1996 Dodge Caravan SE from North America - Comments

Where do I start? For those not too sure, for mileage 100000 miles = 160000km.

Broken glove box, from day one.

Front turn signal bulbs burn out every month or so.

Taillight stays on even after vehicle turned off.

Door ajar warning goes off on bumpy roads.

Replaced many serpentine belts, too many to remember. The one time I had the dealer do it they forgot to put the a/c belt back on, another 1/2 day wasted and lucky me they did it free of charge!

Replaced 2 tensioner pulleys, one at 90000km, the other at 120000km, conveniently while on holidays.

Replaced 2 timing belts, one as per Dodge recommendations at 96000km, the other as per holidays, the serpentine belt shredded and found a new home in the timing belt.

Replaced valve cover gaskets.

Replaced shocks and struts at 80000km, dealer did this and now the ride is worse than ever.

Replaced hub and bearing today at 125000km.

Could not replace the 3 stupid sparkplugs on the firewall side.

May be insignificant, but we are on the 3rd windshield, funny my Honda at 80000km is still on the original. Makes you wonder.

All expected replacements happened far too early in the vehicles life, tires, brakes, my sanity.

I cannot stress enough, do not buy one of these. Heed the warnings you are reading. This vehicle will cost you thousands in repairs. Hmmmmm, Odyssey costs a few thousand more and doesn't break down every month. Lessons have been learned.

Also, do not contact Dodge. They will not help you. I described all of my heartache to them and asked for a free air freshener to call it even, they sympathized with my plight, but would not even extend that simple gesture. Once your warranty is over, they DO NOT care.

I do not understand how anyone in their right, or not right, mind could engineer something as crappy as this vehicle. If this piece of garbage was supposed to be revolutionary and the best in its class, what does that say about the standards we have as consumers? Imagine if everything you ever bought behaved as a Dodge. The handles on your frying pans would fall off, your TV tube would blow every month or so. My God, have I ever been ripped off.

I had a 1995 Dodge Caravan and it had one flaw, the transmission. It never gave ma any trouble and I have never had a more comfortable car. I have never needed to change a bulb on this van and the rest of the work I did was just maintenance. You can't expect parts to last forever. I love it so much a bought a second one of the same vintage.

I think honda sucks. I had a honda odyssey and the engine blew AT 50,000. They wanted almost $6000 to rebuild it. I ended up towing it in to chevy to get me a astro van. Chevy astros are rock solid

That's pretty sad!I'm just a shade tree mechanic and it to me just 30 minutes to change all six plugs, wires, dist cap, and rotor. Buy a chilton's manual on ebay for 8 bucks, you can do almost all the work yourself.

Let me count the ways that this vehicle sucks. I have had this 1995 Dodge Caravan SE since 2003 and have had nothing, but problems. I have in the past couple of years put in over $3000 in repairs and it is still falling apart. The doors by the hinges are cracking and the passenger door has broken hence breaking the lock mechanism and also putting the door out of alignment. Now the driver side door is going. The storage under the passenger side broke years ago and refuses to stay shut. that is just the main stuff. Yikes. Never buy this van.

I have a 95 Caravan Sport SE and that's one tough van. I live in Canada, and the roads where I live are horrible and drive the hell out of it. All I replaced was an axle.

It's the 3.3 with 300 000kms on it. I've never changed the trans fluid or anything.

I change the engine oil once a year. I never made so many black marks with this van in all my life.

My dad had a 1995 Grayish-Blue Dodge Caravan SE. He got it when I was in the 8th grade in 2003.

When we got the car, the storage under the passenger seat was stuck shut for the 4 years we owned it.

The radio was broken too; if the car sat too long without being started, the radio would work for like a week, and we could never turn the radio off, because when it was turned back on, the radio wouldn't work for another week, but besides that the car worked pretty well.

A couple years later, the paint started to chip and the car started stalling all the time right when I got my learners permit, so I learned how to drive two footed so the car wouldn't shut off so much. It would stall everywhere in the middle of intersection and what not. It just got really dangerous, and then one of the belts snapped and broke the air compressor. My dad said that he could get the compressor repaired and the stalling was a 600 dollar repair, but he decided it wasn't worth it and we got a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country.

Overall the car was good, but I'm glad that we got the upgrade.

I bought my 1995 Grand Carvan SE 2 days before Christmas 2007. We then changed the oil and proceeded to drive the thing round trip from Indiana to Florida and all around Florida. The only problem we have had with the van is the rear power windows don't always work. There are no other problems to speak of. We were getting around 28 mpgs on the interstate, and the van has 165,000 miles on it. So say what you will, when it comes time to buy a new minivan, it will be a Dodge!

I have a 1995 Dodge Caravan - it has 518,000 KMS and going really strong. The AC does not work - I live in Canada and never made that a concern. This van is a worker - no issues with any parts - change the oil once per year and regular maintenance sporadically.

I do agree that Chrysler Customer Service is terrible. However, I have no complaints on this vehicle. I am going to replace the driver and passenger side doors since they are rutted.

Once it is summer I will be able to open the side door - I think the lock is screwy - all in all, I got my money's worth.