1996 Chrysler Town and Country LXI review from North America
"A luxurious Rube Goldberg without an owners manual"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
It amazes me reading the comments on this forum. Yes, our T&C has also been plagued by problems. Fortunately, none of them have been show stoppers, but all have been annoying.
Windshield wipers come on by themselves.
Fuel gauge shows tank is empty (intermittently) after a recent fill up. This causes the chime to come on and go off trying to let you know you are running out of gas. Right! :-P This would lead me to believe it is a fuel tank sensor or something being pinched when the tank is heavy.
Passenger side sliding door lock only operates in "lock" mode. Will not "unlock" electrically.
CD player volume control flaky. Intermittently plays writable CDs. Sometimes will not eject CD.
Intermittent total shutdown. Nothing works... nothing. No radio, no wipers, no doorlocks, no windows. But some electrical things DO work. This happens seldom.
Engine dies intermittently. Will be running fine then just quit. On the highway this feels like a jolting hiccup, and then it keeps running. Around town, the engine just dies and you have to stop, put it in park (or neutral) and re-start it. It usually restarts easily and just keeps going. It may not happen again till the following day. But it happens most every day once or twice. Funny thing... it seems to happen almost all the time at a particular stop sign. Damndest thing! A chain of events? I don't know.
The blower only works in the two upper speeds. The lower speeds quit working.
The spare tire will not turn loose. It lowers OK, but I cannot remove it.
General comments?
If you have any input to the solutions to these problems please share them in this forum. There are so many repeat issues here that dealers should have fixes for, but do not.
The largest issue for me is the engine stalling. This keeps my wife thinking she would someday be stranded somewhere.
You won't find a more luxurious car in it's class. But the number of problems and shoddy repairs by Chrysler is criminal.
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| 1996 - Town and Country LXI 3.8 Liter V6 This van gave me nothing but worry and stress |
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| It is well worth fixing if you have had luck with it |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | No |
| Year of manufacture | 1996 |
| First year of ownership | 2001 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 2004 |
| Engine and transmission | 3.7L Automatic |
| Performance marks | 7 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 5 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 9 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | 2 / 10 |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 2 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Distance when acquired | 110000 miles |
| Most recent distance | 130000 miles |
| Previous car | Dodge Caravan |
| Date of Entry | 15th June, 2004 |