Chrysler mini vans

I own a Dodge intrepid and I have been trying for years to pry parts and repair CD's from Chrysler. They will sell you a out of date printed manual for a ridiculous price. Look elsewhere for transportation and cooperation.

And of course the manuals are all over the web.

They are highly rated for features and performance, but nowhere near Honda, Toyota, or even Kia in reliability.

Depends. If you maintain a Chrysler reasonably well they are about on par with a reasonably maintained Ford - and significantly better than a GM. They may have a few moer "minor issues" than Honda or Kia, which may have a few more than Toyota.

For the significant price difference you can afford a few "minor issues" on the Chrysler and still come out ahead. Body fit and finish on the Mopar is not as good as the imports, and you WILL lose the odd trim parts - that has been a Chrysler hallmark for at least 2 decades.

Where? Serious question as we have two (04 and 06) higher end van. Everything I've found is a) pricy b) more incorrect than correct.

Most recent problem had to do with O2 sensors. Dodge made a mid production change and can't (or won't) provide the correct parts.

Dealer tried to help but no joy.

On 8/12/2012 2:52 PM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:

The problem is most people don't want a few "minor issues". I have a Magnum AWD because there was nothing like it and didn't worry about the "few issues" (though mine has been mostly trouble free). But the average Joe does not want to save $1000 and then spend 5 years with scrambling around, dropping a car off for service, etc, etc. My friend has had 10 Hondas or more and just did gas and oil changes, etc. For several things (like water in the tailight at 85K, He said it has 85K but water REALLY should get int a tailight), Honda fixed it out of warranty for nothing. Things that American car mfg fight you tooth and nail on. My friend had a PT Cruiser that developed an engine shake at idle. The dealer did all kinds of stuff, even a valve job, etc, etc and had the regional rep on the case. Chrysler eventually said "That's too bad". My Ford Taurus had the paint fall of it just after warranty. Ford offered me a $500 coupon on a new Ford. American mfg also seem to have no control over their dealers. You get the line "The dealer is an independent businessman who ..... We suggest you take it somewhere else." My friend with the Honda had them put a slight scratch on the dash when they did a radio upgrade. Fixing it required replacing the whole dash and they refused. He called American Honda and the NEXT day someone from the dealership called and said "Gee, we're sorry you're not happy, bring it in tomorrow".

Years ago American vehicle were not even on the same planet compared to Japanese and European makes. Every year they've gotten better and the cars themselves have even become competitive, but they are not quite there yet. The Koreans used to make absolute junk that when reviewed the magazines would say "buy a 2 yr old XXXX instead", but Hyundai, for example, has made each new model a GEOMETRIC improvement over the previous one. Junk doesn't sell anymore, and the major reason for buying the domestic is the $3k off in July and 0% financing.

There are manuals online or links to downloads on most dodge forums (ie: dodgeforum.com). People also take the factory dvds and copy them and put them on ebay. I bought one of these for my Magnum for $40, but when I joined lxforums.com, there were d/l links for it if you have the bandwidth for a big d/l.

Thanks, I have the bandwidth for a big d/l but am getting tired to doing that spending the time digging through pdf's and other documents only to find the info is obscured (matters not if it's intentional or not). The latter is a reference 'to see illustration' with no reference to which or where the illustration might be. Often as not there is NO illustration.

I tried the lxforums.com and the search options are very limited as they return results that are far too broad.

I've no doubt the information is there but if the search does not work it takes far too much time to dig through the horse s*** to find the pony.

I have no problem paying a fair or even an inflated price for the information I need but to pay a price for the wrong information is an exercise in mental self abuse.

I am on my third one. The first was a 1984 Dodge Caravan LE, the first of them. Kept it until it had 240,000 miles on it. I traded it on a

1997 Dodge Caravan ES. The 1997 was traded at 125,000 for a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan 4.0 SXT. Need I say more? Service is performed, without fail, as per the "severe service" parameter in the manual.

Treat a Mopar well, and it will treat you well. A bit like the missus - if you neglect her she'll give you some minor grief.

The new ones are different than the early 4 speed electronic timebombs

- but it is still important to change the fluids regularly on the "extreme" schedule, and to use NOTHING but the factory recommended fluid.

I found it very strange, but my 2008 GC SXT with the 4.0 liter does not even have a dipstick for the 6 spd trans. I guess you just look for drip marks on the garage floor in the morning. But as you say, follow the extreme schedule, and only genuine MOPAR fluids.

I remember way back when I had a 62 Ford Falcon with an auto. The vacuum modulator developed a hole in it and it started sucking the trans fluid into the engine. Boy did it leave a cloud of smoke behind it.