Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Chrysler/Plymouth Voyager-Dodge Caravan Real World MPG
I bought a 2006 Grand Caravan and have had poor mileage on two tanks now. I got 14.6mpg on the first tank and 17.8 on the second. The 17.8 was almost all freeway. My F-150 gets better mileage under the same use as this minivan. I have 21,000 on it and am ready to sell it. I took it in and Dodge says it is running as designed. I guess I know why friends told me to buy Toyota or Honda. My wife drove my F-150 in the same fashion she drives this and got better mileage. I have the 3.3l engine. My wife loves the look and the ride although a bit soft it is decent. We don't want to sell it, but at 14.6 I think a Sequoia could be a better economy vehicle. Has anyone else had this kind of mileage?
Tagged:
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I found my wife does better MPG than I do
We already have 45K miles in 30 months. Really pleased
1500 miles on a 2007 same drivetrain yields the same.
@ 21k miles, I'd change the fuel & air filters if never done before.
According to my log of such things, the first trip we took in the 1998 started with fewer than 100 miles on the clock. That trip took us from Bergen County New Jersey up to Camden, Maine, and racked up nearly 1,000 miles. Total mpg for the trip was just over 19, and the single best tank was 19.7 (on non-ethnol gasoline no less). That van now has 141,000 on the clock and gets about 23 mpg on E10 over the same route.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Well, last week when there was 143,625 miles on the van I replaced the head gaskets due to a slow but annoying coolant leak. I finished that job last Saturday and then promptly fired'er up and took'er on a 2,000 mile road trip. On the way out I was delightfully surprised to see the OBC registering average mpg readings that hovered within a few tenths either way of 26.0 mpg, and I wasn't even taking it easy. Hmmm...
Thursday as I was heading home I filled the van about fifteen miles outside of Port Huron, MI and then proceeded to drive 505 miles to Albany, NY before stopping again for my next tank of gas. Yes I took it easy (I kept the Cruise Control at about 67), even still I encountered a 10 mile long construction related traffic jam/bumper to bumper crawl and two international border crossings to negotiate. In the end the OBC registered an astounding 28.2 mpg, nearly 10% higher than my best reading ever. Not too shabby for an old 3.8 liter DGC with over 145,000 miles on it. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Prior to the head gasket swap that van would typically deliver between 23 and 24 mpg during the summer on a long freeway trip, and more like 21-22 with your 70/30 h/c split. I only have about 2,500 miles on it since I did the gaskets, but so far it seems to be running about two mpg better in all driving environments.
Given the rather astounding jump in mileage I find myself wondering if that van has had a head-gasket leak since we picked it up new in July of 1998. FWIW, when I pulled the heads, the front head had to be kind of cracked loose before it would give up its grip on the head gasket, however, the rear head simply pulled free, no coaxing required.
Regarding your van, your mileage sounds just about spot on for an AWD model. 174,000 miles huh? How long before you figure you'll cross 200,000 miles? ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
The only problem that I can see currently cropping up is the dash gauges went dead on my wife and I twice since we purchased it. Both were of short duration (about 2 minutes on me, 5 or so for my wife). I am sitting on it for now until I can either get more information on a real fix or until it gets bad enough that I must address it.
I think the sway bar bushings are getting worn and allowing some suspension noise, but it is not bad by any means. I am actually very surprised that this engine does not leak or burn any oil. I check the oil with every fuel fill up (about 320 miles between fills) and it has not even wiggled since I purchased it. It is due for an oil change, so now I have to decide what to run in it. I really liked the Amsoil 0W-30 I put in my 07 Outback, but I do not think I want to swap it over to synthetic at 174K - that is probably asking for a gasket leak to develop in short order, but it really depends on the condition of the gaskets. I check the engine over regularly, and I do not see any other leaks (coolant, transmission, etc).
Unfortunately, when asked, the prior owner said he did not have any maintenance paperwork because "all the maintenance was performed by him." Now, he is a certified Chrysler mechanic, so he was likely telling the truth, but I am surprised he did not at least keep a log of when he did what. Maybe I was just supposed to take it on faith that the maintenance was performed at the factory intervals. He did specify that he had done the maintenance on this vehicle since new, and he would change the transmission fluid every 15-25K miles, depending on when the 1st owner would bring it to him.
The hardest thing to get used to with it is the FWD torque steer, which is very noticeable. This is the first (primarily) FWD vehicle I have owned. Oh, and the ground clearance is very minimal, which also causes surprises on the rough roads I drive daily.
Regarding the sway bar bushings, yeah, I think I hear ours getting a little loose as well, not terribly surprising given the miles. That said, the bushings that Chrysler used on the Gen 4 vans (we have a 2003 too) were junk and needed to be replaced. When I did that job I was delighted to find that it is a relatively simple task with the parts costing only about $11.
Regarding your oil, I switched our vans over to Mobil 1 fairly early in their respective lives, and am currently using Mobil 1 0W-40 in them with stellar Used Oil Analysis (UOA) results. After pulling down the top end of engine I'm fairly confident that if you were to switch over to synthetic oil you wouldn't develop any oil leaks as there are basically zero of the old style gaskets that might swell or might be inclined to leak due to being washed off..
Best Regards,
Shipo
shipo, "Voyager/Caravan leaking coolant" #5, 9 Oct 2007 2:17 pm
I'll respond about the head gasket job over there as well. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Is your post a typo? You say your mpg improved on your F150 and your Caravan? What exactly did you do to improve mpg in both vehicles?
Best Regards,
Shipo
Funny enough, I never even noticed that post (by jay) prior to now. Really, it added that much to the topic.
One thing about the Dodge vans that has come to light this winter is that they are not equipped with cold-weather friendly lubricants. At -40F, it takes an annoyingly large amount of effort to get my van to move simply due to the viscosity of the lubricants in the drive train. As this van is 10 years old and lived here during its entire service life, I would have expected the fluids to be changed to the climate. Apparently not, so I will do that this spring/summer.
For the record, my economy is about 13.5 this winter - pretty awful compared to the 19.5 experienced during the summer. But, my old '96 Subaru Outback used to dip down to 16-18 mpg in the winter compared to 24-25 in the summer, so I suppose it is not so bad, but at least the Outback would move with relative ease in the extreme cold.
Aside from maintenance concerns, driving conditions make all the difference to fuel economy - one person's city driving is not the same as the next, necessarily. Vintage. Hahahaha; I have a "vintage" van, a '69 Ford Econoline. Your mileage beats it.
Best Regards,
Shipo
For both of our vans, their worst fuel economy was logged during the first 1,000 miles (geez, our 1998 got 17.2 on a road trip when it was new :P ), and their best fuel economy was recorded after there were six figures showing on the odometer. So far, the best the (heavier and more powerful) 2003 3.8 has been able to do on a road trip was 26.3 mpg while the 1998 3.8 managed that one 500+ mile tank last summer (immediately following the head gasket replacement job) that worked out to 28.2 mpg.
As for the weather and the oil that I use, here in New Hamster we've been seeing morning temperatures that range between just below zero to a bit above freezing; and to keep everything nice and lubricated I've been running both vans on Mobil 1 0W-40 for several years now (0W-30 before that, and in the case of the 1998, 5W-30 before that).
Regarding the mileage that other folks get, hmmm, well I'm fairly active on other Chrysler Minivan forums, and to be quite honest, neither of our vans are considered all that unusual by the other members. There is always a group that gets crap mileage (and complain about it a lot), a group of "hyper-milers" that make my numbers look pathetic, and then everybody else who manages to get decent but not stellar mileage from their vans (my category).
So, the question remains, "Why does your van get such lousy fuel economy?"
Best Regards,
Shipo
I think you've identified your problem (at least to a certain extent). Urban cycle trips of less than five miles are guaranteed to produce crappy mileage results, even on a new Civic or other car of that ilk. Even still, I find your mileage lower than I would expect. Could it be that you've been driving those short trips for so long that you've actually unseated the rings due to running rich all of the time?
Regarding the digital read-out, yes, both of our vans have it too (although for 2003 Chrysler dropped the "instant" mpg display), and I have seen very low readings, however, I cannot remember a time when I saw less than 10 mpg with a fully warmed up engine, errr, unless I was at full throttle in first or second gear climbing a mountain. FWIW, I live on a street with a 7.5% grade and have a 12% grade in my long driveway, and when the engine is cold I've seen as low as 4 mpg displayed, even under light acceleration.
Regarding our fuel, up until about a year and a half ago, we were getting 100% gasoline in the summer months and gasoline laced with MTBE during the winter. Now that New England has the necessary infrastructure to support ethanol, all of our fuel is E10 (10% ethanol) year-round. Needless to say, I noticed an instant drop of between 5% and 8% in the fuel economy of our cars. That said, I do admit that for my record fuel economy run last summer, I filled up in rural Michigan (about 20 miles southwest of Port Huron), which is an area where I believe they still use 100% gasoline. I then proceeded to wait in a line queue to pay the toll at the Blue Water Bridge, and then in another for Canadian customs. Following those two long delays (with lots of engine idling), I managed to get almost all of the way to Hamilton before road construction conspired to slow me to a bumper to bumper crawl (with lots of episodes of no movement at all) for about 12 miles. Then came U.S. customs in the Buffalo area, a toll booth or two, and then finally the NY Thruway.
Even with all of the stop-and-go stuff and all of the idling, I managed to get over 500 miles on that tank. The weather conditions were mid to high 80s, moderate humidity, and little or no wind. I kept the windows open, the A/C off and the cruise control at about 67 for the entire trip. I'm thinking that I might have gotten at least one more mile per gallon (maybe even two) if I'd been able to set the CC and go the entire distance with no stops.
Best Regards,
Shipo
It is not the transmission or engine oil that is the problem, it is the differential oil and the grease. After changing things out this summer, I hope it will produce a more tolerable 16-17 mpg next winter. As a reminder, this is an AWD van with 178,500 currently on the ticker.
The sub 5-mile trips of stop and go are the culprit. In those conditions the van is scarcely even warmed up by the end of the trip. Just as an example, my Subaru has an instantaneous MPG readout. When the engine is cold in the morning, the readout will max out at about 20 mpg driving at a steady 55. When it is warm, it reads out about 35 mpg over that same flat stretch of road. The average economy over a tank is right at 26 with that car. If I was running it on short errands every trip, it would definitely be under 20.
I learned to turn a pretty fair wrench from a dude that did his apprenticeship before WWII, and he told me that back in his time, the transmissions (all manuals in those days) and differentials were all treated to two fluid changes per year, one for the summer months and one for the winter months. Geez, I was even tempted to do that to the New Process 4-Speed in my 1970 Challenger after I moved from San Diego to north-central Michigan back in the late 1970s. I remember wrestling with that sucker when trying to switch gears following a cold start was lots of fun.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Love the van, but going from $50 in gas a week to $70+ is going to break the bank!!
Next week, I am getting an '06 Dodge Caravan SXT to use for courier work. It has 50,000 miles on it. Carfax shows regular maintenance was performed. Are there any tricks I can do to improve gas mileage? I mean, is there a chip or any aftermarket device?
What other mods can I do to improve the performance?
Thx,
Todd
Best Regards,
Shipo
We just bought an 08 caravan and we're wondering about the city mileage. We're only getting around 13.5-14.0 mpg. The van has less than 2500 miles on it, but it's been consistantly around that. Is that to be expected? We would have seriously reconsidered it if we knew that was going to be the mpg.
Any thoughts or tips on improving the mpg?
Thanks in advance.
My previous van was a 93 with a 3.3 and the mileage computer
When my muffler went I replaced it with a Dynomax super turbo and my mileage at a steady highway speed increased in the range of about .5 mpg. I know that this is very un-scientific but I am planning to do the same to the 03 that I currently have which now gets just under 24mpg highway.
mcondon
Think about it, when you're tooling town the highway your engine is operating at something like fifteen to twenty percent of its rated output, and that means that the demands on the induction and exhaust systems of your vehicle is extremely low. Personally I'll bet that the pressure difference inside a good condition OEM muffler and that of the Dynomax when at highway cruising speeds is virtually non-existent, and that means that the difference In fuel economy will be virtually zero as well.
Best regards,
Shipo
Also, although the motor is only putting out fifteen to twenty percent of it's rated output it was still turning 2000 to 2500 rpm at highway speeds which seems to me to be putting out a significant volume of exhaust.
Am enjoying the conversation
mcondon
Actually, the RPMs of the engine have very little to do with the amount of exhaust. In fact, if you're descending a hill and have the throttle closed, the engine will shut off the fuel injectors and there will be virtually zero exhaust coming through the exhaust pipe, regardless of the engine RPMs.
What does determine the amount of exhaust is the throttle setting, and that's a pretty linear equation. If you're running at about 20% throttle, then your engine will be producing about 20% of its max rated amount or exhaust regardless of engine RPM.
Best regards,
Shipo