96 Grand Caravan revving at high RPMs

[aroundfam]

HI. This is my first post here and my problem is straightforward and hopefully the issue can be identified easily.

This started last week after having the car for about 4 months now with no problems. The first instance of the problem came when I was driving home and suddenly the car did something similar to dropping into a low gear suddenly, stalling the car but not stopping. I immediately pulled off the road fearing the car would just stop.

I turned the car off and turned it back on and continued driving home. I noticed that the car was not driving as efficiently as before. It seemed to rev a little more than usually necessary to acheive the same speeds. Not something unbearable, but not as it usually ran.

Since I have an overhead MPG display I have been checking and noticed that indeed, the car was reving more, i.e., it was running at a much lower gas mpg than usual.

Now, every time the car starts it does a little stall and runs with no other problems once it seems to be warmed up. But when I reach speeds of 50mph+ it seems to be reving at RPMS above 4000 and doesn't come down. There is not noticeable changing of gears. In other words, it's reving very high on highway speeds and seems extremely under powered.

Like running in 3rd to 4th gear on a manual transmission without ever reaching the highest gear.

Any ideas what this may be? I am not a native Miami resident and haven't needed a mechanic until now. I will want to have an idea before simply handing my car over to a stranger.

Thanks in advance!

[capoeta]

no engine light on or anything? have you tried to see if any codes are stored? any irratice idling?

[slantsixness]

Sounds Like the transmission, or maybe the speed sensor.