90K miles? Heck that's young...... My old '00 T&C Ltd AWD had 161K on it when we traded it in for a '09 Journey SXT (have a '10 now - long story) and another poster here (Stratuscaster) has a Caravan with over 400K on the odometer.With my 98 GC hitting 90K miles, I figured that it was time to go looking (in earnest) at the Caravans at a local Dealership. I knew that Chrysler was contemplating the dropping of the Caravan in favor of the T&C. The salesman stated that Chrysler has opted to do the reverse--drop the T&C and keep the Caravan. I this so? One way or the other, I have not kept myself abreat of the news (if so reported).
Another question is when did Chrysler drop the green coolant and introduce the orange stuff? I know that GM has been using their DEXCOOL (have it in my Monte Carlo) for many years and has had material compatibility problems with it (besides the walnut shells used to plug holes). Do you have any information. I was surprised to see it in the coolant overflow bottle.
No transmission dip stick? What is this world coming to? How can one monitor the fluid's condition?
Personally, I think they should keep both with the T&C upscale and the GC for the average family hauler. But that's just me. My wife really wanted a T&C, but our budget couldn't afford it so we went with the Journey(s). Sad to say, I do miss our '00 T&C Ltd - for it's time it was a fully loaded model with some very nice feature I miss to this day (heated seats, windshield wiper defroster, all-wheel-drive, memory seats, dual zone HVAC controls, quad seating, PS, PB, video system, etc).
If I remember correctly, Chrysler went to the HOAT (Hybrid Organic Acid Technology) coolant around the 2000 model year. I know my 2000 T&C had it. It lasts longer (5 years/100K miles) and has better anticorrosion properties. The old green coolant was only good for 2 years/50K if you were lucky. Dexcool is basically death to anything other than GM vehicles.
Transmission dipsticks went away around the 2008-2009 model year. The transmissions are basically sealed. Chrysler is/was trying to limit the issue of the wrong fluid (Dexron) being added to the new transmissions or being overfilled. Probably half the issues with the A604/41TE was the incorrect fluid (usually Dexron or similar "universal" fluid) used. Yep, neither my '09 or '10 Journey's have/had a transmission dipstick. It more or less forces you to go the dealer to check the transmission if you think it has issues (low fluid, slippage, etc).