessive, but I don’t know how they compare to other minivans.
I guess it’s a rhetorical question. There are no safety issues (i.e., it’s known not to be a lemon and the major mechanical systems have been “maintained” [that is, oil changed, there are a few lube points, but mostly it’s keeping the sealed systems, uh, sealed, and when there is a problem, fix it promptly {that’s next week, first time, broken motor mount, which is just going to lead to trouble}]) and there’s no way I can buy a decent car for, well, let’s say $1800 a year. (I’m buying a new tranny every 3 years [60-80k miles], so we can amortize that at $600 a year, and let’s just say that my repair costs have really jumped to $1200 a year. [But I don’t believe it. I think they’ve jumped to $700 this year. We’ll see.] Either way, it’s still d*** little money to spend on a car. Everything else is the same (or more) if I change to a different car. What kind of car can I buy that costs $1800 a year? (Not counting normal maintenance, insurance, gas, etc.) I can’t even get much of a car that costs $1800. There’ll be something that needs fixing in the first year. So, when the tranny needs replacing in 3 yrs, I stick with this gas-guzzler.
You know, it’s pretty rude to march onto a forum and tell someone who’s nice enough to take the time to give you an asked-for opinion that he’s crazy.
From the tone of your replies, you want another car, and any advice given that doesn’t support that is going to be contested. In fact your tone and posting style is so similar to a recent poster who was looking for attention about her miraculous techniques for getting better mileage that my instincts tell me that you’re likely the same person and are trolling us. Again.
But if not, then OK. Get another car. It’s obviously the only thing that will make you happy.
Just try not to crap all over this forum in the meanwhile.