2003 Dodge Caravan — 3.8L V6

The 2003 Dodge Caravan records 195 complaints, 9 recalls, 1 investigation, and 70 TSBs, placing it in a clear downward arc of owner-reported issues that began after the mid-1990s peak (1,647 complaints in 1996) and continued through the early 2000s (526 in 2000, 260 in 2001, 256 in 2002). Compared to its immediate neighbors, 2003 is notably cleaner than 2002 across every category — fewer complaints, fewer recalls, and a sharp drop in investigations from 5 to 1 — and it outperforms the broader 1996–2000 stretch on nearly every metric, with recalls also well below the 15–16 issued during the 1996–1997 spike. The leading complaint clusters are steering (33), hydraulic service brakes (24), electrical system (15), and powertrain (13), with 13 crash-flagged and 5 fire-flagged complaints, but the data does not specify root causes for these categories. The 9 recalls still warrant pre-purchase verification, and the 70 TSBs suggest ongoing manufacturer attention to refinements even at this relatively quiet point in the generation. On balance, 2003 represents one of the stronger used-buy candidates within this generation's federal record — it sits near the low-complaint trough of the early-2000s arc and is a reasonable year to consider, provided the recall list and steering/brake items have been addressed.