What happened to the Caravan?
You mean the Dodge Grand Caravan?
Oh dear ... I got rid of it in 2008 ... Bought a Hyundai Trajet at that time. Got rid of it in 2014 after some corrosion showed up with expensive repairs. Got a Citroen C4 after that with a semi-automatic transmissionm that just blew when I was idling in front of a traffic light in 2016. Too expensive repair. Got a Hyundai Santa Fe 4x4 Automatic at that time, beautiful machine but then they changed exhaust laws for cars to some draconion and suddenly my annual road taxes were like 700 and something Euro a year. Then got a good deal on this Mercedes Viano ... it passed mandatory annual vehicle inspection without a single remark.
But the Caravan. An automatic. I took it in one day to change a muffler and they called from the garage saying there was something wrong with the transmission, the computer said so but I never noticed. They opened it and the transmission oil was black and burned. "What do you want us to do?" ... "Close the transmission againm add the oil, change the mufflers" ... it never functioned well after that. Didn't shift well, could not go faster than 30-40km/h ... Had the garage not opened it, nothing would have happened, they told they really did not have a trained technician for automatics. It was clear from the beginning should I go to court they would be the specialists ... unwinnable. Repair would cost over 5.000 Euro. I briefly considered shipping it to the USA, have the transmission rebuilt there and ship it back. I just decided to sell it to the first fool offering money, which is wht I did.
Them 13 years later, 2021 ... :-) ... I was talking with my son about cars and speed etc and het said "You know in 2008 I ran that Caravan at 220km/h, in the Ardennes, on the down slopes it accelerated very well. I carried stuff for a scoutcamp and you were not there" ... and suddenly the pieces of the puzzle fit ... 220km/h with a Caravan underpowered with a 2400cc engine?
My son ran it to smithereens ... of course the transmission burned ...
\%/@rd
--- DB4 - Jun 14 2021
* Origin: Hou het veilig, hou vol. Het komt allemaal weer goed (2:292/854)