The Purchase

May 2003
In May of 2003, my wife and I were in the market for a new family vehicle. We had two young children (in car seats), we were hoping to have a third child, and my sister-in-law was living with us. So, of course, we started looking at mini-vans.

We checked out all the major manufacturers and came to the conclusion that we liked both the Dodge Grand Caravan and the Toyota Sienna. We really wanted leather seating and we loved the DVD player option available in both vehicles. However, getting a model with both of these options was considerably cheaper in the Caravan - approx. $45000 versus close to $58,000 (as I remember).

I have owed two Toyotas in the past - a 4Runner and a Celica. Both were absolutely amazing vehicles and I can't say enough good about either of them. I had never owned a Dodge (or any Daimler Chrysler vehicle) up until this point. I had heard all the stories about the quality of domestic vehicles versus imports, however I could not justify the extra $13000 in cost to get the Sienna. Besides... sure, Dodge might have some problems, but they can't be that bad. After all the Dodge Caravan was the first mini-van on the market and it is the best selling mini-van in North America (or so Daimler Chrysler claims).

So, I went ahead and leased the Dodge Grand Caravan ES - black exterior, leather seats, DVD player for the kids, tri-zone heating/cooling, the works. I was pretty happy. It was a sharp looking vehicle and it was actually quite a bit of fun to drive.

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