By Cars.com Staff
Cars.com National December 21, 2010Vehicle Overview
Dodge overhauled its Grand Caravan minivan for 2011, giving it a vastly nicer interior, improvements to its Stow 'n Go seating and a new V-6 engine. With room for seven in three rows of seats, the Grand Caravan competes against the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna, and it's related to the Chrysler Town & Country.
Exterior
You have to hand it to Dodge for making a minivan look aggressive. The 2011 Grand Caravan gains a new crosshair grille, new headlights and a new front bumper that give the minivan quite a bit more road presence than its predecessor. Subtle trim and taillight revisions highlight the changes at the back of the van. Other exterior features include:
- Standard 16-inch steel wheels with covers; 16- or 17-inch aluminum rims optional
- Standard dual manual-sliding side doors; power-sliding doors optional
- Standard heated side mirrors
- Optional fog lights
- Optional power liftgate
- Optional rain-sensing windshield wipers
Interior
The Grand Caravan's new dashboard wouldn't be out of place in a luxury car. It features premium, low-gloss materials and mostly good fit-and-finish. Apart from a few things, like the airplane-style map lights that Dodge insists on using, the Grand Caravan has a top-rate minivan interior.
The standard Stow 'n Go second-row bucket seats gain a one-touch folding feature. Lift a lever, and the seat articulates forward and into a bin in the floor. You do have to move the front seats forward quite a bit to give the middle seats the clearance to tumble into the floor, but when you do, the one-touch lever makes the operation very simple. Other interior features include:
- Standard cloth upholstery; leather optional
- Standard tri-zone manual air conditioning; automatic air conditioning optional
- Standard cruise control
- Standard CD stereo with auxiliary input jack
- Standard tilt/telescoping steering wheel with audio controls
- Standard 60/40-split folding third row with tailgate-seating mode
- Optional heated front seats and steering wheel
- Optional heated second-row seats
- Optional remote start
- Optional second- and third-row retractable sunshades
- Optional touch-screen navigation system
- Optional backseat entertainment system with 9-inch screen
Under the Hood
Whereas the prior Grand Caravan was offered with a choice of three V-6 engines, all trim levels of the 2011 minivan are powered by a new 283-horsepower, 3.6-liter V-6, making 32 hp more than the most powerful V-6 available last year. The engine teams with a six-speed automatic transmission.
- Runs on regular gas
- Front-wheel drive
Safety
Safety features include:
- Standard all-disc antilock brakes
- Standard electronic stability system
- Standard side-impact airbags for the front seats
- Standard side curtain airbags for all three rows
- Standard active front head restraints
- Optional power-adjustable pedals
- Optional blind spot monitoring system
- Optional rear parking sensors
- Optional backup camera
Additional Reviews
Cars.com Expert Reviews
| David Thomas | Cars.com National | January 28, 2011 |
| Cars.com Staff | Cars.com National | December 21, 2010 |
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