Dodge Caravan

Which Dodge Caravan years should you avoid?

Going by 10,047 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Dodge Caravan years to avoid are 1996, 1993, 1992, 1997 and 1994.

• 19961,403 complaints, 4.8× a typical Caravan year, most often about the airbags.
• 1993949 complaints, 3.3× a typical Caravan year, most often about the brakes.
• 1992913 complaints, 3.1× a typical Caravan year, most often about the brakes.
• 1997714 complaints, 2.5× a typical Caravan year, most often about the airbags.
• 1994644 complaints, 2.2× a typical Caravan year, most often about the transmission.

2 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2011 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →