2005 Dodge Caravan Description
As long as there are sports cars, there will be Ferraris, and as long as there are economy cars there will be Hondas. Those two makes have defines their genres for so long -- even helped to create them in the modern sense -- that there's almost no separating the make from the niche. So, in that vein: as long as there are minivans, there will be Dodge Caravans. The Caravan has defined its genre since the market existed, and there's no reason to imagine it won't see it through to the end.
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The Last K-Car Fighter
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If you were on the road in the 1980s, it was hard to avoid Chrysler K cars. The K-Car chassis was revolutionary in its own time because Chrysler designed it to be scalable to different sized cars, functional to underpin practically every car it built and modular enough to play host to almost every non-V-8 engine on offer at the time. The first-generation -- 1984 to 1990 -- Caravan sat on a minivan-specific K-Car derivative called the S-Platform. The second-gen rested atop the modified AS platform, and the third and fourth on the NS and RS platforms, respectively. While they were all somewhat different, all were essentially evolutions of the original K-Car. So, the fourth-generation -- 2001 to 2007 -- RS-platform Caravan might rightfully be called the last of the K-Cars.
Powertrain
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Dodge offered the Caravan in three trim levels: base SE, CV cargo van and SXT. The base-model SE was the only one offered with Chrysler's 2.4-liter four-cylinder -- which is probably a good thing. With 150 horses at 5,200 rpm and 167 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 rpm, the four-cylinder struggled to move the Caravan's mass. Upgrading from the thrashy four-cylinder, buyers could opt for the far more appropriate 3.3-liter Pentastar V-6. This engine produced 180 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and a much more effective 210 foot-pounds at 4,000 rpm. Power went through a four-speed automatic. Not helping the already laboring four-cylinder were long 2.6-to-1 rear-end gears; V-6 models got sportier 3.62 gears that helped to get the Caravan off the line a bit quicker.
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Dimensions
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One interesting fact about the Caravan is that it's one of the few vehicles on the road offered with four different seating capacities; it could seat two, four, five or seven people, depending on specification. External dimensions remained consistent, though. The Caravan measured 189.1 inches long, 78.6 inches wide and 68.9 inches tall, and had 5.6 inches of ground clearance. It used a 113.3-inch wheelbase, 63-inch front track and 64-inch rear track width. Aerodynamic drag coefficient was a fairly slick 0.35. Four-cylinder models weighed in at about 3,862 pounds, and V-6 models put about 3,908 pounds of mass to the tires.
Consumer Data
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The Caravan has always been a kind of do-it-all automobile, serving double-duty for many purposes. Its 1,800-pound towing capacity was enough to tow a good-sized boat or small camper trailer, and a 1,700-pound payload capacity meant that the Caravan could match Ford's F-150 for cement-hauling capability. That's pretty impressive considering the fact that the Caravan's 17 city and 24 highway mpg easily decimated the V-6 F-150's 14 city and 18 highway. Four-cylinder buyers, though, just couldn't catch a break; the underpowered 2.4-liter got exactly the same fuel economy as its 3.3-liter V-6 brother. As of 2013, you can pick up a good 2005 Caravan for $5,000 to $6,800 depending on trim level, engine choice and which of the plethora of options it came with.
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