just upgraded from a 96 to an 06 Grand Caravan this winter. This one has 'traction control'
pretty sure I know what it does...have seen it kick in in the snowy situations we have here... the little indicator comes on and all..

question is... I noticed the switch on the column to turn i off...

in the fair weather months should I turn it off?.. would I be saving anything like gas mileage or some kind of wear and tear?

...and if not, why is there a switch to turn it off?

 

The only reason I could see for turning the TC off would be if for example you were stuck in the snow and wanted to spin your wheels to help free yourself. Turning off the switch just deactivates the feature and wouldn't change anything while driving down the road normally. Also deactivated it in a mustang once to be able to smoke the tires, but i'm guessing that's not something you'd want to do in a minivan. But maybe i'm wrong..

 

It won't do anything for mileage but sometimes you need to turn it off on a real slippery surface.
Personally I hate traction control...