[thatguitarguy]

I don't have a scanguage, and I won't be getting one for this vehicle. It has a gauge and not a light, so actual temp is pretty irrelevant. Relative temp is what I need to know and I can tell from the "guess gauge" what is hot and what is too hot. It does have a trip computer that monitors average mpg and current mpg, and that's all I want for right now. It has helped me to change my driving style and eek out better than 27mpg average. It will never be a 60mpg hypermiler, but I am trying for 30mpg. But when I have 60-70 miles of pure uphill ahead of me I don't need redundant gauges telling me that I'm getting single digit mpg. I do work to keep it in the double digits, but it's not worth slowing down to 30 mph and becoming a hazard on the interstate in order to save a few pennies worth of gas. It's about balance. I did reset the computer before I left, and by the time I got to Leadville I had averaged 21.6 mpg on the way up. It may not sound very good, but for that much climbing, I felt pretty good about it. Of course it went way up on the downhill loop, and that is where the benefits of an exterior grill block come into play.

Before this 98, I had a 94 Caravan which was closer in design to the 90. It never overheated, but sometimes on those long climbs it would get up there. The 98 is a pretty modified design all the way around, and before this, I never saw the gauge get that high. I think stylistically the 98 T&C has a bigger open grill than the Caravan, but it is pretty easy to block.