They're crap.
OK, to be fair, we had an '88 that we drove to 204K miles before it cracked a head. We got a lot of great use out of that van. But, we had to have the heads worked on for $1,200 and replace a transmission at $3K in order to get that - and that was a very basic model without rear a/c, lots of electronics, etc. So then, because we were in a pinch (had to have a minivan but there still wasn't a lot of competition), we bought a '96 in '98. That thing wore me out. Before we finally dumped it, we had to replace all a/c components front and rear, timing chain (since when do
chains go bad?), plus a host of little nitpicky things that should never break on any car. I'm talking THOUSANDS of dollars' worth of repairs just to keep it going during the first 4-5 years of its life.
I'll never forget, right after buying the '96, I took it over to a major Chrysler dealer in KC to have the tranny flushed. There was a mechanic in the waiting room eating his lunch when I arrived. He overheard me telling them what I wanted done. After I gave them the keys and sat down, he said, "How many miles are on that van?" I replied, "34,000." To which he said, "You won't get another year out of that transmission." The parts manager overheard all this and chimed in, "Yeah - I order in about 25 of those transmissions every WEEK."
The '96 had a TON of power and was incredibly comfortable. I've always said, if ChryCo could build the rest of the car the way they build engines, they'd be unbeatable. For us, Honda has been the answer. Our '03 Odyssey tranny failed, long out of warranty, and Honda still paid every dime of the replacement and for our rental car while we were without it. Chrysler would have tried to blame me for it. Now we're in an '07 Ody and loving it.
Anyway... I didn't mean to derail the thread... just responding to the query
.
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