Faults:
The Bravada went through front brakes three times in the first 60,000 miles, but only one set of front brakes in the last 70,000 miles - go figure. We replaced the EGR valve once, the electronic dash once. In the 12 years we've owned the Bravada, repairs have totaled about $4,000 (outside of normal maintenance) but most of those charges were in the first 5-6 years.
The driver's seat is NOT comfortable for my 6'0" frame but my 5'6" wife loves it.
The paint is terrible. The hood and top of the car developed "checking" early on. Spent a lot of time rubbing and polishing/waxing, but the original paint job was just crappy. But now I'm too cheap to spend $2,500 for a good repaint on a car worth a little over $2,000 (on a good day).
General Comments:
Our 84 Dodge Caravan expired just outside of Missoula, MT in August 1995. We rolled into the GM dealer and drove out with an "executive car" with about 11,000 miles on it. Beautiful car, strong engine, good looks (although it was BLACK and I'll never own another black car). The car has towed 1,500 lb trailers hundreds of miles, over 4,500 ft passes with no trouble. It has started every morning, even in sub freezing weather - very reliable. When we replaced the original Goodyear Eagles with Michelin at 48,000 miles, we picked the best. The tires have over 85,000 miles and they still look good.
We can buy a newer car, but this thing just keeps on performing (but my wife drives it only about 6,000 miles a year now). Gas mileage is still about 17 mpg so we'll probably keep it until something major happens.
12th Apr 2005, 16:18
If you were able to do burnouts, you must have completely toasted the all wheel drive viscous clutch transfer case. The amount of stress you put on a vehicle doing neutral drop-ins, is multiplied dramatically by virtue of it being all wheel drive, because the tires cannot break loose. In physics, impulse on a mechanical system is equal to force, divided by the differential time the force is applied. For a neutral drop-in, as you can see, the mechanical impulse is phenomnal. That is how mechanical components fail catastrophically. I never drove like that when I was 20 years old (I'm 27 now). But, your review is none-the-less telling about the Bravada, albeit you sacrificed a perfectly good vehicle (yours) to bring it to us. It is obviously a solid vehicle. Just please junk yours when you are done with it, and do not sell it to anybody. Or, you might consider rebuilding it, and treating it right. Please remember too, that a car is a deadly weapon, with which you can kill somebody in a split second. Be careful.