We are in the process of buying a used van and we are so car clueless that is a huge ordeal. We are looking at 2 different vans both are 2000(Grand Caravan and a Town & Country)one has 20,000 MORE (88,000 vs 66,000)miles than the other but is $3,500 less. We bought our current van '93 Caravan 7 1/2 years ago with 70,000 miles on and it now has 156,000 and up until 2 years ago it was NEVER in the shop and really has only had minor things done to it....brakes, plugs nothing I would consider Major. What do you think is 88,000 miles too high???? I honestly view my automobile as something that gets me to places I want to go....nothing more so I'm really not terribly picky it needs to serve its function and that really is all I care about.

By Tink on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 09:18 pm:

My dh says that the Town and Country is the better van but that the Grand Caravan will probably be cheaper to maintain and repair. Both are pretty reliable cars. Maybe someone on here will have had one and be able to give you a BTDT experience.

By Trina~moderator on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 10:15 pm:

From Consumer Reports:

Repeat offenders
Be especially careful when considering these models. They have shown several years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability. They are listed alphabetically.
Audi A6
BMW 7 Series
Cadillac Seville
Chevrolet Astro
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet S-10 (4WD)
Chrysler Town & Country (AWD)
Dodge Grand Caravan (AWD)
Dodge Neon
GMC Jimmy
GMC Safari
GMC Sonoma (4WD)
Jaguar S-Type
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
Oldsmobile Bravada
Oldsmobile Cutlass
Plymouth Neon
Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen New Beetle

A good friend of mine had a Dodge Grand Caravan (1996?) and currently owns a 2001 Chrysler Town & Country. Both have made many visits to the garage.

By Colette on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 05:42 am:

Also try www.edmunds.com for reviews on used vehicles.

I had a 97 Caravan and it had well over 100k when I sold it. I never had a problem with it, but my mechanic kept telling me to get rid of it by 70k because they have a reputation (as well as the town and country) for poor transmissions.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 06:03 am:

I am in the process of buying a car and am using edmunds.com, and find it very helpful in many ways, including giving you an idea of how much to pay. I also paid for 30 days of unlimited reports from www.carfax.com (which costs about $25, and is only about $6 more than getting just one report) and they will give you a fairly accurate detailed history of the car, number of owners, frequency of maintenance, etc.

I would also check Consumer Reports for rollover risk for vans.

By Juli4 on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 06:16 am:

the same company makes the grand and town and country. They are a lot alike. As far as better my husband always preferred the town and country. We own a chevy venture that is a 97. we bought it with 90,000 for 7000. It now has a year and a half later 124000 miles on it (we make many trips from ky to oklahoma.) we have liked it and have not had any problems with it. We maintain it pretty well so hoopefully if we keep up on it it will last a while longer.

By Trina~moderator on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 06:44 am:

Tons of safety info here:

Minivan Safety Information

By Kaye on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 09:13 am:

There has also just recently been a recall on both of those for a fire hazzard.

My experiences with dodge products (chysler is the same company), they make two types of cards, really good ones and really crappy ones. I would never buy one used, because you just don't know. I would question why anyone would be getting rid of a 4 year old car with only 66k miles if they haven't been having problems. I owned a 95 Grand caravan, we sold it at 4 years with about the sames miles, 3 transmissions later, and many other major repairs.

By Babysitbarb on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 02:08 pm:

We bought a used 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan back in june and other than the recall for the power steering hose it has been a great van so far. It had 29,000 miles when we bought it.
My SIL has a 2004 Town and Country and hasn't had any problems either.

By Missmudd on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - 05:35 pm:

I also have a 2003 grand caravan w/ about 21000 miles on it. It has been fine except that the interior and dash lights went out. I thought it was a fuse, but it turned out it was the computer got confused and needed to be reset. It was covered by it's warrenty. Also, I had to have the brakes replaced, but that may have been the previous owner double pedaling or something. All in all it is an OK van, I think that I just have driven vans for too many years and would just love to drive a real car