Model years Dodge Grand Caravan
2014 Dodge Grand Caravan
This year drew an ordinary 357 complaints for a Dodge Grand Caravan — the model's median is 469. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.5% of them mention headrest, against 8.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Dodge Grand Caravan, which began in 2008. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 357 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 469 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 13 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headrest — 25.5% of this year's complaints, against 8.9% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: headrest, deployed, headrest deployed, side headrest.
- plastic — 8.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (6.3×). Owners wrote it as: plastic, engine oil, oil leak.
- filter — 6.7% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (7.9×). Owners wrote it as: filter, housing, oil filter, filter housing.
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
The passenger side headrest just exploded. It turns out that this is a safety feature that deployed on its own as part of the housing that holds the unit together just apparently broke. Had someone been sitting there, this would have blasted them in the back o…
DRIVER'S HEADREST DEPLOYED DUE TO THE PLASTIC THAT HOLDS A PIN BROKE INTERNALLY. THIS SPRING LOADED SYSTEM APPARENTLY HAD ENOUGH TENSION THAT IT BROKE THE PLASTIC. MY VEHICLE WAS STATIONARY AND UNOCCUPIED AT THE TIME. IF I HAD BEEN SITTING IN THE VEHICLE MY NE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 17V824000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 14V234000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V044000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 14V632000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 25V876000 EQUIPMENT ADAPTIVE/MOBILITY Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Dodge Grand 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 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…