You must have never owned a Caravan...You need an ON GOING savings account for a new transmission every 30-50K. :p

 

Only 1 tranny went out but that was after I was talked into the 100k tranny service. Never change your tranny fluid.

 

All our K cars were sticks. Most of the Caravans were sticks til about 1995 when manual was phased out.

 

My first car was a 1997 Chrysler Sebring JXI convertible. What a hunk of crap, granted the car finally died, (the transmission actually) at 162,000 miles. For the 6,000 miles I did drive it I hated it though.

My parents own a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country, and it has about 90,000 miles. So far it has had 1 or 2 cases on transmission troubles. Granted, it's still running right now, but they have vested a lot of money into that vehicle's automatic transmission.

The only company that I hear usually doesn't have a case of automatic transmission troubles is Ford, must be doing something right.

 

I think Windstars have tranny problems too, but nothing like those Caravans. I've never known anyone who owned a Caravan for more then a year that didn't have transmission problems. We are talking hundreds of scenarios here. Chrysler's have always used different fluid (in my time anyways, ATF+3 or ATF+4) , which may account for the problem

 

Hundreds? Our company has gone through about 20 Caravans and only 1 problem which I know was from changing the fluid....we are talking at least 2 million miles of abuse.
My brother in-law, loyal GM, could not believe the abuse we put to those Vans.
We did always get the tow package which I think was just bigger springs and a tranny cooler...the sticks never had a clutch replaced.

 

I have only know of one person who had Chrysler manual transmission problems (in a 97 Avenger) and I can pretty much guarantee the problem was the driver, who was the hardest on I car I've ever known, and the transmission shop's (who rebuilt it) refusal to use the right fluid in it. And we're talking about another Mitsubshi here, but we ofter are when we talk Chrysler

Hundreds is no exagerration. I work in a parts store now, in shop for years. Everybody knows how bad Caravan transmission are. HemiDad got 20 lucky ones.