Okay, so I couldn't be more excited. I'm getting my first car passed down to me from my grandparents. They upgraded to an '08 Grand Caravan so they gave me their '95 Caravan. It appears to be in decent shape, although there is rust along the side-skirts. However, the problems are more internal. 1. The air conditioner has been fixed several times and again it doesn't work. 2. The radio doesn't work. Not really needed, but it picked an unfortunate time to quit working. 3. My grandpa said either the rear defroster or the rear window wiper has a short but he can't remember which one, so it's best I try not to use either. 4. There seems to be an issue with one of the brakes where after about ten minutes of city driving it produces a terrible odor. 5. It feels like it needs new struts because the ride is really rough.
Maybe I'm biased to point out the flaws so I have an excuse to buy something else, because it at least has a newer battery, newer tires, and newer brakes. I don't want to snub my grandparents by getting rid of it, but I don't really want to have to deal with all this extra stuff I would have to repair, and God only knows what will break next considering one of the belts was just replaced. Should I just fix it up as problems come up or should I save up to buy something more reliable?

 

can you afford a new car payment? or a Newer used car. If you trade it in for a Used car with age on it, you still have to do maintainence and repair.
you have to understand, the car is like 18 yrs old, and it doesn't really worth anything if you sell it. If it gets u from point A - B safely, it is a good car.

Ask your grand parents how much did the 2008 cost them, can you afford that?

the way I look at it, if it cost u less than $1000 a year to keep it safely on the road, it beats buying another car. Of course, I dont recommend taking it on road trip.

 

1. To see what the problem is with the A/C, you'll need someone to do a dye test to find the leak, assuming that a leak is the issue.
2. Any decent salvage yard will have a radio for probably $10.
3. You should ask your grandfather to see if he can help you out a little more by trying to remember where the issue is. The rear defroster isn't that big a deal. For that matter, neither is the rear wiper.
4. Bad caliper or collapsed brake hose are the likely culprits. Simple enough fix depending on your skills.
5. You haven't said how many miles on the van and what it's maintenance history is but struts are a definite possibility. You can remove the strut as an assembly and then have a shop disassemble it, install a new strut and mount. You will need an alignment.

 

+1 Steak59. Keep it and fix these MINOR problems. Probably couldn't afford a new car payment anyway. If you could, just save it up for a lower payment later.

 

I'd keep it, you know the issues already. Buying something else can be just a whole nother box of problems.

Besides vans can be cool, and the ultimate sleeper.

 

Thanks. I'll see if that is what is causing the brake issues.
I think it has something like 230,000 miles on it. It was a daily driver from 1995 to the spring of '09, so it's been used a lot, and it's been on a lot of road trips. What's weird is I thought the struts were replaced around 2005, yet the car bounces around so much, more than any car I've ever been in. It's very uncomfortable.