I've Joined the Minivan Club

I was shopping. It needed to be roomy, boring, disposable, comfy, and sorted enough that I won't have to mess with it until spring.  My list included Crown Vics (no hatch and my wife doesn't like how they drive), Saturn and Escort wagons (still small), Rangers (way too small and rusty), Suburbans (too thirsty and above my price range,) a sweet Lincoln MkVIII that needed brake work (ok, I was just distracted by that point), and then... I realized I'd been doing it all wrong.

I was forgetting that a vehicle category exists which easily meets ALL my criteria! Enter the 1996 Grand Caravan, aka The Minivaniest of all the Minivans.

Cheap, solid, and not silver.  I'll take it.

It's a radiator hose, coolant flush, and set of Altimax Arctics away from being the perfect winter soldier.

I occasionally miss my 93 caravan for its practical uses. But i picked up a 90 ranger for winter so we went exact opposite idea wise. 

keep an eye on the strut towers, they tend to rust out there.

I happen to like minivans.  I've had them since I got my license.  I did have cars before I got my license obviously since I'm on here 

we currently have an 09 Grand Caravan with 160k and my son has an 05 with 205k.   If maintained they are reliable on the later ones.  Your 96 I would keep close tabs on the transmission, they were still spotty quality in 96.

In reply to dropstep :

Ha. I had a 94 Ranger last winter until the body mounts got too rusty for my comfort.  I loved it.

In reply to Brian :

Thanks for the tips. It's showing the beginnings of some rot on top of the strut towers but I'm planning to throw on reinforcement caps and hope for the best. If it survives for two mostly trouble free years I'll be happy.

Just needs a few mods.  Start with a hood ornament.

Wald has a body kit for those also...

In reply to chandler :

I can dig it 

I like the T&C font end from 99-00 better, plus it got quad headlights

I like the 3rd gens.

Those wheels on that Wald pic speak to me on many levels they should not.

Perhaps you also like AMG Monoblocks? 

I actually think those vans are generally good looking and that the factory 'sport' package in later years did a nice job with bumpers/grille/etc. 

My parents had a 97 from ~30-250k. Only reason they eventually dumped it (my brother was still driving it) was cash for clunkers offering them half of a new Hyundai Accent of money for it. My brother still drives the 09 Accent (also a great car). 

I post in every van thread so i don't have anything new to say, really. I like those. I happen to have my cousin's 99 T&C apart for repairs right now. I was degreasing the cylinder heads in the driveway earlier today. I think it may be the first time i've ever taken heads off a 3.3/3.8, but in this case a bad temp sensor meant the fans never came on and the gauge never pegged so it was massively overheated. At 180k i'm repairing it and expecting it to last many more years.  If it was being driven by me it would have just been caught and fixed with a $19 sensor (or $0 because i have a bunch). I have an 06 T&C that i bought cheap to flip. I floored it a good many times on the way home from work tonight. It feels a little more spry than usual because i have most of the interior out for cleaning. Stow-n-go is neat but i slightly prefer the simplicity and durability advantage of the 96-00 seats because im not yet old or weak enough to be unable to get them out in rare cases when i need to. I had a ~460lb passenger in the back seat the other day and when they stepped on the folding panels in front of the 2nd row seats i literally cringed in fear. #minivanlife #iguess

I prefer the 94-95s.  96+ just seemed to get cheaper and cheaper.  My mom has had an 88 GC 3.0 a 94 GC 3.3 (which became mine...then I bought another 94 shorty 3.3), 00 GC 3.3, 05 T&C 3.8, and currently a 10 GC 3.8.

Not that any of that really matters as long as it works.  The alloys suggest the 3.3 v6.  A damn fine motor.  Watch with the one-wheel drive snow action...i blew 2 diff pins doing 3rd gear 1wheel peals in snowy weather.  Chucks the diff pin and Fs up the trans case.

Deleting the intake resonator gets you some indiction noise and less BS in the engine bay. But keep the rest of the stock intake system.  It sources cool air with a duct under the driver side headlight.

Keep an eye out for a later (98-00) 3.8 van in the JY...some got a 58mm throttle body (yours is 52).  Easy way to tell is the 58 is machined out on the inside for the larger plate...vs the 52 is pretty much straight shot thru with no interior diameter change.  That will get you a little more response.

Similar era sebrings had wheels that sort of looked like amg wheels. The hub bore is slightly smaller than the vans, but with a small spacer and some shank style lug nuts they fit.  

I ran them on my 92 and also for a while on moms 00 caravan.

Nice score!  They are massively useful and fit your criteria to a T.

Change the transmission fluid.  A lot of the "premature" ATX failures were caused by people not even considering that there was some kind of substance inside the transmission at all, let alone one that might not last 120,000+ miles.  That's true enough for most automatic transmissions, let alone the CR-despised Chrysler ones.

It's a 3.8. Also the interior is in great shape, something hard to find in a class of vehicle typically used for hauling children.

In reply to BlueInGreen44 :

Things I Wish People Had Told Me Before I Finally Figured It Out Myself #23:

The cowl unbolts and removes in about 10 minutes to make room to get at the spark plugs on the rear bank.

In reply to BlueInGreen44 :

the 3.8 is just a bored and stroked 3.3, still a fine motor.  However not much meat left in the cylinder walls for a rebuild if things get to that point...but youd have to run it out of oil to get there and or not run an air filter.  the 3.8 also gets a larger exhaust then a 3.3 & under vans.

my one 3.3 when I did the HGs at 201k the cylinder walls still had gorgeous crosshatching

Duke said:

In reply to BlueInGreen44 :

Things I Wish People Had Told Me Before I Finally Figured It Out Myself #23:

The cowl unbolts and removes in about 10 minutes to make room to get at the spark plugs on the rear bank.

WHAT ?

Doh !

Wish I would have known that.....

It is true. It's also possible to do it other ways depending on how thick your arms are and what sort of wobbly sockets/extensions/etc you own. The 01-07 used a different style intake manifold that made the 'reach around' technique easier.  

I have a 99 3.8 w /183k apart right now and it still has visible crosshatch.  I have said many times that the chrysler 3.3/3.8 is one of the most reliable engines in existence. 

The transmission in my parents' old '97 van made it to ~205k before it started to have issues when cold due to seal hardening. I did a soft-parts rebuild on it and it was still fine at 250k when they got rid of it.