1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager 3.3 liter from North America
Summary:
Keep it long enough.. it will be worth it
Faults:
Clocksprings in steering column have all failed, thus airbags, horn and speed control are inoperative. Recall notice received. Dealer says he will call when parts are in. Waiting 6 months now.
EGR valve failed. Ridiculously expensive non-essential part.
Something to watch is front brake calipers. Despite cleaning and lubrication, they bind and cause uneven brake pad wear. The outer pad suffers.
The usual difficulties with spring steel hose clamps.
Belt tensioner began throwing belts off and damaging them. No aftermarket unit available at that time. Plymouth part price took one's breath. It lasted 15,000 miles. Aftermarket unit cost half as much and has made 50K miles so far.
Interior plastic parts on doors and seats break easily and frequently.
Plug changes on the sideways six are somewhat of a challenge. I asked the dealer the day we purchased the van about changing the back side plugs. His comment was that the "cab forward" design meant that the intake manifold had to removed along with the alternator to access the rear plugs. I should let the dealer do it for only $600.
Six spark plugs for $600!! What a deal!!
I changed them the first time in less than two hours for $9.
General Comments:
Comfortable, quiet, economical.
Snatch out the middle and rear seats and you can haul 4 X 8 sheets of plywood, sheetrock, whatever.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 5th February, 2004
30th Aug 2008, 20:42
I made the initial entry on this post. We no longer have this van. We got 150,000 miles out of it. Front brake wear remained atrocious regardless of anything I could do.
Traded it in on a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country. Comfy, roomy and thirsty. The on-board DVD earphones that cost $100 a pair broke almost immediately. And I learned that rapidly wearing brakes on a Grand Caravan are better that constantly failing brakes on a Town and Country. Master cylinders should be sold by the dozen for these things. It is gone too. No more vans for us.
19th Oct 2004, 21:41
I have a 94 Grand Caravan that I plan to keep for a long time, despite a few problems it has had. I got it at 131,000 miles, and it now has 159,000 miles. If you know how to do a lot of your own maintenance, you can keep the costs low!!! The transmission has begun to "shudder" at low speeds in overdrive, so I turn the overdrive off in town, and this seems to work. The EGR valve tends to stick open once in a while, but eventually re-seats itself. The heater core went out in it, and I went through the nightmare of pulling the entire dash apart to get it out. Doing my own labor saves me tons of money. If the transmission eventually fails, I will probably pull it myself and take it to a transmission shop, as the labor costs THEY will charge you to pull it are outrageous!!! Everyone that owns Dodge Minivans: Hang in there!!!