Are these the new Chrysler minivans?**Updated again with real-life pics**

[SVT666]

How have Chrysler powertrains been faring recently?? My parents bought bought Chrysler minivans for years (late 80's to mid 90's) but got sick of dealing with problems that they developed.? They have a Chevy Venture right now, and before that had two Oldsmobile Silhouettes, which are all pretty nice vans IMO.? They are very comfortable and great highway vans.? They've piled the miles on with minimal problems too.? The Venture just had a wheel bearing replaced but it's got 75K miles on it (lots of trips taking kids and gear back and forth to university).

Chrysler powertrains have been great recently.  I can attest to mine being great anyway

My parents have a Pontiac Montana which they bought against my advice and are now regretting it.  Three exhaust manifolds and two intake manifolds in 5 years and now the climate controls have stopped working.  My dad asked me what was wrong with it and I told him it's a GM. 

[TheIntrepid]

What do they have to say about the powerplant? The 3.3L V6 - 180hp in the base Caravans right now just doesn't cut it. The 3.8L - 201 hp in the upper level Grand C and T&Cs would be a good base engine... maybe they could use the 4.0L in the Pacifica with 255-ish hp.

[The Pirate]

I don't care about power/speed in a minivan, I was just asking about reliability, which historically wasn't a strong point of the Chrysler minis.  My dad had several with engine/transmission problems.

[The Pirate]

Chrysler powertrains have been great recently.  I can attest to mine being great anyway

My parents have a Pontiac Montana which they bought against my advice and are now regretting it.  Three exhaust manifolds and two intake manifolds in 5 years and now the climate controls have stopped working.  My dad asked me what was wrong with it and I told him it's a GM. 

Re: the Montana, the GM 3.4 V6 had perpetual problems with the intake manifolds shitting the bed.  For some reason, none of my parent's vehicles ever suffered that problem, although my dad tends to dump them as soon as the extended warranty is gone.  I've not heard of exhaust manifold issues, but I don't doubt it. 

Cars in general seem to be hit or miss; I've had friends with Civics like mine who have had some problems with their cars.  I've been lucky in that regard, I've had virtually no problems.

[ChrisV]

I don't care about power/speed in a minivan, I was just asking about reliability, which historically wasn't a strong point of the Chrysler minis.  My dad had several with engine/transmission problems.

Chrysler minivans typically had problems with teh transmissions, and as it turns out, typically those issues stemmed from people, including dealerships, using the wrong tranny fluid in the transmissions, leading to early and repeated failures. Using the correnct fluids again and reflashing the computer corrected over 80% of the failures.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/trans-testimonials.html

[VetteZ06]

My dad asked me what was wrong with it and I told him it's a GM.?

Troll.

[Raghavan]

The interior is awesome, but where does the table go?

[the Teuton]

Chrysler powertrains have been great recently.? I can attest to mine being great anyway

My parents have a Pontiac Montana which they bought against my advice and are now regretting it.? Three exhaust manifolds and two intake manifolds in 5 years and now the climate controls have stopped working.? My dad asked me what was wrong with it and I told him it's a GM.?

My mom wanted a Venture, so I helped her find one, even after I saw all of the consumer reviews of it.  The good part about it is that is has done a great job of transporting things from organs (the musical kind, not the body part), to engines, to all of my college stuff, and it is comfortable and huge on the inside.  It also has some of the most responsive minivan steering I've ever driven, and it isn't that bad of a package.

But it is a nightmare.  The power sliding door doesn't work, the air condition has a leak in it, there are trim pieces falling off inside, there is rust on the right rear fender behind the door, the headlights suck, there's always the threat of the manifold gasket problem, the driver's side mirror doesn't move after I replaced it when a semi truck driver smashed the old one, and the OBD things at Autozone say that we have a transmission problem even though no one can find anything and shifts really well, so the Service light is still on.

So after that, hearing about the head gasket and transmission problems of the Windstar and the transmission problems of the Chryslers, I'm trying desperately to get my mom into something like a PT Cruiser or a Forester.  Anything just so long as it isn't a minivan.

So I'm kinda skeptical about any minivan reliability--even Honda's and Toyota's--at this point.

[Submariner]

The interior is awesome, but where does the table go?

Magic Gnomes come and make it invisible when not in use.

[IrishGuy]

That is a really nice interior - definitely one of the nicest in that segment...too bad the exterior is horrible.

[TheIntrepid]

Shit. There goes my plan to convince my parents to replace the Grand Caravan with a Quest 3.5SE when the lease is up.

[ifcar]

[TheIntrepid]

Ah so that's the Caravan. Does it have a short/long version like the current ones? I hope power StowNGo is available on the Caravan too.

[ro51092]

Grand Caliber?

[TheIntrepid]

[Catman]

Looks pretty nice.  I like the facing seats.  Nothing new though as conversion vans have had it for ions.

[TheIntrepid]

Looks pretty nice.  I like the facing seats.  Nothing new though as conversion vans have had it for ions.

and the Toyota Van LE of the '80s

[Catman]

and the Toyota Van LE of the '80s

That's right

[ifcar]

Looks pretty nice.  I like the facing seats.  Nothing new though as conversion vans have had it for ions.

Eons. 

[Catman]

Eons. 

Haha, damn automotive mind!

[Catman]

Fairly handsome actually.

[Raghavan]

They've gone from fugly to awkward i guess.

[ro51092]

Fairly handsome actually.

That reminds me of a VW Sharan

[TheIntrepid]

That reminds me of a VW Sharan

Really? How?

[Car Zeus]

I like the interior but the outside is fucking ugly.

[SVT666]

The more I look at it the less ugly it is becoming.  Catman, I never seen any of this in a minivan before.  Conversion vans don't count.

[TheIntrepid]

The more I look at it the less ugly it is becoming.  Catman, I never seen any of this in a minivan before.  Conversion vans don't count.

The turny seats? They were available in the Toyota Vans of the late '80s. I posted it before.

[The Pirate]

But that doesn't count because it was weird and ugly.

[TheIntrepid]

And this is different HOW?

[The Pirate]

The Chryslers aren't weird, just ugly.

It's an important distinction.