Re:The Death of the Minivan
by jakedata on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @04:37PM
(#41713834)
The Grand Caravan (not the Pacifica) is an extremely sorted-out vehicle. I bought a 2019 which was supposed to be the last model year, but they had enough demand to continue manufacturing them in 2020. Ultimately it was uneconomical to bring them into compliance with current regs so that was the end of the line for them.
It has exciting features such as physical buttons on the dash, remote start on the fob, a touchscreen only for the Garmin navigation system (no subscription needed) and seats that fold flat into the floor. The 3.6L Pentastar engine is a workhorse and it tows like crazy. Traction control and ABS perform as expected. City MPG is lackluster but on the highway it does very well.
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I miss my T&C, the stow-and-go seating was probably the best feature I've ever owned in a car.
I do not miss the 3.6L Pentastar. I thought the rocker arm ticking would eventually kill the engine but the electrical system took care of that way ahead of time. (Buy a refurbished TIPM while they're still available). I see people around me proudly driving their tricked out Grand Cherokees and all I can think is "you got screwed".
Apparently they can haul 50+ sheets of 4x8 plywood with the door closed (and without removing the seats).
Whoa. That's ~3000 pounds.
If it's 50 sheets of 1/8" balsa wood, it's about 166 lbs.
If it's 50 sheets of 1.25" lignum vitae, it's about 13,100 lbs.
3000 lbs seems like a reasonable estimate.
Is it?
How heavy is a sheet of unspecified plywood?
1 1/8” Plywood - 85 lbs
3/4” Plywood - 61 lbs
5/8” Plywood - 50 lbs
1/2” Plywood - 41 lbs
3/8” Plywood - 36 lbs
1/4” Plywood - 22 lbs
about 50
Re:The Death of the Minivan
by potato3732842 on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @08:40AM
(#41719939)
Old boring uncool platforms that no engineer or middle managing bean counter with career ambitions wants anything to do with are always the most sorted because they're generally free of self interested parties trying to screw with them to the detriment of the overall result.