12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Works better than I thought.
Date of Review: Jan 18, 2006
The Bottom Line: Not as good looking inside as the Honda. But this is a real family friendly van that will do anything you bought a minivan to do, at a good price.
I've owned a lot of Chrysler products over my life time and have had good and bad experiences with them. But I must say, I am pleasantly surprised with this minivan.
I have owned it now for 13 months and so far, haven't had a thing go wrong with it. That surprises me with all the electrical items in this van. It has power everything. Still, I would advise anyone buying one to get the extended warranty. You'll have all those power items covered for 7/7,000,including engine and tranny. And the warranty also covers road side service, which if you got it from AAA, they would charge you about 80% over seven years for road side service, of what an extended warranty costs and the extended warranty has roadside service with it.
I won't go over all the things the SXT has on it, that is easily seen on the window sticker. But I will say this, the Dodge GC is a very family friendly van. If your just looking for a people hauler, I would go for the Honda Odyssey. It has more features and is nicer looking inside. Although you will pay for all those extra features.
The Dodge G.C. is great for families that have kids and carry all the things kids or mothers carry. Or if your the kind of person that uses his/her van for hauling more than people. The stow-n-go seats are a brilliant idea. They make it so easy to carry just about anything and also helps to keep your van nice and clean by giving you the extra storage bins that the second row seats would fold into. Do you have diaper bags, blankets, ball gloves or tennis racket? Put them in the bins and people will never be able to see them. I keep tools, flash light, tape, battery cables, storage pad and a can of fix a flat in one of mine.
I usually keep one middle seat folded into the floor and keep the other middle seat up. It gives me so much more room to put big things in the side door than lifting them up to put them in the rear hatch. You can put things like a wagon, stroller or an air compressor, easily in the side door with one seat stowed.
I also love the way the side sliding doors work. They are both powered, but will open or close manually, very easily. It's nice to know if years down the road, after the warranty runs out, the motor quits and you don't have money to fix it, they still will open or close with ease manually.
Even after a year, my Dodge has no rattles or wind noise. It has a smooth quiet ride and a pretty good radio, CD/ cassette
I was especially pleased with the A/C on this van. It has front and back a/c with separate controls for driver/passenger. I live in Arizona where the temperature can get up to 100-120 degrees in the summer and the A/C did the job. That really surprised me with all the space it has to cool. My truck didn't cool as well.
The van has four wheel power disc, anti lock breaks, which does a good job of stopping, much better than my truck did.
The deep well inside the rear power hatch is also convenient for going grocery shopping. Helps keep bags from turning over and food rolling down the floor in case of a hard stop.
Just to update you on my minivan.
I have now owned it for 22 months and it it is still problem free. Really amazes me with all the electric things on this van.
After a few trips, I am getting just short of 24 MPG on the highway and around 17 in town. The 2.8 has plenty of power in the mountains.
The A/C/ is still working great in these very hot Arizona summers.
CarsBelowInvoic e
CarsBelowInvoic e
