Over time, most forum members slowly disappear. This is the story of one, me!
In November of 1993, we ordered a 1994 Grand Caravan SE, 3.3L and the 4speed auto, and some other options including ABS. It arrived right before New Years of '93. My wife was the daily driver of it, but it was the trip car too. From Texas we drove it to Califonia, many trips back home to the midwest, to the east coast, into Ontario, to the Dakotas and Wyoming, and other places I'm forgetting. It never ever left us stranded. The Chrysler 3.3L V6 was a great engine. Other than normal plug and wire changes and replacing the front crankshaft seal (easy job), had to replace water pumps a few times, none lasted as long as the original, and belt tensioner (there again, aftermarket part quality wasn't as good as the original).
We chose the 7/70 warranty over the 3/36 bumper-to-bumper plan, and that was a good choice as we had started noticing some bump-shift actions here and there, and at 67k miles returning through Arkansas it went into 2nd gear limp-mode. Pulling over and restarting reset it. When we got back took it to a different dealer who rebuilt the transaxle under warranty, and, shockingly, did an excellent job!!!
The years were going by, the kids grew up, went to college and graduated, got decent jobs in their fields, and the minivan was running with a lighter load and no more long-distance vacations. The wife slowly started to mention how many years she had been driving it... and eventually, I started a low-key research for the next vehicle that took me a few years.
By minivan year #16, I had disconnected and replumbed flow away from the rear heater core that had started to smell, the transaxle had a slow drip from its input seal, and on a in-state trip the temp gauge went to HOT, the oil pressure gauge when to zero. Engine was fine. Something in the dash was going intermittent. I checked at both senders, grounding and open, they were ok, it was upstream from there. But the van still looked good, no rust at all here, the interior was pristine, and it remained comfortable and drove fine.
So finally the wife got her wish. We bought a new 2010 Ford Escape with the 2.5L four and 6-speed auto, which has been great and is a big gas mileage improvement. But it is a different kind of vehicle, too.
In retrospect, of all of the vehicles I and we have had over 40+ years, the 94 Grand was a likeable car and was a great choice back in 1993. To think I almost went with a Ford Windstar instead then, bleech!
I think the 1994 and 1995 with the Chysler 3.3 or 3.8 L were the best minivans that Mopar ever built.
I sold the minivan on Craig's list for a less than $600 no haggling allowed, full disclosure sale. The man that bought it owned his own business, and he was buying it for his elderly parents. I told him about all the good people and good info on this web site, don't know if he ever came here or not.
The next day when he came with the cash to pick it up, old Dad got in and drove it home. He looked happy!
So the minivan moved on for probably a few more years of life, and I stopped coming to Allpar, always thinking that I would come here and write a post like this, but never doing it. But I got a email from Allpar about inactivity for 2 years, so that reminded me.
I saw at least one user from the old days is still around, valiant67. Hi, and thanks for the help over the years!
In November of 1993, we ordered a 1994 Grand Caravan SE, 3.3L and the 4speed auto, and some other options including ABS. It arrived right before New Years of '93. My wife was the daily driver of it, but it was the trip car too. From Texas we drove it to Califonia, many trips back home to the midwest, to the east coast, into Ontario, to the Dakotas and Wyoming, and other places I'm forgetting. It never ever left us stranded. The Chrysler 3.3L V6 was a great engine. Other than normal plug and wire changes and replacing the front crankshaft seal (easy job), had to replace water pumps a few times, none lasted as long as the original, and belt tensioner (there again, aftermarket part quality wasn't as good as the original).
We chose the 7/70 warranty over the 3/36 bumper-to-bumper plan, and that was a good choice as we had started noticing some bump-shift actions here and there, and at 67k miles returning through Arkansas it went into 2nd gear limp-mode. Pulling over and restarting reset it. When we got back took it to a different dealer who rebuilt the transaxle under warranty, and, shockingly, did an excellent job!!!
The years were going by, the kids grew up, went to college and graduated, got decent jobs in their fields, and the minivan was running with a lighter load and no more long-distance vacations. The wife slowly started to mention how many years she had been driving it... and eventually, I started a low-key research for the next vehicle that took me a few years.
By minivan year #16, I had disconnected and replumbed flow away from the rear heater core that had started to smell, the transaxle had a slow drip from its input seal, and on a in-state trip the temp gauge went to HOT, the oil pressure gauge when to zero. Engine was fine. Something in the dash was going intermittent. I checked at both senders, grounding and open, they were ok, it was upstream from there. But the van still looked good, no rust at all here, the interior was pristine, and it remained comfortable and drove fine.
So finally the wife got her wish. We bought a new 2010 Ford Escape with the 2.5L four and 6-speed auto, which has been great and is a big gas mileage improvement. But it is a different kind of vehicle, too.
In retrospect, of all of the vehicles I and we have had over 40+ years, the 94 Grand was a likeable car and was a great choice back in 1993. To think I almost went with a Ford Windstar instead then, bleech!
I think the 1994 and 1995 with the Chysler 3.3 or 3.8 L were the best minivans that Mopar ever built.
I sold the minivan on Craig's list for a less than $600 no haggling allowed, full disclosure sale. The man that bought it owned his own business, and he was buying it for his elderly parents. I told him about all the good people and good info on this web site, don't know if he ever came here or not.
The next day when he came with the cash to pick it up, old Dad got in and drove it home. He looked happy!
So the minivan moved on for probably a few more years of life, and I stopped coming to Allpar, always thinking that I would come here and write a post like this, but never doing it. But I got a email from Allpar about inactivity for 2 years, so that reminded me.
I saw at least one user from the old days is still around, valiant67. Hi, and thanks for the help over the years!
