2008 Dodge Grand Caravan: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- The Doors...They're Magic!
- Swivel 'n No Go
- Who You Callin' Ugly?
- Where Did I Put Those Memory Seats?
- Hard Drivin'
- Fuel Economy
- Crossing the line
- Detroit to Lincoln, Neb.
- Lincoln, Neb. to Green River, Utah
- Green River, Utah to Santa Monica, Calif.
- Welcome Home, Minivan
- Hot Lap Disappointment
- Hot Dirt Racing
- First Impressions
- A New High in Low Quality
- Well, it is fast
- Supreme People Hauler
- Track Testing!
- It's Like a Train!
- Power Failgate
- Transmission By AMG?
- Service, Much Service
- Creaking and Grinding Our Way to Ikea
- Car Board Comments
- Brake Service, Round 2
- More Dirt Racing
- What the (squeak)?
- 450-Mile Run
- No Duh.
- Interior Lighting
- A Shout-Out To The Minivan
- The Bright Spot
- The Now-Yearly Letter to Myself
- Uneventful Return, So-So Ride
- Hockey Mom Fuel Economy
- Convenient
- Does This Tire Look Flat?
- A True Home Depot Hauler
- Like a Redheaded Step Son
- Good Van? Yes and No
- 8-foot couch?
- Tire Pressure Gripe
- Now It's a Limovan
- Behind the Scenes at Inside Line
- No Super Bowl?
- Movin' and Groovin'
- Service and a surprise
- Touring the Third Row
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
To pinch a bit of wisdom from Voltaire, that frizzy-haired Frenchy from long ago: If minivans didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them. Seriously, judging by the portraits we've seen, the guy could have used the mother of all cream rinses.
But he's got a point. We mean: People have kids. Heck, we have kids. And kids need stuff. And we need to transport kids and their stuff. And there simply isn't a better way of doing that than in a minivan. We even proved it recently in a comparison involving a crossover, a minivan and an SUV.
So it was with an air of inevitability that upon the delivery of the newest of the Inside Line spawn at our house (a daughter, so that makes two now), we also took delivery of a loaded 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT — the newest version of the quintessential minivan.
Chrysler invented the modern minivan, so it should come as no surprise that the company would soldier on with passenger vans, even as the other U.S.-based automakers have given up on vans in favor of less stigmatized but also less practical crossover non-vans. Yes, we've spent years telling anyone who would listen that much of the usability of a van could be had in a more attractive, more fuel-efficient and all-around-cooler station wagon. But minivans will not be denied. Instead, we have surrendered to the remotely operated doors, the ability to strap kids into child safety seats without pulling a muscle, and the space to easily carry a double stroller with a wheelbase nearly as long as that of a Chevy Tahoe.
What We Bought
Chrysler has narrowed its minivan offerings with this newest generation. Gone is the short-wheelbase model. Turns out, people didn't really want their minivans to be, you know, mini. And all-wheel drive? Cancelled for lack of interest. That leaves us with either the Chrysler Town & Country minivan or the workaday Dodge Grand Caravan. We chose the Dodge because all of the meaningful features available on the luxury Town & Country are also available on the unpretentious Dodge.
And because minivans are really just big boxes full of gadgets, cupholders and tricky seats, we loaded our Dodge up with every single one of them that we could. Most of those items came in one huge package, enticingly named Customer Preferred Package 28N.
This $7,290 collection of goodies includes the newest wrinkle in clever minivan seats, Swivel 'n Go. With Swivel 'n Go, you can't fold the second-row captain's chairs into the floor as on the standard van, but you can spin them 180 degrees so they face the third row. This reduces the chances of a kid in the third row launching a surprise attack on a kid in the second row. It also comes with a stowable table on which your children can bone up on their Texas Hold-'Em poker skills.
Package 28N also brings heated front- and second-row seats, three-zone A/C, a dual-screen DVD entertainment system, a hard drive built into the audio system, power liftgate, ambient overhead lighting with a cool green tint, hands-free communication and 17-inch aluminum wheels. And with the manually operated second- and third-row sunshades, parents will never again have to buy those hideous suction-cup solar shades from Pep Boys.
Further we checked the box for the leather-upholstered power front seats ($1,130), navigation system ($1,300), trailer towing package ($600), power-folding third-row seat ($595) and power sunroof ($895).
To pull around all of these hefty items we opted for the 251-horsepower 4.0-liter SOHC V6, which is mated to a six-speed transaxle. The other options are the base 175-horse 3.3-liter V6, which comes with a four-speed auto. No thanks. One step up gets you a 197-hp 3.8-liter V6. Again, no thanks. A big ol' minivan with less than 200 hp is simply something to which we refuse to subject ourselves. The 4.0-liter costs an extra $630 and comes with what Dodge calls a "Sport Handling Package."
All of this, plus the $225 Inferno Red paint job and $730 destination charge, brings our SXT up from a base price of $26,805 to $40,200. It's not cheap, but we're ready to go toe to toe with any Honda Odyssey in our neighborhood — at least in terms of gee-whiz items.
Why We Bought It
We got the 2008 Dodge Caravan for the same reason that you might get one: utility, and hold the sport. Can a dowdy minivan win over those trained to regard such a thing with the same passion as they do a washing machine? Will a minivan's conveniences outweigh the stigma of driving it? How much will the (so-far miserable) fuel economy improve once the engine is broken in? Will we ever use the removable table? How many songs from The Wiggles can we fit on a 20-gigabyte hard drive? And what variety of gunk will accumulate in the in-floor storage containers?
To give the 2008 Dodge Caravan an extra-tough life, we've decided to begin its stay with us on the abusive streets of Detroit — the world's capital of freezing rain and chuckholes. If it survives, we'll send it out to the Santa Monica mothership to live out the remainder of its year in the benign climate of Southern California.
So join us on our yearlong automotive assignation. We've now got plenty of room.
Current Odometer: 980
Best Fuel Economy: 14.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 14.2 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 14.5 mpg
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
For the time being, I possess infinite powers — powers to delight and confound.You see, with our new 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan (referred to as "the big, red truck" in our household), I have the seemingly telekinetic power to command doors to open and close without ever touching them! This blows my two-year-old daughter's mind. "Magic door!" she squeals each time I surreptitiously give a double-press to the door buttons on the Caravan's key fob. Those power-sliding doors are high on the list of cool things in her world — right up there with multicolored popsicles and video-on-demand cartoons...
They're good by me too. I used to think they were frivolous. Remotely operated power doors were a gimmick andan emblem of one's extreme laziness. Then I had two kids and now I can't imagine why every door in my world can't be remotely power operated. Also, any opportunity to make my kids believe that I am something greater than human for at least a couple more weeks is priceless.
Soon enough she'll see the plastic chain that yanks the sliding door back and forth or she'll catch me fumbling with the key fob and the jig willbe up.
That is when I will begin tryingto convince her that I can change the radio volume with my mind (while pressing the volume switch on the pack of the steering-wheel spoke). Magic!
Of the adult pleasures disallowed to young children, such as coffee-drinking and unrestricted use of the more colorful words of Anglo-Saxon origin, you can now add Swivel 'n Go.
Maybe it should go without saying, but if your children are young enough to need a child seat or infant carrier, you may not use Chrysler Corp's newest gee-whiz seats. Oh, you can Swivel them 'n not Go. Or you could Go 'n not Swivel...
But not both at the same time. Your carefully engineered, regulated and tested rear-facing infant seat becomes a forward-facing seat with one spin. This renders the feature all-but useless for young families.
Sure, you could move the child seat(s) to the third row and put older kids and adults in the backward-facing second row, but then you'd just have to move the child seat(s) to the second row when it's just you and the kids otherwise your toddler won't be able to kick the back of your seat. And let's stop being ridiculous: The last thing parents want to do is unlatch and reinstall car seats over and over again because it remains a giant pain in the butt.
Understand, Chrysler never claimed nor implied that you could use Swivel 'n Go with child seats. We mention all of this in the spirit of public service for which Inside Line has become so famous.
How ugly is the new Dodge Grand Caravan? Turns out, it's not really that ugly at all. We have photographic proof!
We might prefer the slightly more biomorphic curves of the Honda Odyssey. But a Toyota Sienna ain't exactly a beauty...
And the Nissan Quest? Yipes! Likewise, the Kia Sedona looks less like the picturesque Arizona area for which it's named than an overweight catfish.
The Dodge has grown on me. It's honest. Whereas the Kia seems to get uglier every time I look at it (see below).
Soon, I'll have to park that bottom-feeder in my garage to avoid upsetting my neighbors and frightening my children.
Our long-term Grand Caravan has a whopping $12,665 in optional equipment. So when I couldn't find the buttons for the memory mirrors and seat, I assumed that, like virtually everything that's come into my possession,Ihad just misplaced them.
So for a week, I'd go to hop into the van crank my knees on the lower dash, compress my thighs on the lower portion of the steering wheel and curse the size differential of my wife who, it can be revealed, is petite,and your author, a descendentofovergrown Black Forest-dwelling oafs. Reluctantly, I checked the owner's manual...
And there it was on page 157, an illustration of the Driver Memory Seat Switch (with a handy black arrow pinpointing its location on the door panel just aft of the door handle).
How did I not see tha...er, wait.There's no buttons on my door panel. It's just an uninterrupted expanse of cheapish plastic. I consulted the optionssheets. Nope, no mention ofmemory seatsin any of the Premium Interior Groupsor the omnibus Customer Preferred Packages.
This is because, although the vehicle is available with a power-folding third row seat, second-row seats that swivel 180 degrees, a hard drive as large as that of my antiquated iPod and various other doo-dads that I haven't figured out yet, the Dodge Caravan is not available with memory seats. Confirmation of this comes from a public relations professional in Auburn Hills, MI. He noted that it is available on the Chrysler Town & Country and will be offered on the VW version of the van, both of which are built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. All Caravans are built in St. Louis and our PR man reckons that the option's unavailability is to reduce build complexity in that plant. Hmmm. He was sure to clearly state that the option was not available for "'08." Oh, so it'll be added for '09? "I can't say that," came the response.Um, okay.
Seen above are the memory buttons from the much less-expensive Kia Sedona minivan that I callously called ugly a post or two ago. Sorry Kia.
To a certain segment of the reading population there are more important elapsed time figures than those accompanying a 1/4-mile acceleration test. One such figure is the elapsed time it takes to transfer music from a CD to the Caravan's MyGIG 20-gig hard drive. When it comes to living with a minivan, I think they might be right.
The first time we transferred music from disc to HDD, it seemed to take forever... So we decided this morning to put a clock to it. Our test disc was Radiohead's newest, In Rainbows. Its 10 songs add up to 42.6 minutes of playing time and take up 431 MB. This took a not-too-painful eight minutes to transfer, which included probably half a minute or so of my fumbling with the system's less-than-intuitive menu system. True, it took only three minutes to import the contents of the disc to my laptop through iTunes. But eight minutes is in keeping with Chrysler's estimate of a 12-minute import time for an hour of music.
Great right? Well, except that MyGIG is supposed to automatically use Gracenote database to identify artist, album and track names. It didn't work. A brief scan of the forums turned up numerous similar complaints. Close as I can figure, the databasemust be updated frequently to include newer releases. Chrysler says we should visit our dealer for an update.Ug.
Predictably, fuel economy in the big, old family truckster is improving as we accumulate some miles. So far, the van has really only seen city driving — a regimen in which the EPA reckons our van with the optional 4.0-liter V6 should be getting around 16 mpg. Our early fill ups returned just above 14 mpg. Our most recent tank yielded 15.6 mpg...
That's still not a whole lot of miles for each gallon of 89 octane that the company recommends for this motor. But considering the utility and the relatively good performance of this package, we probably don't have a whole lot of room to complain.
Next week, we'll be loading on some major highway miles as the van is making its move to Southern California. We'll keep you updated.
You've got to know where the line is before you know if you want to cross it, right?
Thanks to the clever folk at Chrysler LLC, I know exactly where the line is. You see, the company has thoughtfully molded into gray hatchback sill cover a raised line to show you exactly how faryour junk can protrude from the cargo area and still manage to close the hatch. And helpfully, the company also molded the words "LOAD TO THIS LINE" into the piece... This way, as you accumulate stuff in the back, you'll know exactly when you cross the line.
Cram something back therethat hasa little flex to it — say like a folded double-kid stroller — and you can cross the line with impunity. The power-door motor has the mustard to compress the load a bit and cinch the hatch closed. Next time I carry a load of loose decorative ceramic figurines and crystal champagne flutes though, I will keep them well inside the line.
Here's what I learned in my 825.8 miles of driving today: People in Iowa still wave at perfect strangers.
I was cranking along I-80 somewhere near Des Moines, the Caravan's 4.0-liter V6 mooing lightly. I'd locked in behind a hard-drivinglady driving a ruby-red GMC Envoy. We'd swing left around slow-moving Buicks together and tuck back into the right lane together. We both used three blinks of the turn signal each time we made a move... It was like an exceedingly boring version one of those Swedish precision driving team — only without the need for talent. Anyway, when she took an exit she gave me the wave. Not just the thanks-for-letting-me-merge-in-front-of-you motionless raised hand. No, this was a wave, like one you'd give to a, you know, friend or something.
When I'd pull off the expressway to grab some gas, people walking down the street would wave. This dealt a mighty blowto my adolescent fantasy of looking vaguely menacing. How bad could a guy driving a new minivan be anyway? Next time I drive from Detroit to Santa Monica, I'm going to roll in a primer-gray 1971 Dodge Super Bee with blacked-out windows, and maybe get a scar for my face.
The van likes to go 75 mph, which suits me just fine. For those times when the speed limit happens to be less than 75, I have Inside Line's trusty new Passport 9500i Blueradar/laser detector. This handy device saved my bacon twicein Indiana alone.Plus, its readout is — get this — blue.
So all's well. The van's returning adecent 22 mpg. I managed to avoid filling its in-floor storage containers with fireworks and cheap cigarettes in Indiana. I saw the headquarters of two giants in the field of auto aftermarket along the road: Tire Rack and JC Whitney. One of which I've purchased products from. I found a nice little homestead in western Iowa (top picture). It's kind of a handyman special, but it has mature landscaping. Oh, and also I viewed what was advertised as the world's largest truck stop and a restaurant named Ox Yoke. So there's that. Tomorrow I will drive many more miles.
I have met the high-plains drifter. And its name is 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT.
Turns out there's not a whole lot of, um, vertical things in Nebraska or eastern Colorado. This means that wicked crosswinds just come barrel-assing over the dirt and ram the side of the Caravan full force...
So many steering corrections are needed to keep the Caravan in its shipping lane that I felt like I was filming a green-screen driving screen for a television program. But it's a box right? And it's probably not worse in this regard than any other van. And it was still nimble enough to dodge the tumbleweeds.
I'd been dreading the trip through the Rockies in this big boat. Oddly, the Caravan proved a pretty faithful companion on the steep, twisty grades. It was more relaxed here than out on the open prairie. Like all Caravans powered by the 4.0-liter V6, our test van comes with a handling package. Yes, this sounds laughable. But the joke's on you. The big ol' Dodge can be eased down the mountain quite smoothly and securely. But she likes to be eased into it with a slow hand.
With high winds, higher speeds and some steep climbs, the Caravan dropped a couple of mpg from yesterday's performance. It returned a consistent 20 mpg all day. With 2533 miles on the odometer, the "Change Oil" warning light came on, which seems awfully early in its life. The oil level is fine though, so we'll wait until the Caravan's arrival in Santa Monica to deal with that. The green segmented letters actually present it like this: CHAngE OIL
At the end of the day's drive, just as we were entering the intensely desolate eastern Utah, the Caravan refused to start after a brief gas and refreshments break. Turn the key and...nothing. Uh oh. Take the key out, put it back in and turn and it started right up. Next time we turn the vehicle off, the same thing happened. Hmmm.After much thought, we have decided for the moment to pretend this didn't happen (twice) and call it a day with full confidence that it will have cured itself after a good night's rest. If you don't hear from me for a while, send help. I'll be in Utah — somewhere.
If this 2,400-mile slog from Detroit to LA has taught me anything, it is the power of willful ignorance and blind faith. When the Dodge Carvavan balked at starting the end of yesterday's drive, I chose to put my fate into the spectral hands of the Dodge Brothers in hopes that the problem would be corrected before today's sunrise. And that's exactly what happened. The Dodge started each and every time I asked it to...
Now it is possible that I'd imagined the problem. I had spent a lot of time on the road and was, by last night, feeling a bit, um, unhinged. But neitherI nor any of my imaginary passengers believe this to be the case. We'll mention the incidents to the dealer when we take the van in for its first oil change, something the its computer is already demanding.
We averaged 20.8 mpg for the whole trip, which is a decent figure, although a couple of mpg below what the EPA predicted. With an internal hard drive, a CD player, an auxiliary input for my iPod and satellite radio at my command, I never once had to scan local radio for something decent to listen to. The van's developed a luxuriant goatee of 10 state's worth of bugs. Withsix cupholders in easy reach, I managed to surround myself an impressive array of digital devices, canned coffee beverages and assorted debris.In this regard, the van is anenormously convenient vessel forlongdayson the open seas.
Late today, I noticed a crumb on the "+"markingat the base of theautostick shifter.Iwiped it off with the tip of my index finger and ended up taking off the top section of the "+" so it now looks like a very small, uppercase "T."That shouldn't happen.
Good luck in California, Caravan. It's been...convenient knowing you.
We haven't had a minivan in our Santa Monica-based test fleet since the 2006 Kia Sedona left nearly a year ago, and I had almost forgetten just how handy they can be.
Last week Detroit Editor Dan Pund drove our new long-term 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan from Michigan to California, and this weekend I usedit to drive my daughter andfour of her friends to a birthday party, then stopped on the way home to pick up nine 12-foot pieces of crown molding from the lumber yard.
The Caravan moved both the kids and the trim with the same amount of ease.
I love minivans...
Hot Lap Disappointment
After using the Grand Caravan to pick up some cones at the Streets of Willow race track, Magrath and I decided to see what the big girl could do. As the below video shows, the Grand Caravan was a grand disappointment. Through a short-course configuration, the Grand Caravan managed a lap time of 1:14 without the main straightaway — simply pathetic. Compared to the last few Dodges we've taken to the track, such as the Dodge Viper and Dodge Challenger SRT-8, the Caravan wollowed about with heavy body roll and understeer... It was also woefully underpowered and the automatic transmission was a let down — maybe they should offer a manual. Seriously, I thought Dodge was all about performance and excitement. What's the deal?
The next time I go for a few hot laps, I definitely know what I WON'T be driving.
All that thwacking about you hear is the sound of about 30 traffic cones and a case of water bottles depositing itself across the interior.
Yesterday the Jacquot family took the long-term Dodge Grand Caravan to the XTerra West Championship in Temecula, California. A far cry from the adventure vehicle the marketing folks had in mind when they originally named the series, the Caravan is better than any SUV when it comes to transporting all the goods of an active family.
About half-way through the morning's competition, the mercury climbed into the mid 90s forcing my wife and nine-week-old daughterinto the Caravan for a periodic respite from the heat. By mid-day it was downright miserable:
We asked a lot of the Caravan's cooling system yesterday. It ran for long periods keeping the wife and baby comfortable as the wind wound up outside. There was never a hint of overheating.
Packing for the trip was easy. In fact, there's so much room in this van I didn't even bother doing it efficiently. Here's what it looks like when configured to haul three adults, a baby, a bike, a running stroller, three chairs, a tent, a baby bouncer, two gear bags, a cooler and a small hand cart to move the load:
So the inside was cool and comfortable, but the outside of the van might still be wishing it was in Michigan. This is what the rear bumper cover does when it's this hot:
This morning, when temps were in the 70s, the bumper had returned to normal, but I suspect we haven't seen the last of this deformation.
I also found the front passenger seat to be a perfectly capable changing station. My daughter wasn't convinced:
On the upside, the Caravan's 4.0-liter powerplant and six-speed transmission are an excellent pairing providing comfortable passing power without obnoxious kickdowns or engine noise. Overall, this van is nice package from behind the wheel.
I've been eyeing the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan from afar for quite some time. The styling hasn't really grabbed me, but a lot of the features I've heard about sound pretty good.
I finally had my first turn at the wheel. My impressions haven't fully gelled, but here is where my head is at so far:
Ride & handling: Decent steering effort, but on center feel is a bit "thick" — it isn't as precise as I'd like. The ride is pretty smooth, but the rear end bounds up and down way too much when traversing long amplitude waves in the road — the kind you get when crossing bridges, etc. The rear springs feel too soft and the damping too weak. (I used to tune suspensions for two other OEs for a living, including minivans, so I'm not making this up.) And this is empty, folks. It's liable to feel less settled with a load. Third row passengersmight need airsickness bags on the roads I drive going to Oregon.
Engine & transmission: Good in-town and freeway acceleration from the 4.0-liter V6. The transmission upshifts are quick (!) and smooth. Not bad at all, but I still need to check it on a grade. The odd dash-mounted shifter and left-right manual mode make sense, in a way, because you can tap the manual shifter up or down without removing your hands from the wheel.
Interior features: Pretty impressive. I'll do more on this later, but my daughters were wowed by theswiveling seats, table and satellite TV where they could watch Disney's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" while underway on a screen in either of the two back rows. If my eldest were here, she'd say "OMG!" They can't wait to try their Nintendos in the input jacks. The power-folding third seat controls are a bit of a puzzle — it's easy for them to zig when you want them to zag. Make mine manual, please.
Interior quality: Too my hard plastics for my taste, and I could do without the strakes in the glove box cover. And that huge center stack has the same obsolete Dell tower computer look that GM finally got rid of when they redid the Cadillac CTS this year. The nav system is easy to use, but the screen isn't shaded much at all and the images washed out often on my commute home.
In the 2nd row, my daughter complained about the lack of a cup holder (only in the sliding door itself and the back of the front console, both out of her reach) and the cheesy hard plastic pockets for her use behind the front seats.
Exterior: I'm not crazy about the design and the huge all-chrome mirrors. But the thing that is really worrisome is that I randomly saw ANOTHER red one on the freeway just yesterday, and it had the same plastic step bulge that Josh noticed on ours a few days ago.Apparently thisisn't a one-off issue.
There's some good stuff here. I'm sure my daughters won't be hard to convince if we decide to take this to Oregon this summer.
The interior quality of our long term 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan is so disappointing, it's difficultfor me to put itinto words. But I'm going to give it a shot.
This van feels like it was designed and assembled by apes. Apes that were pounded mercilesly by bean counters to get more cost out of the poor resulting van's interior...
Apes that have never been in a Honda Odyssey. Apes that have no respect for their customers. Apes that have no problem sleeping at night after selling people a plasticy, poorly put together crapmobile for the ridiculous sum of $40,200.
If I spent that much of my hard earned dollars on this van, the first thing I would do is drive it head long into a bridge abutment. Sure, I'd probably be dead. But at least I wouldn't have to drive it anymore. Or pay for it. And remember, I haven't once complained about the Caravan's nonexistent brakes, or its apparently missing rear suspension, or its 4.0-liter V6 which feels and sounds like it's full of rocks. No, I'm only talking about its interior, which is seemingly without a soft surface, a properly aligned panel or a single switchgear that delivers a pleasing tactile sensation. Hey, what do you want for $40K? Quality?
Instead the Grand Caravan feels like Dodge just doesn't care. Like the company has given up. Take the Caravan's shifter for instance. You must use it every time you drive the car, so it should feel good right?Common sense. But the Caravan's shifter doesn't feel good. It feels like one of my five year old's art projects. Itcrashes into Drive with such a junky clatter you'd swear Dodge forgot to install some bushing or some little piece of something that's supposed to make it not feel that lame. But Dodge didn't forget. Instead the company left it out to save money.
Even the little + sign on the shifter has already jettisoned itself. It seems our Detroit Editor Dan Pundwiped it off with the tip of his index fingerby accident when he was doing a bit of cookie crumb removal. Pathetic. Guess somebody at Dodge realized the permanent ink would have cost extra.
After my last post, which focused solely on the shortcomings of our long-term 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT, I thought I would find something nice to say about it. So here goes.
It's fast.
Although we haven't taken our long term van to the track yet (maybe next week), the nearly identical van we tested months ago was and still is the quickest minivan we've ever tested...
Despite the Dodge weighing 40 pounds more than the Honda Odyssey in the same test, it scooted to 60 mph in just 8.2 seconds. That's a full second quicker than the Honda. The Caravan was also quick through the quarter mile with a 16.3 second performance at 85 mph. The Honda runs the quarter in 16.8 seconds at 83 mph.
The 2008 Grand Caravan with the big 4.0-liter V6 is the rocket ship of minivans.And that's good.
Supreme People Hauler
Problem: How can I move six people and their luggage from Los Angeles to San Francisco?
Solution: 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT.
Yes, this was one of those rare instances when a bunch of people (my parents and my two sons) were all going to the same place at the same time. A poor option would have been to take two vehicles. Instead, we all piled into Big Red and hit the road... It was comfortable, roomy and quick. No one in our family is a light packer and the deep rear well gobbled up all our bags without blocking rear visibility.
And we even stopped for a picnic lunch at the "Sideways" bridge near Gaviota (pictured).
It's amazing how, when you use a vehicle such as the Dodge Grand Caravan, for its intended purpose, your admiration of it grows. Even an uber SUV wouldn't have done the job as well.
A real hit with my Dad were the swivel seats. He spun around and grilled my son about his college courses and life in general. In fact, my Dad several times enthused: "This is a great van!"
I wasn't excited about driving the DGC since it's kind of roly-poly in the curves but, hey, it isn't pretending to be a sports car. I didn't like the dash mounted shifter and once, in the mountains, manual shifting for engine braking wasn't convenient.
On the open road I kept the speed to about 70 mph and, amazingly, didn't get passed. I think folks have made the connection between speed and fuel economy. I averaged 21.2 mpg over 1,244 miles and spent about $263 on fuel. On one tank we were able to go a total of 368 miles — a record for our Grand Caravan.
Last time our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT was at a track, James posted a video of me 'hot' lapping it, full of equipment, around a shortened version of the Streets of Willow. This time, though, we've done things the right way. We ditched the cones and the water bottles, attached test equipment, and fitted the driver's seat with one of our professional test drivers.
And drive they did! Full results of our track testing after the jump.
Acceleration:
0-30: 3.2
0-45: 5.5
0-60: 8.8 (0-60 with a rollout, like a drag strip — so more aptly, rolling - 60: 8.4 sec.)
0-75: 13.5
1/4-mile: 16.6 @ 83.4 mph
Comments: Some wheel spin from standstill and the steering tugs a little. Gears 1-3 keep the engine on the boil, but 4th is a bottomless pit- dropping revs @ 2,000 rpm.
Braking:
60-0: 133 feet
30-0: 33 feet.
Comments: Consistently squishy pedal with multi-threshold feel. Plenty of dive and the rear gets awfully light / skittish, ABS is noticeably attempting to distribute brake force.
Handling: (ever the forte of the minivan)
Skidpad: .70 G
Comments: Lots of roll — so much in fact that the inside front tire comes off the ground (especially in clockwise direction). Steering remains light despite load.
Slalom: 57.9 MPH
Comments: ESP shuts off completely. Steering is slow off center and body motions are too. Light steering is a good thing here, and it's usably precise. Quick turn-in for such a large minivan.
As tested weight: 4,750 lbs
I was heading to the airport two weeks ago and instead of leaving a LT car at the airport for six days, I carpooled home with Magrath. Upon discovering he had the Caravan, I slid open the rear door, Swiveled 'N Goed one of the Captain's chairs and yelled out "To Masselin Ave Jeeves!"
I shot the below video to showcase what it's like to ride backwards in the Caravan, but generally it's like riding in a train. I suddenly felt so Continental — I actually took up smoking and ate a baguette later. Also, the Swivel 'N Goprovides ridiculous leg room as the video shows, while raising the third row creates an ottoman (the footstool, not a Turkish guy). Throw in reversable dual video screens and this is quite the nifty vehicle to be a passenger in. To drive it and/or own it? Not so much.
Click photo above for larger view
As Jacquot first reportedand Dan Edmunds confirmed, the Dodge Grand Caravan (and almost certainly Chrysler Town & Country) is prone to having a warped bumper. It's a phenomenon I've seen on other DGC's as well. We originally thought ithappened only whenleaving the van in the heat — which isprobably what initially causes the problem — but now it permanently looks like it does above.
This sort of body panel warping is not only horrible looking and a sign of terrible quality, it makes opening the tailgate rather difficult as the below videos show.
This is what happens when you press the power tailgate button on the key fob. The videos were taken on a temperate (ie NOT HOT) day.
Here is a close up of the tailgate fighting with the warped bumper. If you go to close the tailgate using the power function, it'll stop just before it latches shut, confusing the bumper with a baby's finger or something.
If you try to open the tailgate yourself, it looks and feels like the bumper will rip right off. Instead, you have to do this...
Hey moms, how'd you like to do that with a kid and some groceries in arm? Looks fun, eh?
The Caravan is now in service to see if our local Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealer can fix the bumper warping. Given the commonality of the problem, we really hope Chrysler's come up with a fix by now.
My expectations couldn't have been much lower when I fired up our long-term Caravan for the first time last night. We slam this thing mercilessly whenever we post about it — and unlike certain other unloved cars in our fleet, the Caravan doesn't seem to have a single Mopar fanboy that's got its back.So imagine my surprise whenthe downtrodden Dodge ripped off a lighting-quick 1-2 full-throttle upshift the first time I matted the gas. "What the heck?" I exclaimed, channelling my inimitable high school basketball coach. "What the crap?!"
I floored it again at the next traffic light, andmyinitial impression was confirmed. Thissix-speed bangs off upshiftsabout as quickly as any slushbox I can remember, and it'ssmooth, too. If Hyundai's new Genesis V8 had this transmission, its 0-60 time would bea half-second quicker.
Must bea hand-me-down fromMercedes, eh? There's no way Dodge wouldspend their time and money coming up witha world-class transmission for the Caravan while seemingly cutting every other corner.
EDIT: Herr Magrath points out that Mercedes hasn't ever put a six-speed autobox in any of their cars. Hmmmm...
It was time. At the close of a recent road trip (see worn-out child in above photo), our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan had racked up some new and reoccuring issues, making a service appointment necessary.
I made the call to Cerritos Dodge.
"I'm calling to schedule a service appointment for a 2008 Grand Caravan," I said.
Service Advisor Dave said, "Sure, what are you coming in for?"
"Well, I have a list," I said, starting to rattle off the firstcouple ofitems.
Dave interrupted me. "I thought you said this was a 2008."
"It is," I said, a touch of sadness creeping into my voice.
I've always felt that the positive packaging aspects of the new Dodge minivan outweighed some of its questionable ride characteristics, and have defended its honor numerous times to different members of our staff. But even I had to admit that the number of problems was a bit excessive for a new vehicle. Our list included:
--Passenger sliding door won't close all of the way. The power feature lets it get a couple inches away from complete close before it kicks it back open.
--Rear tailgate won't open due to warped bumper cover.
--Shifter is often difficult to move from "park" to "drive."
--Intermittant ignition crank without engine turning over. (An issue we've been experiencing since we received the minivan several months ago).
The dealer was able to address just two of our concerns.The sliding doors were reprogrammed and seem to be fixed. A new bumper cover was ordered and the minivan went to the paint shop to finish the job.
"Operating same as like equipped vehicle" says the service report regarding the shifter and crank issues.
I sure hope not.
After a few days with the Dodge Grand Caravan, I have this to say.
There'sa loud snappish creak coming intermittently from the driver-side B-pillar area. It seems to happen most over bumps, and during harder accelerations and harder braking. Quick stop: CREEAK. Hard acceleration to merge on the freeway: CREEEAK. -1
Something is definitely up with the brakes: Before I took the keys, Vehicle Testing Coordinator Mike Schmidt mentioned to me that the DGC's brake rotors might be warped and that I should look out for any sound or feeling that could indicate that, soI set my Spidey senses to "tingle." The first night, I heard and felt nothing. But the next day,a Friday,I did notice a disturbing groaning/grinding sound and feeling whenever I hit the brakes. Seemed to get worse the harder I depressed the pedal. On Saturday, the noise and sensation disappeared, only to reappear on all three trips we took in the minivan on Sunday. We'll be taking it back to the dealer. It did make me forget about the B-pillar creak, though. -2
On an impromptutrip to Ikea, I was able to lay a bundle of 5-foot-long bamboo garden stakeson the seat back of the third-row seat and fit them into the space between the second-row seats (blue arrow above points to one of the poles peeking over the seatback), while tucking a whole lot of other Ikea stuff (plus the various bags and toys and things we needed for a trip to grandma's for the day) into the deep storage well behind the third row. Very convenient. We never have impromptu Ikea adventures on the way to grandma's in our personal vehicles (both coupes). +1
Stay tuned on the brake rotor issue.
On the third floor of our office building is a super secret room that houses the Inside Line editorial department's test car sign-out board.
This morning, after I fed theguarddogs and passed the retinal scan,I noticed a hint of sarcasm had crept into the room.
We'll report on the Grand Caravan's recent dealer service laterthis week.
Thereit is. Ourlong-term Dodge Caravan parked in the shadows of the service drive at Cerritos Dodge. It'sour 4thvisit to this dealership since June.Afterthe 5thvisit we get our choice of an Avenger keychain or Caliber beer cozy.
This isn't the first time we've been here forabnormally noisy brakes. Last round the dealer machinedourpittedrotors and the brake squealvanished. For awhile. This time the front padsand rotors willbe replaced altogether.
New rotorsshipped herefrom back east, which tookfour days.So theCaravan sat waiting patiently on the dealer lotfrom Wednesday to Monday.We pickedup a freshly washed Caravan Monday afternoon, and toour surprisewere not charged for the service.
Back in May (the last time I drove this van) the Jacquot family used it to haul all our crap out to a triathlon in the Valley of the Dirt People where it was very dusty, verysunnyand miserably hot. Here we discovered the effectiveness of theDGC's cooling system and the poor heat durability of its rear bumper cover. That was a pivotal day for me and for the van.
With a new baby and the need to carry much baby and triathlon accouterment,I had to acknowledge that the stigma of driving a minivan had been overcome by its utility. And the van showedsome of its greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses yet.
Well, it's six months later now and the van has seen many adventures since then. So when I jumped behind the wheellast Friday to head out for another weekend of racing in thedirt I was eager to see how the old girl hasheld up. The news, as you have read here, isn't great. Perhaps most noticeable is the quality of the van's interior. The rattle factor has increased about three fold since my last experience. And there's no shortage of plastic bits which simply aren't fastened together as they should be.
And, as Niebuhr says,the rear shocks are filled with fish oilwhichoffers little damping at any speed.
Still,short of a Honda Element or Mazda5, I'm hard pressed to find a vehicle that can haul three people, two bikes and a ton of stuff as easily and efficiently as this van. And really, neither of those Japanese rivals comes anywhere near matching the vast expanse of real estate available in the DGC.
And then there's this: My wallet, which rivals George Costanza's at times, fits perfectly in the center console. And I love it when things fit perfectly.
What the (squeak)?
October 7th, 8:46pm
"That was a pretty good dinner. I wonder if (eeeeeeeeeeek!)."
"What was that?" my girlfriend asked.
"I don't know. Maybe (squeeeeeeeak!). Wait, is that coming from the (gr-eeeeeek!)."
"That doesn't (screech!) good. (creak!)"
No, it doesn't. The amount of groans and creeks coming from the B-pillar is bad. When putting my ear to the area where the sound was coming from, I couldn't tell if it was screeching from the front drivers side door or from the sliding door. Either way, it isn't good.
Is it the dirt from a recent road trip? Bonneville? Or is it just poor assembly? I think it's time for a power wash to eliminate dirt and see if that helps.
I hope that isn't salt from the Flats rotting out the subframe.
I once wrote a scathing post about our long-term 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. Haven't driven it since. Didn't want to. Avoided it like reality shows staring Scott Baio.
But Tuesday the inevitable happened. I was handed the keys to the DGC and instructed to drive it 225 miles east to Blythe, California and back in the same day. In other words, drive it the entire width of Califonia twice, as Blythe essentially sits on the Arizona border.
I hemmed and hawed and hit the road. Turns out the DGC isn't that bad. Oh, it's built like a high school science project gone wrong, packs more squeeks and rattles than a bundle of snake mice and still feels like the rear suspension is missing its dampers, but I also found a lot to like.
Turns out our van has very comfortable seats. My ass, back and legs still felt great after all 450 miles. The DGC also has a respectable range, nearly 400 miles on a tank. And I learned to like its loosy goosy suspension as long as the road was perfectly smooth, which it turns out to be way out in the California desert. The van's strong air-conditioning, navigation system and Sirius radio also made the trip more enjoyable, as did its sizable cupholders and powerful 4.0-liter V6. Passing power is not one of this van's shortcomings.
So there you have it, although I hope I never have to return to the upscale enclave that is Desert Center, California (pictured), I've learned to kinda like our Dodge Grand Caravan. Maybe I'll drive it again soon before we send her back to Chrysler HQ. Maybe?
I've got to admit, I've gotten old. When I drive around I listen to talk radio almost exclusively. When I was younger, I thought talk radio was a waste of time. Back then I just wanted to blast AC/DC, now I want to hear a debate over the pros and cons of a high speed rail line.
Well it so happens on my way out to Fontana this afternoon they were talking about the Big Three and a proposed bail-out loan for them. Deep into this discussion they bring on a guy talking about reliability ratings and how Ford has gone up, GM has gone both up and down, while Dodge has taken a nose dive, citing the Sebring and their "line of minivans" as the worst of the worst from the maker.
Really? I can't imagine. Nearly all of the posts on our site regarding this vehicle are negative in some way.
I do, however love this minivan in one respect: it's got plenty of power. Nearly every stop-light on the way out to Fontana I was stuck at, I chirped the tires big time at the green lights, especially when the tires were on a painted surface. It was great to see the reactions of people not used to a minivan blowing their doors off the line.
Here's one nice touch on our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT: interior LED lighting. It might be a little hard to tell in the above photo, but the interior white LEDs do give off a brighter and much classier-looking light temperature than incandescent bulbs. (Think of a regular flashlight versus an LED flashlight.) LEDs are used for general illumination plus the reading lights in all of the Dodge's three rows of seating.
Dodge placed LEDs on the Caravan SXT's front doors, too, and those illuminate the door pockets as well as the ground when you open the door. Though I've yet to thoroughly test them out, they seem like they'd give a better view of a dark curb than traditional side-view-mirror "puddle lamps."
There's even a Starship Enterprise-esque green illumination band along the top of the overhead console. The LEDs didn't make it all the way to the back, though, as you can see the rear of the van has regular incandescent illumination.
After two weeks of living with our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan, I must say I have renewed appreciation for the minivan as a vehicle type. No, you can't do big smoky burnouts, but for daily life (with kids) you can't beat it. Following are my top five reasons why minivans kinda rock.
Sliding rear doors: For convenience, you can't beat them. Entry and exit is super easy thanks to the large opening, and it gets even easier with power operation. How many crossover SUVs do you know of that have power-opening rear doors?
Massive interior storage: Besides roomy accommodations for passengers, the heavies of the segment typically offer about 145 cubic feet of maximum cargo space. If you've moved house before, you know that minivans blow pickup trucks out of the water for moving boxes and even many pieces of furniture.
Plentiful storage spaces: Years of evolution has given minivans some of the best storage options in any vehicle. Innovative storage bins and plenty of cupholders are the norm, not the exception.
Safety: You won't find a vehicle segment with better safety scores. Just about every minivan sold has top NHTSA and IIHS crash-test safety scores.
Entertainment: I'd wager the best rear entertainment systems are found in minivans. Our DGC is a particularly good example thanks to its dual display screens and Sirius Backseat TV.
A lot of this is fairly obvious stuff. Yet presented will all this, my wife still says she'll never be caught dead owning a minivan. Rationality and logic, it seems, aren't enough to stem the minivan's sales decline.
As expected, our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan's engine bay is nothing special to look at. Actually, it's rather dirty from the van's trip to the salt flats. Yet it's what's underneath this bland piece of plastic (which I lazily cleaned up for this photo) that's actually one of this van's best attributes.
As Scott noted early on, our DGC SXT's got motor. Its 251-horsepower V6 delivers a 0-60-mph time of 8.8 seconds (or 8.4 seconds with a drag-strip rollout). A comparison test we conducted earlier had the DGC out-accelerating a Honda Odyssey.
Meanwhile, the engine sings a respectable throatynote when you pin the throttle and the transmission upshifts with a surprising level of swiftness. It's certainly one of the Grand Caravan's strengths.
The drawback is that Dodge offers this engine on the top-line SXT trim level only. It's optional and comes as part of a pricy leather-and-power package, the $2,365 Quick Order Package 28L (2009 DGC pricing).
It's a bummer that this V6 can't be fitted to other configurations, as maybe you could get a budget van with a buff engine.
I'd hate to think of what a Grand Caravan would be like to drive with the base 175-hp V6, four-speed automatic and a back full of people/cargo.
Dear James 364 days from now,
Excellent job listening to your advice from last year regarding driving to Phoenix for Thanksgiving. This time you didn't leave at 1:30,and therefore didn't getstuck in gridlock for four hourswith the G35's the hack-your-leg-off clutch (althoughpart of that's easy given the lack of said G35).
Unfortunately, leaving at 7 a.m. and successfully beating traffic doesn't matter a damn bit when you forget your wallet at home! Recall how you pulled into your normal Palm Springs gas station to discover you brought everything but the one thing you actually, truly,really need! The Caravan's DTE display said 144 miles to empty and there was 140 miles back home. It was231 toyou destination ofGoodyear, Ariz. This was going to add at least 4 hours toyour journey, butyou knew it would be longer since traffic was getting worse with every passing minute.As you turned the van around andheaded back toward Los Angeles, it was like being handed down a jail sentence. If it wasn't for the Coldplay ticketsyou had that night in Phoenix, you would have said "screw it" andtried again Thanksgiving morning.
But remember to be as thankful for your father on this Thanksgiving and everyone thereafter as you were last Thanksgiving when he came throughas he always has. Remember how he called his company'soffice branch located in Ontario, Calif., and askeda colleague thereto lend his idiot son $50 for gas? That still addedthree hours to your journey, but it was better than the five to six hours it was certainly going to take with the traffic thathad indeed gottenworse.
Of course, hadyou filled the car up before leaving (asyou usuallydo),you would've realized earlier you didn't haveyour wallet, or the Caravan's 400-plus-mile range would've easily gotyou there on one tank.
So you got there in about 7.5 hours, or the exact time it took the previous year when you left at 1:30. At least you weren't in the G35 (although the Caravan is hardly princely transportation). Icouldsay, "Make sure to bring your effing wallet this year, moron!" but instead I'll just repeat the advice I should've followed this year: "Please James, avoid a similar predicament and just celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving."
I'll now go back to waiting for my licence and gas card to arrive via Fed Ex. See you next year.
Sincerely,
After my Thanksgiving misadventure, my driver's license and gas card safely arrived via Fed Ex on Friday, meaning I was good to return home from Phoenix yesterday. Unfortunately, I forgot my cell phone and work computer this time.
No, I'm just kidding (although I did leave the computer at my apartment this morning). So me being an idiot aside, the Grand Caravan proved to be a so-so driving partner. The abundanceof space was certainly overkill, but it allowed my mother to give me five boxes of special edition Gingerbread biscotti, six bottles of wine (which I stored boot legger style in the Stow 'n Go hold) and a whole heap of other stuff. Everything was spread about the cabin with no particular effort made for packaging efficiency.
I didn't find the seats particularly comfortable, however, as the backrest is hard and pushes up against my back. It's not as bad as the Dodge Journey, though. The Sirius satellite radio proved to be useful as I could listen to the first quarter of the Colts-Browns game, plus I like its otherXM-bolstered channel selections. Unfortunately, I can't stand the touchscreen interface — most of thesame complaints I described in this Wrangler MyGigvideo apply to the Grand Caravan as well. The button-press issue is also present in the Caravan despite the smoother ride.
The whale of a gas tank also came in handy — not only saving my hide on Wednesday, but also allowing me to go from Phoenixto L.A. without filling up. I averaged21.76 mpgon my needlessly too-far journey. I'll post lifetime fuel economy tomorrow.
Minivans are a lot more popular in Canada (especially the Chrysler models) and so is hockey, soit seemed like the perfect vehicleto take last night to see my Toronto Maple Leafsbeat the L.A. Kings. For the last week, I've basically been driving the official vehicle of the Canadian hockey mom (joke, pit bull, lipstick) so it was probably about time I go to a hockey game. Thehockey was excellent and the van, well, "It sounds like we're in a covered wagon," my girlfriend said after the continuous creaking and rattling that comes with every road bump, driveway entrance or simple change in momentum.
Now for some house keeping. We've had the DGC since February and 21,611 miles later, we've never updated the fuel economy (there have been other things to comment about). So here it is. It's important to note that the Caravan lived with Dan Pund for a while in the less-congested confines of Detroit and has made quite a few long-distance trips, including his adventure out west.
Overall Fuel Economy: 18.6 mpg
EPA Combined: 20 mpg
Best Tank: 30.8 mpg (137.8 miles on 4.471 gallons of fuel achieved by photog Kurt Niebuhr)
Worst Tank: 9.7 mpg
Furthest Traveled on One Tank: 385.7 miles
Most Fuel Pouredinto the 20-gallon tank: 18.428 gallons
Had the opportunity to carpool with another one-kid family to a parking-starved section of town this weekend. Perfect opportunity to put the DGC through its family-hauling paces. After cinching two child safety seats into the captain's chairs and a quick Rochambeau tourney to see who would sit in the third row (moms won!), the gang (four parents, two almost-3-year-olds) headed out. The kids were quite happy in their car seats (they could actually reach across the aisle and grab each other's fingers), but the dads complained about the tight squeeze between the captain's chairs on the way to their final destination of the third row seat. (For reference, the space between those captain's chairs is about the length of my hand.)
Up front, I was happy with my ability to handle many of my passengers' needs without having to leave the driver seat, thanks to the various control buttons at my disposal. "Are these little windows back here? Can I get them opened while we wait?" called my husband from the third-row as we waited for our friends. Sure thing (thanks, Rear Vent Window Button on the driver's armrest). "Can we get some air back here?" he called again after we were on our way. Yes, you can (thank you, Rear Climate Control button). When we arrived at our first stop (and every subsequent stop), three quick stabs at buttons above the rearview mirror opened both rear sliding doors and the rear hatch so kids could be unbuckled and supplies could be retrieved before anyone even had to ask.
It's still creaking and dribbling Bonneville sand water out of many crannies after a trip to the car wash, but this weekend, the Grand Caravan was my useful companion.
Does the left rear tire on our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan look flat to you? Well, not flat exactly, but maybe just low?
Actually, it does look kinda low in this photo, but in person, it looks pretty much like the rest of the tires, all ofwhich were pumped to spec a mere 10 days ago.
For the second time in two weeks, the Caravan's tire pressure warning light illuminated.The first time, all of the tires were slightly off, but nothing major. Unfortunately, the warning light doesn't show which tire is low or offer the current PSI, so when the light came on this weekend, I had to check them all again to find the possible culprit.
The left rear was only down two poundscold. Could that really be enough to set off the warning?
That's a load of 8 ft. long 2x4s and three sheets of 4x8 drywall in the back of our long-term Dodge Grand Caravan. Lets see our BMW X5 or our Infiniti FX50 do that.
Sometimes we get accused of abusing the vehicles in our long-term test fleet. Well, guilty as charged. This weekend I threw a 10-foot tall, bone-dry Chrismas tree on the roof of our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. Nothing to protect the roof but the paint Dodge supplied. Then I strapped it down to the roof rack with the world's largest ratchet strap and headed for the local recycle center.
The next morning, in a moment of charity, I decided to hose all the pine needles off the van. Imagine my surprise when I noticed some of the trim bleeding salt from the Bonneville Salt Flats.I'm surprised because we drove the van to Bonneville way back in July.
You see, we figure it's our job to be extra hard on these cars and trucks. If they survive 12 months with us, then they just might be worth your hard earned bucks.
There's so much to like about the Dodge Caravan - sadly, seems like for every positive, there's a negative.
I like the waythis vanlooks - I think the Grand Caravan is the second best looking van out there. Odyssey is first. The Dodge isn't much to look at inside however, the Chrysler version is more attractive - still, they both have the same plasticy materials.
The transmission is pretty good - upshifts are nicely muted but the shift lever itself is cheap feeling. The van's highway ride is nice and cushy but if you even think about braking or turning it feels cumbersome and heavy. Plus, this thing creaks like a listing tanker - sounds cheap all around.
I also like the Sirius Backseat TV/DVD player but that requires a subsription fee of $13 per month and alsoadds about $2k to the price. Power sliding side doors are nice for when you have to load kids up for school but one door has already needed repair.In the end I just couldn't spend my own money on this van. I think the Kia Sedona and Honda Odyssey are better minivans and the Buick Enclave and Ford Flex do the job with more style.
No problem for the Grand Caravan SXT. Well, not a problem so long as you don't mind leaving the gate open a hair
Oh, and not really a problem unless you have about 20-minutes and the freakish gorilla strength required to get the second-row seats out. At one point during the removal I had to use my foot as both a lever and as a stopper to block the tracks from locking themselves again. Swivel 'N Go is a neat parlor trick, but Stow 'N Go is far more useful.
I started up the Dodge Grand Caravan thismorning to the unwelcome sight of its tire pressure warning light. A broke out my tiregauge and a quick check of the pressures confirmed my fate.Three tires were at spec and one was down 10 psi.
Ilive within 2miles of a tire shop andthe leakerhad plentyof airto survive the trip without my having to mount the spare.SoI drove over,had the tire patched and was ready to leaveafter 30 minutesand $17.18.
As I walked back to the Caravanthis guy in hisInfiniti i35 pulled into the driveway. His mangled tire clunglifelessto the rim, which was visibly damaged itself. "The tire looked low" he told the approaching mechanic "so I drove straight over." This brings me to my gripe.
A lot ofpeople check their tire pressures by the bulge of the sidewall. By the time a tire "looks low" it is already too late.To drive on it at this point is risking safety, tire replacement costs and in the case of this guy, wheel replacement costs. Why don't drivers understand this? Spendthe $20 foratire pressure gauge. And check your tiresregularly. Spread the word.
So how many out there carry a tire pressure gauge in yourcar - - and use it?
There's plenty of dancing room in the middle of the DGC ever since the Mikes removed the second-row Swivel 'n' Go captain's chairs for couch-hauling duty. I took this as an opportunityto see what it's like to have a child safety seat in the third row.
Installation was easy enough.My placement choicewas limited to the center seating position because that's the only one with a top tether anchor in the cargo area (see photo below). Seating an adult in the remaining seating position on the passenger side ofthe bench seat was possible, but I don't recommend it. It's pretty squishy back there (though there's TONS of legroom), but maybe if your car seat is a slim one, it wouldn't be as tight a squeeze. Cinching the kid in was a breeze; being able to kneel right in front of herand tighten the harness strap (rather than leaning in from the outside and tugging at back-wrenching angle) was fantastic.
Once the captain's chairs are back in there, I'll try this again and report back on how much harder it is to accomplish.
Nothing more here than a little behind the scenes action of our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. With its massive sliding doors, wide liftgate, manual shift control, powerful motor and sturdy roof, the mighty Dodge is the preferred workhorse for our photography staff.
Just after I took that picture, I took a good look at the Ram emblazoned on the "chrome" grille and chuckled. "It's a mini-van, this thing shouldn't have the same logo as those burly trucks from the same company.", I thought. But then it hit me. I've been blinded by the leather-like interior, and the fancy-pants (but impossible to use) navigation system, and the power remote doors. The Dodge Grand Caravan isn't the luxurious retreat from the daily grind that the Honda Odyssey is; the DGC is a workhorse. It's the kind of minivan you can load with firewood found in a ditch. Or fill with dogs. Lots of dogs. Muddy ones. I wouldn't do that with an Odyssey. I'd have to lay down a tarp first and then put a blanket over the tarp and then I'd have to take it to a detailer and then probably sell it.
The Dodge Caravan wears the Ram for a reason. It's not pretentious or pretending to be anything other than a Minivan. We've never abused the DGC but we have put it to work and that's what you should be able to do with a utility vehicle. Too many vans and crossovers forget what fueled their initial popularity.
With a large shelving unit in my weekend, I partnered with the cavernous Grand Caravan. The middle seats had been removed for a photo shoot, but the nifty center table was still installed. Removing the table is not hard, once you figure out the push-button release for the pole. The table top comes off its perch easily enough once you sort the under-edge release, and then the two pieces stay together with velcro straps and get stashed in the under-floor storage unit behind the driver's seat.
Getting the table top and pole into the floor was easy enough with the center seats removed, but might be a little more fun with the middle seat still in place. If you've never done it before, you might think the table swap is a pain (it's not exactly elegant in its deployment), but it's one of those things that if you've done it once, there's no drama.
With my recently tweaked back protesting at the in-van contortions, I camped onto the rear bench and fired up the Siruis Backseat TV, flipping between the three channels (Cartoon, Nickelodeon and Disney). The picture comes up almost instantly, and for the size of the screen, the picture is fine. A neighborhood kid wandered by on his skateboard as I was channel surfing and stuck his head into the sliding door opening.
"You watching the Super Bowl?" he asked.
"No," I answered, trying to briefly explain that the system only got three channels, but not live broadcast TV.
"Oh," he answered, completely unimpressed. Obviously disappointed that I wasn't watching the big game in the car, he cruised off.
FLO TV might cure his apathy. Anyone else beyond our own Doug Newcomb think live in-car TV is the next BIG THING?
Plenty has been blogged about our Grand Caravan's cargo versatility and capacity . This weekend during a moving expedition, I found what our beloved (or reviled) DGC can or cannot carry, as well as what does and does not work as we get ready to part ways with this long-termer.
The Grand Caravan cannot fit a Queen size mattress/box spring inside, but with some tie-downs, it's fairly easy and safe to haul them on top of the roof rack. The maximum length of a flat-packed furniture box to fit inside while still having the door shut is about 95 inches. In this case my passenger had to ride with her seat nearly in the glovebox, but we were both happier to haul this on the highway protected from the elements and also have the ability to park without worrying about having our new wardrobe frame pilfered.
The automatic doors make moving as convenient as I could imagine. Unfortunately, after the first day of driving the Caravan this weekend, the satellite radio stopped working. Perhaps it simply couldn't stand my taste in music (it stopped after Eddie Grant's Electric Avenue started)? But no, the subscription simply ran out. It also seems that the passenger seat warmer no longer gets really warm as well. Fortunately, the mercury rarely dips below 40-degrees here.
Last week I took our Caravan in for a routine oil change. The on board computer requested it.
I drove it to Buerge Chrysler Jeep in Los Angeles because they're close and because they have an express lane that promises a quick in-and-out experience while you wait. (You know, the way it used to be before they realized they can drag an oil change out to three hours of billable work.)
It took an hour to their 25-minute claim and when I was checking out, my service advisor told me there was a recall on the power-steering hoses. They didn't have the parts in stock but they're on order. I should be getting a call sometime this week about 'em.
Total cost: $27.84
Can't let the guys be the only ones posting about taking a long-term car to the Tour of California, can I? But unfortunately, the only at-the-race pic I could have taken of the Dodge Grand Caravan would have been on the fourth floor of a parking garage in Pasadena. I figured I'd spare you that beauty shot and wow you with a beauty shot of the minivan's third row instead.
On Saturday, the DGC was our chariot to the penultimate stage of the 2009 ATOC, where the racers completed five exciting laps of the Rose Bowl. With four adults and 3-year-old in a child seat on board, I took the opportunity to get to know that third-row while my husband took a turn at the wheel.
Other than a bit of outboard side bolstering, the bench seat back there is pretty much flat and permanently reclined at a slight angle. The recline was the worst of it for me, since I prefer to sit more upright. I found myself leaning forward in my seat as much to listen to what the grownups were talking about as I was to avoid looking up at the ceiling.
But I did enjoy having three cupholders and other small storage spots at my disposal back there and when someone needed something from the cargo area (Lara bars! Fruit leather! Drink box!) I could just reach back to the cooler and yank it out. The third-row climate control vents (three-zone A/C is part of the optional Package 28N) were also greatly appreciated when the heat from all those bodies made the atmosphere a little muggy.
Wrap-Up
Why We Bought It
Durability
Performance and Fuel Economy
Retained Value
Summing Up
Before the world knew it needed minivans, Chrysler had it figured out. Take a box, add wheels, make it accessible via sliding doors and adorn the interior with more storage nooks than any mortal could imagine necessary. Of course, as we inhaled the new minivan concept of utility, we coughed up the image of pure functionality it embodied. This is the sort of vehicle our parents would buy. Alas, we have now become parents ourselves.
Attempts over the years to remove the stigma of boring responsibility inherent in the minivan have been in vain. Station wagons tried. Crossover utility vehicles tried. Neither could quite match the capability of the box on wheels. And with this notion in mind, our long-term test of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT began.
Why We Got It
Our primary reason for acquiring the Dodge Grand Caravan SXT was the same as for anyone else in the market for a minivan: utility. Inside Line compared minivan versus crossover versus SUV, which proved to us that swinging doors don't stand a chance against those on sliders.
For 2008 the Dodge Grand Caravan was all-new and we were optimistic it was a good fit for us. Swivel 'n Go seating and Sirius backseat television to keep the kids occupied. A 251-horsepower 4.0-liter V6 to appease our lust for power. And there was a six-speed transmission to put that power to use. These elements provided a strong foundation for what might be the reemergence of Dodge as a contender in the minivan world.
We ordered up a Grand Caravan with all of the options we could conjure and cleared a space for it on the long-term blog pages. This test would begin with a brief stay at our Detroit office.
Durability
One month into its term, we decided the Caravan would serve as a support vehicle for photo and video shoots in California. Odds were good (1:1) that Senior Editor Daniel Pund would be volunteered to drive the Dodge west. On Day Two of his cross-country slog in the Caravan, Pund shared, "I'd been dreading the trip through the Rockies in this big boat. Oddly, the Caravan proved a pretty faithful companion on the steep, twisty grades. It was more relaxed here than out on the open prairie. Like all Caravans powered by the 4.0-liter V6, our test van comes with a handling package. Yes, this sounds laughable. But the joke's on you. The big ol' Dodge can be eased down the mountain quite smoothly and securely. But she likes to be eased into it with a slow hand."
Photo Editor Kurt Niebuhr was second only to Pund in Caravan seat time. One such stint was over a three-day, 1,500-mile road trip from L.A. to Bonneville to photograph the Dodge Viper ACR on the salt flats. Through bloodshot eyes, Niebuhr enlightened us: "Fully loaded, the Caravan rides much better than it does when empty. The endless rear end porpoising goes away but is replaced by a noticeable nose-up attitude when driving down the highway. I should mention that we probably added 600 pounds of weight, including two passengers, to the van. This has the load-leveling suspension, right? Now the motor sounds decent but it couldn't push the Caravan past 110 mph on the salt flats. We attribute this to one of the sliding doors being open at the time while we took video. Fear not: With the door closed, we tapped the limiter at 114 mph."
Inside the cabin, the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan left us unimpressed, however. Inside Line Editor in Chief Scott Oldham put his disappointment into words: "This van feels like it was designed and assembled by apes. Apes that were pounded mercilessly by bean counters to get more cost out of the poor resulting van's interior. Apes that have never been in a Honda Odyssey. Apes that have no respect for their customers. Apes that have no problem sleeping at night after selling people a plastic-y, poorly assembled crapmobile for the ridiculous sum of $40,200. Instead the Grand Caravan feels like Dodge just doesn't care. Like the company has given up."
Nevertheless, our Caravan took on the persona of Rocky, the hero of all those boxing movies. This van took a beating. It failed to start in an early loss to Apollo Creed. But before Mickey could cut us, we were back on the canvas with radio failure and prematurely warped brake rotors. One defeat after the next stifled our heroic Caravan. Clubber Lang seemed to fit the role of a rear bumper mohawk and inevitable power tailgate failure. Thunderlips represented the essence of the sliding door failure and ultimate replacement of the front rotors and brake pads. This minivan was perpetually pummeled, sometimes by the elements and oftentimes from within. Over one stretch we visited the dealer four times in just three months and were questioned by a service advisor, "I thought you said this was a 2008 Caravan?" But just when we were certain Rocky IV was it, our Caravan pulled out of the service bay and back onto the road for another chapter. It was a true workhorse.
Total Body Repair Costs: None
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over 12 months): $111.15
Additional Maintenance Costs: $17.18 for flat tire repair
Warranty Repairs: Reprogram sliding-door modules; resurface brake rotors; replace front brake pads and rotors; replace retainer door trim panel; replace rear bumper skin; replace power steering hose
Non-Warranty Repairs: None
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 4
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Days Out of Service: 2 spent waiting for parts on order
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: None
Performance and Fuel Economy
The first Caravan we put through its paces proved to be the quickest minivan we've tested. It ran from zero to 60 mph in 8.2 seconds and completed the quarter-mile in 16.3 seconds at 85 mph. But when we tested our long-term van, it proved fractionally slower. Specifically, our Caravan was 0.2 second slower to 60 mph and 0.3 second slower to a quarter-mile. A complete stop from 60 mph in this 4,700-pound van required 133 feet.
When it comes to handling dynamics, the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan is about average among its peers. It records 0.70g of lateral grip on the skid pad and a speed of 57.9 mph through the slalom. Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton remarked following these tests, "There is lots of body roll. So much, in fact, that the inside front Bridgestone Turanza comes off the ground, especially in a clockwise direction around the skid pad. Steering is slow and body motions are, too. Light steering is a good thing here, and it's usably precise. Quick turn-in for such a large minivan."
Best Fuel Economy: 30.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 12 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 18.6 mpg
Retained Value
Our new Grand Caravan arrived with options galore and a $40,200 MSRP. Over 27,000 miles and 12 months down the road, its value depreciated by half. This seemed extreme until we considered our last long-term minivan, the Kia Sedona. Edmunds' TMV® recorded depreciation of 41 percent after 25,000 miles.
By contrast, a similarly equipped Honda Odyssey Touring depreciates roughly 10 percent under similar conditions.
True Market Value at service end: $20,258
Depreciation: $19,942 or 50% of original MSRP
Final Odometer Reading: 27,538
Summing Up
We added more miles to the Caravan than any long-term car before it. High mileage contributed to depreciation that accounted for half of its original value. We verbally and physically assaulted our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. It took everything we could throw at it and with some elbow grease from a local dealership, continued to deliver.
Our experience with the reliability of this minivan was mixed. We wanted to give the van credit for its strong, hard-working spirit and the kind of all-around utility unmatched by any SUV. But then we realized that all minivans offer this same level of utility. And when it came to reliability, the Caravan was a disappointment. None of our six dealer trips was for scheduled maintenance alone. Each visit included a list of items requiring attention.
Minivans remain the kings of utility, and we proved as much with our Caravan. But our need for versatility doesn't excuse Dodge for poor initial build quality. Numerous minor mechanical ghosts haunted our test, none of which gave us much confidence in the overall reliability of the van. We will give Dodge credit for inventing the minivan. But when it comes to perfecting it, we cast our vote for the Honda Odyssey.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.