My Dodge Caravan has a range of only 200 miles. Does anyone know the exact size of its fuel tank, and why Chrysler gave a vehicle such a minuscule range?
The spec lists the capacity at 15 gallons, and the mileage specs are given as 20/23 for an automatic, and 21/28 for a manual, and listed mileage specs are usually higher than what people actually get. Doesn’t seem so much as it’s the size of the fuel tank but the poor mileage. Fuel tanks take up room, so although a 30 gallon tank would be nice, it still has to fit somewhere.
If I recall correctly, the newer Caravans have 20 gallon tanks. 15 gallon tank in an '88? Must be a misprint. I’ve driven it down to fumes and only managed to put in 11 gallons (as evidenced by the gasoline running out of the top).
How do you know you’ve driven it down to fumes (unless you’ve actually run out of gas)? If you’re going by the gas gauge, they’re often quite pessimistic. Apparently car companies often set them to hit the empty mark while there’s still a fair amount of gas, to give a safety margin to drivers.
By running out of gas.
I’ve got an 89 Caravan that gets 275 miles/tank, and it holds about 17 or 18 gallons.
YMMV 
My mom used to have a Plymouth Voyager ('88) and I believe she got a little more than 200 miles out of a tank. But not much more, IIRC. Of course, we never drove it until it ran out of gas, so if Santos is right (and I’m sure he is) then there might have been more gas in there than we anticipated.
My little '87 Dodge Colt is lucky to get 200 miles. I run it until the fuel gauge is almost at empty, or whenever it says 200 miles. Its tank holds about 9 gallons (a guestimate).
I suppose it’s possible that you’ve got a tank that tiny but I find it highly improbable simply for practical range reasons and the fact that the tank data listed for caravan models before and after it list approx 15 (older) -20 gallons (current) as the tank size range.
Forgot to add question - Was this some special economy model - maybe they figured the 50-60 lbs worth of fuel weight savings was worthwhile to meet some EPA spec.
It’s a base model Caravan. I’m going to drop the tank, to investigate this myself; I guess.