Dodge Grand Caravan Will Live On At Least Until 2017
By Paulo Acoba
The Dodge Grand Caravan will continue until 2017…only for fleet sales though.
Car renters and fleet managers rejoice because the Dodge Caravan will live on for another few years according to an internal document from Fiat Chrysler that Auto News procured earlier yesterday ( June. 22, 2015.) Soccer moms and dads who have no choice but to buy a minivan all wept just a little bit earlier last year when it was revealed that the Dodge Caravan would be axed in favor of its more expensive cousin, the Chrysler Town & Country. But according to that internal document, “the 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan will commence production in August 2015 and end production next year.” That means people will still be employed, that German tourist family that wants to trek it up to Yosemite can still rent a Grand Caravan and most importantly, that sweet Pentastar V6 will soldier on.
"“While we’ve announced the Grand Caravan will eventually be the minivan that goes away, we’re not going into more detail at this time.”"
Even though the Grand Caravan hasn’t received much of a major refresh since 2011 when Dodge totally revamped the suspension for better handling and engine choices down to arguably one of the best engines to come out of Dodge, the Pentastar V6 (280 HP and 260 lbs-ft of torque), FCA has no plans whatsoever of improving this current generation Grand Caravan for fleet sales.
This news does give some hope to those working on the Grand Caravan’s factory floor, but the whole plan to axe the Grand Caravan eventually down the line flies in the face of common sense. Just last year Dodge sold over 184,000 Dodge Caravans in the United States and Canada combined. Part of those sales was thanks to an initiative in 2014 to introduce the Value Package which got customers in a brand new Grand Caravan for less than $22,000. We’re glad to hear that the Grand Caravan will be making it into fleet sales, but we seriously question the leadership at FCA that decided to end such a great product in their portfolio. Check out this 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T walkaround courtesy of AutoNetwork below.