2007 Dodge Caravan
This year drew an ordinary 82 complaints for a Dodge Caravan — the model's median is 78. What they were about is the unusual part: 11% of them mention don, against 3.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 82 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 78 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- don — 11% of this year's complaints, against 3.9% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: don, don know, road driving, check oil.
- refueling — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the model's other years (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: refueling, after refueling, minivan.
- panel — 9.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: panel, illuminated instrument, instrument panel, diagnostics.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
MINIVAN STALLS SOON AFTER REFUELING. THIS HAS HAPPENED SEVERAL TIMES, ALWAYS WITHIN 1/2 MILE FROM REFUELING.
WHILE PARKED, THE CONTACT NOTICED THAT THE AIR BAG LIGHT WAS ILLUMINATED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO THE DEALER FOR DIAGNOSTICS OR REPAIRS. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 78,000.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 08E048000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 07E104000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 10E034000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 08E039000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
How this was worked out
Every year of the Dodge Caravan was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2007 Dodge Caravan? What happened to yours?
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