How shit are 3.3v6 grand voyagers?

[Lankytim]

Spotted one cheap, but with a bad oil leak. It's a mk1 2000 flavour. Google seems to love and hate them in equal measures. I know they're Frigging huge but are they horrid to live with?

[RichardK]

I'm about to pop out, but I'll give you the full rundown later. Short version:

They rust at the back end, more than the front.

They're robust, but small items of trim break easily.

They're a bastard to work on sometimes.

The transmission is the weak spot.

The engines aren't too bad on fuel (later ones are better).

They handle remarkably well and are easy to drive (soccer moms do it, so you can)

The instructions for changing the spark plugs start "first, remove the windscreen wipers".

 

I love 'em, but I'm a weirdo. And if you really want to live with it get an early 3rd Gen over late 2nd Gen, though the late second gen (Mk 2, not Mk 1 - Mk 1 is the one that looks like a Bedford CF with posh trim) does have that '90s Chrysler futurism thing going on.

 

Check the wiring loom near the gearbox. That's your first point of misery. Also some electronics are very exposed to rain. If it's weeping from the rocker covers though, aside from the faff of the layout, just sort it - IIRC they're tin, not cast, on that generation of V6.

[RichardK]

So much for the short version. Also check the front-rear heater pipes and A/C pipes.

[Ghosty]

Sounds like a lot of Labour.

 

 

http://iaindale.blogspot.co.uk/2007/05/blair-car-sells-for-4150-on-ebay.html

[Asimo]

They are great to ride around in. Really comfortable, really quiet. And proper spacious, as in 8 people and all the gear for a day at the beach, and a labrador.

My sis has had one from new - 15 years, and has only really had problems with the valve solenoid block on the autobox and the loom associated with it. Oh and the headlining has sagged but that might be a hot climate thing.

Thirsty of course, but worth it if you need the space!

[Lacquer Peel]

VM diesel or DEATH

[cort16]

-7 n cap rating

[Dirk Diggler]

VM diesel or DEATH

Death doesn't sound so bad with choices like that

[Lankytim]

This one is GAS POWERED. So I can give DERV a SWERVE

[Cavcraft]

Awful. The real awful, not the funny awful or the worth trying one out as a keeper for a while awful.

[cort16]

Parts are super expensive. 

[Dirk Diggler]

http://www.adverts.ie/car/ssangyong/rodius/2006-ssangyong-rodius/10994925

 

^^^^^^id rate that as a higher quality item

[taxi paul]

I did look at one once but bought a Kia Sedona, same seat layout. Nice cars but my missus liked the leather seats in the sedona. Not much help I know.

[DaveAspley]

Had a Dodge caravan 3.3 in 2004 as a florida hire car. Massive bag of shit

[RichardK]

-7 n cap rating

 

 

And yet, total horseshit, because Sweden's actual crash statistics show them to be one of the safest and most survivable vehicles!

[cort16]

But elk are so soft and fluffy to hit

[RichardK]

Had a Dodge caravan 3.3 in 2004 as a florida hire car. Massive bag of shit

 

American fleet market ones are genuinely made to a lower standard. Not kidding. I had a 10,000 mile Sebring that had balljoints worse than a 100,000 mile Fiat, and couldn't understand how a car of that design (folding hardtop, etc) could be so shit - that's why. They're made down to a price to last until the rental company ditches them.

 

I've had a 2002 GV Limited XS, and a couple of 2000-ish Mk 2s - the Mk 3 is MUCH better, but the Mk 2 had charm if you like high seating position, column shift and having no idea what the back of the car is doing.

 

Parts prices ARE crazy, but Rock Auto/Moog components on eBay make it tolerable unless it's trim.

[sierraman]

Awful in an accident. Short of the Rover 100 they performed particularly badly in the 1997 NCAP. That's almost 20 years ago, they aren't like fine wine, it won't have improved with age.

 

The Neon was similarly hopeless, I remember the write ups at the time were hopelessly optimistic but the figures didn't add up at 14k it was as dear as a Golf, badly finished and drank like a fish.

[R9UKE]

I had two.  The first was a £150 auction job with 3 months t&t.  R plate extra-HUGE Grand with the 3.3 V6.

 

They're so American you feel yourself gaining weight even before you've got home.  It was a spectacular thing despite never breaking 18 mpg, and they're a laughable 150bhp to boot.  It was faultless for those three months and I actually still see it about four years later.  It was miles better than my Espace V6 of the same era.

 

Stupidly I didn't let the glowing time I spent with that one be the end all, and I ruined it by buying another which tested the limits on my RAC membership.  To be fair, it had gotten to 180k miles with what didn't seem to be the most caring of owners.  It lost all power one night on a country road and the breakdown guy diagnosed it as HGF, which is apparently not unusual.  I put an ad up on Gumtree while he drove me home in a toasty RAC van after waiting two hours and three Poles bought it from the roadside where it had broken down later on that evening

[Lankytim]

May SWERVE it all together then.. I'm sorted motor wise but this was so cheap...

[andy18s]

I learnt how to J turn in 1 of these,thanks to the slick column change....

Nearly spilt all the beer out of the built in fridge though

[Junkman]

I had a succession of them during the 90s when I had my travelling circus. Mine were all 3.3 auto 4x4, a configuration that wasn't available from any other manufacturer at the time (petrol + auto + 4x4).

They ate gearboxes for breakfast. Neither ever needed a transmission oil change, they never lasted the interval. Despite the cars themselves were quite cleverly configured (the drawer underneath the passenger seat wasn't known by many customs officers) and quite well appointed, there never was a moment when everything actually worked at the same time, there was always something. Okay, apart from the frequent gearbox changes usually something minor, but in the sum still annoying nevertheless. However, they were a gigantic step up from those terminally hopeless CXes, so I was relatively passible at the time. One thing that made my piss boil, though, was that the wing mirrors wobbled like a cow tail at speeds over 90.

[RichardK]

The 4x4 is RARE in RHD, but was offered in Japan. Came close to nabbing one a few years ago, then panicked about parts costs and the fact that British 4x4 owners do not understand how to maintain the transfer boxes Chrysler used, so fit one new tyre when the rest are at 2mm then wonder why their Grand Cherokee is buggered (see also Freelander etc.)

[PiperCub]

The one time I spent five days driving one for an OB job at work  - I have never spent so much money on fuel in my life. Comfy bus though but I hear spares prices (an ex-gf of mine was unlucky enough to have a Neon) are frightening. 

[purplebargeken]

B in L in Germany had one. He hated it. The gearbox ate itself after only a short while. He went out and bought a new Galaxy and never did the Grand Voyager thing again.

[BorniteIdentity]

I'm not sure I'd put my family in one, and we're now into week three of the summer holidays and they're starting to get on my nerves.

 

I'm not hugely concerned about such things normally, but I think there are infinitely better options.

 

Autoshite without the 'e'.

[Junkman]

The 4x4 is RARE in RHD, but was offered in Japan. Came close to nabbing one a few years ago, then panicked about parts costs and the fact that British 4x4 owners do not understand how to maintain the transfer boxes Chrysler used, so fit one new tyre when the rest are at 2mm then wonder why their Grand Cherokee is buggered (see also Freelander etc.)

 

AFAIK the 4x4 Voyagers were built by Steyr-Puch in Graz (at least it said so on the chassis plates of mine) and did not use the New Process transfer case of the Cherokee.

They are some Steyr unit with permanent AWD, which are largely immune against tyres having more or less thread left.

What grenaded with remarkable frequency were the actual auto boxes, which were the same Mopar units as used in the 2WDs.

[RichardK]

If they're that tough, then an AWD Japanese Import Grand Voyager 3.8/3.3 is now back on the list over a Delica L400 again, should I ever need such a beast. I'd assumed some horrible viscous coupling thing. From memory the autoboxes are NAG-1, which is a Mercedes 722.6 which is probably someone else's thing somewhere, but has in common 'fussy as anything electrical bits', 'a float shutoff that doesn't like hot/foamy ATF action' and 'they said they're sealed for life when in fact they changed to a 40,000 mile ATF change interval (one of the shortest I can think of), and they need something better than Dexron II. And I'd put money on Chrysler inadequately cooling the transmission fluid, too, because Chrysler.

[cort1977]

Parts are super expensive. 

 

Might be cheaper from US suppliers e.g. Rockauto although not practical if you need it for family duties the next day.  

 

In summary, they're awful, thirsty, shoddily built beasts that will make you fat.   When are you picking it up?

[AMC Rebel]

Dunno what boxes Steyr-Puch were using, but they were building Grand Cherokee as well - the (RHD) one I had was built there in spite of seeming totally American.  The Cherry had loads of kit like like memory seats/mirrors/radio stations but every now again it would just forget the mirror settings.