I Love This Minivan!

As we faced numerous repair bills on our old car we decided to trade it in on a 2006 Dodge Caravan. We researched several makes of minivans and SUV's, and even went to look at the Honda Odyssey (too much money) and Chevy Suburbans (bad gas mileage). We like to keep our cars for a long time so this was a major decision.

There were several factors that sold us on the 2006 Dodge Caravan. After watching my sister yank out her van seats in the 70's whenever she needed extra cargo room, I was sold on the Stow and Go seating. It folds flat and provides awesome storage space when the seats are up. I can easily change from hauling large items to include large panels of wood to complete twin bed sets, to setting the seats up to pick kids up from school within a minute. The capacity is awesome, you can haul just about anything in this that a mom can imagine, I hauled a large sofa to the dump the other day!

Another awesome feature are the automatic side doors, with the push of a button on your car key or from inside, the doors open. No dropping what you're carrying to fight with a van door or getting out in the rain to open a door. And if you don't get the sliding door closed on the first shot, you don't have to keep trying...the mechanism on the door automatically shuts it completely (the sound it makes is rather annoying, sounds like a kid playing with an old-time record turntable).

There are a couple of issues, you have to make sure the driver and front passenger seat are moved all the way forward before stowing the second row seats (just annoying when you forget but tolerable). Also, when I only had about 5,000 miles on it I had to call AAA to jump start my dead battery - the excessive electronics drain the battery, especially when you have little kids who like to open and close doors when the engine is off). Another minor annoyance: if you do not shut your headlights off before shutting the engine off, the stay on for awhile. These complaints are minor compared to everything else you get.

Overall, it's roomy, it fits my 4 kids and their junk, lots of storage (I recommend the Grand Caravan, it has a longer base providing more room in the back) and the SXT model with the larger 3.6L engine is perfect. There is a model above this one, just has more bells and whistles such as automatic back door opener, adjustable foot pedals and DVD player. But with a console that tells the outdoor temperature and your miles-per-gallon, CD and Cassette Player, and more outlets than you can imagine (4 or 5, I think?) the SXT has everything I need.