Perfect Family Vehicle

My husband and I just bought a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan. I Love It!!!

We had a Chrysler Concorde. I've noticed that the Caravan drives exactly the same as the Concorde but I now have all the room that comes with having a van.

I was a little nervous about driving a vehicle that is SOOO BIG. I couldn't believe it when I found out that my Concorde was actually longer than the Caravan. The main difference is the height I now have a hatch back truck.

We have the model that comes with dual sliding doors. I had been advised by a couple of friends that I would need both side doors. They have older Caravans and they learned the hard way that it is a nuisance to have to go to the passenger side to load your children every time use go anywhere. I have noticed that I mainly use the sliding door on the driver side. I have my 3 year old walk across the van from my side and get in his seat as I buckle my 8 month old into his seat. Then I get in the driver seat and turn around briefly to buckle my older child.

The only extras I have are the power windows/locks & a 3.8L V6 engine. I honestly don't need anything else. I didn't get the built in child seats. I have friends that have the built in seats. They love having them but my older son and I were with one of them once and the van's battery went dead. It was parked in a tight parking spot at the mall and we could jump the battery. We had to get my husband to come and get us. We had been using the built in seats for both of our boys. We were lucky that my husband had two cars seats to throw into our old car to come rescue us. I feel safer knowing that I have removable seats just in case. I know I'm a worry wart but this is of course, just one person's opinion.

I've had people stop me and ask me questions about the van already and we haven't owned it very long. I tell them it's wonderful. My brother-in-law had his until it reached 120,000 miles at which point it totally died. I, myself, don't expect a car to make it much past 100,000 miles. Plus, I'll note that he and his family really USED their van and got the most out of it.

All and all, I Love My Van.