scrOOge,
I am by no means an expert on Town & Country mini vans but I did own the same 88' Caravan for 12 years. It gave great service for 10 of those years but I always said that I would drive this thing until the wheels fall off. Well they finally did mediforicly speaking. The repairs became just too high to bear and I donated it to charity. By the way I did sell the wheels and tires for $275.00 the wheels were those gold color spoke wheels from a 95 Caravan the tires were Goodyear Eagles 15" with only about 2000 miles on them. I put the original wheels back on it with the same tires that I brought the first time I had changed them. I sold those wheels and tires because they would not fit my replacement van a 96 Chrysler Town & Country LXi with 16" wheels. It is with out a doubt the most comfortable and best riding mini van I have ever driven. Do these vans have problems; yes they do mine had a problem with the up shifting please read my post about it. Now that I have that solved I could not be happier. If you need to know what to expect from a T & C read all the posts on this sight I found them more than a little informing, also check out the Plymouth Voyager and the Dodge Caravan Forums. Remember all these posts are from real people who now own these vans or are people who know them. By all means you should check out this van on (
http://www.carfax.com) it will tell you the vans history and all of the recalls it had. Also get a good auto mechanic to check it out that way you will know just what to expect from “your van”. As you will see from reading the posts on the "Forums", not all of these vans are plagued with the same problems, it all depends on the way it was maintained. After all you are buying a used vehicle and maintenance is always key. It is always a good idea to have any car totally serviced after buying it that is all fluids and belts, filters, trans and tune-up that way you will know that you have done all that can be done to prolong the life of your "new to you" Town & Country. I personally love these vans and I believe that they are with out a doubt the most versatile vehicles on the rode today. Forget about the SUV I have never gotten stuck with my front wheel drive and try to put seven people in a SUV or 10 sheets of 4' x 8' x 3/4" plywood in any SUV. My T & C handles much better than most any SUVs because it is not top heavy it can really take a corner. If you really need a 4x4 get an AWD. Happy Motoring , digimon