Three Hundred Thousand And Counting: 2001 Toyota Tundra vs 2015 Dodge Grand Caravan

Good morning! Since we did cars with really low mileage yesterday, I thought today we’d go the other way, and look at a couple of vehicles with a crap-ton of miles on them, well over 300,000 each. Even more astounding, they’re both one-owner vehicles.

I feel like I accomplished something important yesterday: I got you all to vote for a K car over a Cadillac. All it took was a busted TH440-T4 and a set of cheesy eBay LED headlights. I get the feeling you were right about the Caddy–someone’s grandson already got their hands on it, did a bunch of stupid things to it, and now is trying to make a quick buck off it. The Reliant is a lot more honest car.

Me, I actually like K cars, so this is an easy choice. Besides, I’ve already owned a FWD Cadillac, and as nice as it was to drive on the highway, it was an absolute nightmare to do any repairs on. I’ll never touch another transverse V8 unless it’s behind the seats of a Ferrari– which probably means I’ll never touch another transverse V8.

I’ve always admired people who can buy a new car, drive it for years and years, rack up a ton of miles, and take care of it. I set out to do it once, with a brand-new Mazda Protege, but after four years and 70,000 miles, circumstances changed, and I traded it in on something else. The original owners of these two made it quite a bit longer, and took good enough care of them that they both still run and drive fine. Let’s check them out.

2001 Toyota Tundra DX – $3,800

Engine/drivetrain: 3.4-liter dual overhead cam V6, four-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Burbank, CA

Odometer reading: 342,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

For decades, American automakers had one vehicle market all to themselves: full-size trucks. That all changed in the mid-1990s, when Toyota introduced the T100, which was basically a scaled-up version of its popular small truck. The T100 was successful, but hampered by the fact that it wasn’t quite as big as domestic offerings, it offered only a six-cylinder engine, and it was manufactured in Japan and therefore subject to the 25% “chicken tax” tariff on imported trucks. Toyota replaced the T100 in 1999 with the Tundra, which was larger, available with a V8 engine, and built in the US–which meant no tariff.

This Tundra doesn’t have the V8; it has the base engine, a 3.4 liter V6 that was also used in the contemporary 4Runner. It makes 190 horsepower, plenty for a work truck, and drives the rear wheels through a four-speed automatic transmission. It’s a good durable powertrain, as witnessed by this truck’s 342,000 miles. It runs and drives just fine, though it does leak some oil from the oil pan gasket.

It’s a single cab with a bench seat, like a good truck should be. All those miles are hard on interior parts, but apart from the driver’s end of the seat, this one actually looks pretty good. You’d have to sit in the seat to know how much padding is left in it, but it looks promising. It has air conditioning, and the seller says it works fine.

It’s honestly scruffy on the outside, with all the little dings and scrapes that a truck incurs naturally while earning its keep. It has a tonneau cover over the bed, which can either be a help or a hindrance, depending on the load you intend to haul. It’s easy enough to remove if you don’t need it. It has cheesy plastic hubcaps, but behind them are four new Yokohama tires, a nice bonus.

2015 Dodge Grand Caravan – $2,000

Engine/drivetrain: 3.6-liter dual overhead cam V6, six-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Niles, IL

Odometer reading: 370,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives, I think

Three hundred and forty thousand miles over the course of twenty-four years is impressive, but it’s just a natural result of a durable vehicle being used regularly for a long time. But here we have a vehicle that has racked up even more miles in less than half the time. Somebody spent a lot of time in the driver’s seat of this van over the past decade.

This is the Dodge Caravan in its final form, offered only in long-wheelbase size and with only one drivetrain: Chrysler’s 3.6-liter “Pentastar” V6 and a six-speed automatic transmission. This engine has a hit-or-miss reliability record, but it sounds like failures happen early on if they happen at all, and the ones that don’t fail run forever. 370,000 miles isn’t forever, but it is a hell of a life for an engine, and it sounds like this one isn’t done yet. It’s a little hard to ascertain its condition because the ad reads like a bad imitation of a William Carlos Williams poem, but they don’t say it doesn’t run, so I’m going to assume it does.

We only get this one photo of the inside, and it’s not much to go on. It looks worn, as you’d expect, but not abused. These vans have one design feature I always thought was cool: the gearshift lever comes out of the dash, to the right of the steering wheel, like the old A-series Dodge vans of the ’60s. It’s a little thing, but anything you can do to make a minivan more interesting helps.

These last few years of Caravans seem to have been available in any color you wanted as long as it was white. I’ve probably seen other colors, but if so, I sure don’t remember. It’s a little scruffy and banged-up here and there, but not too bad considering the mileage. It is an Illinois car, which means you should check underneath and make sure the road salt hasn’t done a number on it.

Both of these sellers got their money’s worth out of these vehicles, no doubt about that. But it also begs the question: why sell them now? Is it just a desire for a change, finally? Or is there some impending failure they’re avoiding by jumping ship before it happens? A careful inspection is always a good idea, but with cars with this many miles, it seems especially important. Providing they both check out, which one are you going for: the Toyota truck, or the Dodge van for about half the price?