NOS 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan SE

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Kira

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Yesterday my friend's son drove 120 miles to fetch his brand new 2019 Dodge GC.
'Tis dark red with black cloth, steelies and the 62TE (I believe) transmission.
It's in front of his house with 210 miles on the odo.
It's got the 3.6l V6. I read every one got the same powertrain.

Does anyone know of any weak points of this vehicle?
We must find the build date. HORRORS- the FF could be "2 years old".
I wonder why it didn't sell....sure hope it wasn't flooded in storage.

His Dad said he bought an 8 year bumper-to-bumper warranty. A warranty is only as good as the company behind it...so there's that.

If anyone has any pearls of wisdom to share, I'd like to string a few together and tell him.

I saw an air pump in the exhaust/emissions section in the RA catalog. Is this to light up the cats? Are there potential condensation problems via a sticky check valve like on some Volvos and VW's? With those cars it was recommended to drill a small drain hole in the fan housing's bottom-most point.

Anyone discover a good Dodge owners club?
TIA
 
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I have a 2015 grand caravan. Some of the earlier issues were poor front brakes, oil filter housings that cracked and bad heads on engines.

These design issues have been addressed. There are also some Pentastar engines that have rocker arm issues (but that is usually on high mileage engines).

I would leave the FF for at least 2000 miles then dump it. On mine the first oil filter had some metal flakes in it from the break in period.

The only issues I've had with mine is a bad fuel cap and bled door actuator that acts up periodically. Good thing with these vans is that they sold tons of them, so there is a lot of support online for servicing them. Pick and pulls have a lot of parts too when the time comes.
 
Consumer Reports will be the first place to go for reliability information. However, the vehicle is covered under the new vehicle warranty and your friend/son is purchasing an extended warranty as well.

If your friends son is buying from a new vehicle Dodge dealership and the van is a brand new '19 still on the lot, I doubt it was flooded. If it were, the dealer would have to salvage the vehicle OR there will be[WILL BE]a HUGE law suit in store for them.

I've seen brand new vehicles not selling(~2 yrs old) on dealer lots and IDKY either. This is to be kept in mind for the buyer as the vehicle will be 2 years old as soon as it's driven off the dealer lot.
 
The Pentastar/62TE combo is pretty well regarded around here. Regular fluid changes in both will ensure a long life. (careful not to over-torque the oil filter cap!)
One of the nice things about a 2019 Grand Caravan is the model is at the end of its production life. Countless units have been produced and abused in real world situations, so there is a plethora of information available when problems do arise. If anything does malfunction on the vehicle, rest assured that you are not the first person to tackle that challenge.
Congrats to the friends son on the purchase, hope it gives him many years of service.
 
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My parents have one and the key fob is acting up as the contacts are going bad causing erratic behavior.
 
Heads way back in the day (2012-2014) had a valve guide wear issue but we fixed that (ex-pentastar engineer here). Oil filter housings were also an issue but again corrective actions have been in place for sometime. In general it's a really good setup if you take care of it.
 
OIL_UDDER said:
Heads way back in the day (2012-2014) had a valve guide wear issue but we fixed that (ex-pentastar engineer here). Oil filter housings were also an issue but again corrective actions have been in place for sometime. In general it's a really good setup if you take care of it.
Click to expand...

So 2015+ Pentastars have all of the bugs worked out? 2014 is still iffy?
 
I just sent the lad's parents and siblings the Mopar (no funky M key on my computer) part numbers for mud flaps as a Christmas gift suggestion.
 
Keep in mind that same basic powertrain combo is used in the Promaster commercial van line you see in use everywhere today.

Our 2013 Dodge grand caravan was my favorite and least troublesome of the minivans we owned.
 
Not a bad deal for a brand new car with the lower new-car interest rate (if financing), and the warranty starts from the date of purchase, so he has awhile to not worry about anything :)
 
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