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Comments
Tony
A bit of an annoyance on a vehicle with 3k miles
Tony
Find a DCX employee who has not used his employee choice number to get $4102 off MSRP of a base T&C Limited. Find a dealer who will give you an extra $2k discount. Wait for $4k+ in rebates vs. today's $3k. I've seen dealer ads in Detroit for $10k off in the last 6 months, but not this month. A couple more says until next month's incentives, though.
It's going in Wednesday because of that (this time service guy didnt know of a hatch TSB), AND NOW the driver's side slider is posessed. Pillar switch refuse to work, and then all of a sudden the door opens and closes completely on it's own. Get this, I was sitting at the wheel idling and decided to reach back (in park) and try to test the pillar switch. THAT motion somehow triggered the door, BEFORE I got near the switch. I know it could be coincidence, but I did it several times, and waited a couple minutes before I was able to do it again.
Its crazy. Like brushing the belt tensioner or something did it....
Not too pleased about it,with 3500 miles on the car. I tried posting this on a big dodge forum and I get NOTHING. The experts there seem to tackle older minivan problems....
Tony
Edit : In fact it acted so wierd I 'locked' the controls on the overhead console because the wife was taking 6 people around town from work and I was afraid it would malfunction in front of them. It didnt do it to her, but nor were people able to use the pillar buttons to exit...I guess thats cool, because she told them she didnt know how to unlock them.
I was essentially the same way, except that it was vibration in our brand new 2005 Sienna that the dealer and Toyota wouldn't fix. We ended up ditching it to get a 2006 Grand Caravan that so far has been very grand.
We had a 2005 Sienna and found it to feel weaker than our 2006 GC SXT with the 3.8L. If you drag race the two, the Sienna could beat the GC hands down, but in normal driving the Sienna has less torque and you always had to punch it to even do normal driving. Our mileage was poor as a result, averaging 19mpg in city/highway mix. The GC is much more able to stay with normal traffic without ragging on the engine. Its gas mileage is better as a result, averaging 21mpg in the same mix that we used the Sienna.
As the old adage goes, people buy horsepower but drive torque.
Of course, YMMV.
I had a 1983 Chevy Cavalier all thru the 80s....180k miles, brakes, plugs, muffler, plug wires and starter!!! Oil changes every 3000 miles. BEST car ever!!!!
Had 2 Caravan for company cars...never any problems, 70k miles on each one. My personal 2005 DCX GC SXT has been great. I'm one of the lucky ones....got an employee's price and all rebates and got $10k off. Loving my DCX minivan!!!
Slow moving driver's power window (3 times).
Driver's window fell off track
Wiring harness in side door pinched, causing power door not to work.
Two bad spark plugs and plug wires.
Needless to say, I am very disappointed with this vehicle. The service manager says that the brakes normally wear out quickly because it is a "heavy-duty" vehicle. Bull!
Anyone else having these issues?
By the way, have you heard that Dodge is working on a new model, I've heard that it's going to be called the "Ornithopter". ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Please let me know if you have had your situation solved??
Anyone else??? HELP!!
2004 Town and Country. Bought 2/23/04. 25000 miles. Absolutely flawless operation. Just oil changes and tire rotations. Nothing else.
Thanks
Transmission had to be rebuilt at 48k - but yes, it was covered by Chrysler 7/70 extended warranty (we had to pay 100$ deductible). When I had tried to use it as a trade-in for 06 Sienna I was only offered 4k for the van 2 months ago - needless to say, it ruined the deal. I had just sold it for 9900$ via internet, but it took awhile.
My take on that - I would never buy a new Dodge or Chrysler minivan, but might consider 1-2 years old if they come with extended warranty. It is a shame that Chrysler can't fix their reliability problems. They should really get their act together or they would eventually follow the path of GM and Ford. How come Hyundai can offer 10/100.000 bumper to bumper warranty and Chrysler can't even keep their 70k powertrain one?
Otherwise - great van. Love the exterior look and drive. But I just can't be sitting on the ticking bomb and wait for something to go wrong with it (and expect to pay a fortune for a fix).
"My take on that - I would never buy a new Dodge or Chrysler minivan, but might consider 1-2 years old if they come with extended warranty."
Even better than what you advise is to simply take Chrysler up on one of their $229 per month "Sign-and-Drives" on a *new* fully loaded SXT Dodge Grand Caravan for 27 months like I did. I actually am paying $195 per month, but I paid the $800 start-up fee up front (tax, 1st month's payment, etc.)
My van has everything but the leather and DVD player. All the power vents, sliding doors, rear hatch, rear heat/AC ,etc.
In 27 months I simply hand the keys back and say "Go away!"
I know that this deal is $1.5k more costly than your experience, but the combination of a more feature-laden vehicle and guaranteed entity to hand the van back to makes it worth it. Another thing going for us is that my wife doesn't have to commute too far... otherwise leasing wouldn't be practical for us then.
-SM
But I would feel more comfortable with an extended warranty. A 7yr/100k miles bumper to bumper $0 deductible manufacturers warranty on a 06 Sienna costs ~$800 discounted on the internet. Lowest price I've been able to find online for the Chrysler is ~$2500.
Does anyone know of any places (dealers) which give deep discounts on the Chrysler extended warranty?
I don't understand why in all these years IIHS has never tested a Chrysler minivan in side impact.
And even the front impact on one of the sites is a 2001 model. Chrylser has added the knee airbag since then, I would assume it performs better in front impact than the tests indicate.
Oh, wait... never mind.
Thanks!
I have the 3.8 and would not want anything less powerfull for the LWB. I can't wait for the 4.0L in the next generation DCX van.
We had the option of either the 3.3 or the 3.8 upgrade (for a whopping $150) for our first DGC, so we drove both. No comparison, for getting on a freeway or passing on a two-lane road, the 3.8 has it where the 3.3 does not.
Best Regards,
Shipo