2003 Chevrolet Venture Overview, Reviews, Ratings & Specs

Harvey Mushman on May 19, 2022

I have had my 2003 Chevy Venture LS for over 2 years now here in May ,2022. I bought it on the internet in the USA while I was in Europe for $2,000 she now has 202,500 miles on her. She has been a fantastic used Van. There are several minor things you might need to look at.One was the brake lights heating up and burning out...easy fix...use LED bulbs...No heat..no burn out...Headlight housings are made of cheap plastic and so are all the replacement ones they will all cloud up and get dull..No need to try any sprays or whatever to protect new ones it won't work..try and clean up old ones is the best you can do...LED's work great there too might have to re aim them...front blinkers to should be changed to LED no heat low power draw..They will blink faster but no big deal don't mess with fixing that...have the oil changed every 3 thou and it should last you a long time. I am surprised how fast she can get going and I have her loaded up all the time...get's 20 mpg and better with a heavy load..Prices for these and all have gone crazy the world has gone crazy...if you can find a clean one that has been taken care of for under 3...4 thou and under 100 thou miles buy her.... I would...

Shirley Scott on April 8, 2022

I purchased this vehicle used in 2019. It was owned by the bank my brother worked at & they took very good care of it/maintenance. It has 153,000 miles on it and the only thing I have had done on it is change the oil & bought new tires, and air conditioning/heater filters. It is 19 years old and very reliable, drives great.

Lizbeth on March 3, 2018

Is a good and confort for all members of the family because have a seet for little child and the hot and cold air is perfect

chyde on July 8, 2017

We owned this van for approximately 2 months total. It was a great van, drove well, handled well but I am used to driving a Sedona. The thing that I noted was that the headlights are a little weak by design and area but maybe that was just a needed adjustment that was never made.

Boneguru on April 16, 2017

The stigma of a minivan was difficult for me to overcome. This car made it happen. It has made moving an average family with dogs and many add on needs more than comfortable and has, with regular maintenance and little difficulty, a daily breeze.

STLDrew on March 16, 2017

So I have had a 2003 Venture LS LWB for about a year now. We bought it used with 143,000, and to date, we're at about 158,000 miles on it. The previous owner had abused it, but as with most GM cars I've owned it was pretty forgiving, considering how badly it was treated. The transmission fluid looked like used oil and smelled like burnt toast so strong you could smell it as soon as you removed the dipstick. Because of that the transmission sometimes slips at take off but shifts fine otherwise. My wife drives it daily and we use it to travel with the family 3-4 times a year and never think twice about it. Some issues that it has that I can't blame on the previous owners are there are some easy to fix electrical issues. The parts supplier for this van made sub-par light sockets for the front turn signals and the rear brake lights. Because of this the brake lights burn out allot, and when they do the cruise control doesn't work. However it's a simple fix. I went on rock auto and for about $20 I ordered new sockets for both left and right assemblies. Changing them out is no big deal since you have to take them out to change the bulb so if you can do that you can fix the problem for good, in about 20 min. The front turn signal sockets were also bad. They would get hot and blow out the bulbs the same way, although mine took it a step further and melted the light housing. Not as easy to fix as, the new sockets have to be spliced into the old wires, but if you've every hooked up speakers you can do this too. Now on to the good. The van even with the previously mentioned transmission abuse, has quite a bit of pep, for a minivan. On the highway it rides smoother than our Town and Country that it replaced, and gets slightly better mileage too. The 25 Gallon Tank cost a bit more to fill up but really makes it easy on long trips than some Vans with 17-20 Gallon tanks. Radio has nice sound even with 14 year old speakers, on an almost base model vehicle. It also has speed compensated volume, which is nice. Although there isn't a huge amount of road noise in ours anyway. Seats are comfortable, even in the back. The Third row Seat folds nicely into the floor and we have the optional cargo area bin that when the seats are folded makes it a seamless flat load floor all the way to the second row. The second row seats don't fold into the floor but are light weight, but to be honest we've never needed them out since it's a family car there is normally booster seats sitting there.

carpenter on December 20, 2016

I bought this vehicle used in 2013. I recently had to scrap it at a junkyard because the vehicle completely stopped working and Chevy really didn't know what to do. It ranged from Transmission Problems to Engine Problems. When I scarped it I got $300 for it because the only thing that was useful on the vehicle was 3 parts.

Keith on August 25, 2013

they r good vans they last if u take care of them plus they r good on gas i would tell a friend to buy 1 for sure

Car enthusiast on July 2, 2012

This car is a fabulous vehicle when it works with a flexible interior and generous trunk volume, nice seats, large sliding doors (which makes entry easy) stereo is not great but descent, and air conditioning is acceptable. The car is reliable at times but when it refuses to work I want to take it to the dump. We have had to replace 2 gaskets, several oil leaks (four to be exact), the screw that holds the rocker arm in place stripped the threads out of the heads. Even the intake manifold cracked twice. we have put at least 5,000 in major repairs (excluding warranty on oil leaks. If we did not have the warranty it would be closer to 8,000 without. We have not reached 10yrs and 100,000 miles with this vehicle. My recommendation is to look for another used minivan maybe a Toyota sienna or a Honda odyssey (although the odyssey tend to have transmission issues). If you are looking for a reliable minivan take my word THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM!

hasjgirl on May 26, 2011

We have owned this vehicle for 3 years and have had a few minor problems up to this point. I absolutely love this van. We have the LT extended version. No matter what kind of van you buy I have to recommend getting extended. For moms that have strollers to store along with groceries, it is a must. The seats are comfortable on long rides. My daughter who is 13 is now getting too tall to sit in middle buckets without me having to put the seat all the way up. She about 5'5" but really, that is something I just expect to have to deal with. When purchased it had round 95000 on it. Currently has 136000. We've had to replace the window switch, even the first replacement didn't work. Thought the passenger window control was broke too but after putting in the new drivers switch, the passenger decided to work. Window switch is a common problem with this van. It seems to have an oil leak which I assume is the rear main seal since that is also a common problem. It's been like that since we bought it, I just added a court every now and then. I feel the need to mention that when the oil light comes on it is almost empty. Another common problem is the heating system. Took a while to figure that one out. In the spring and fall in Missouri ur constantly switching from heat to air. Once I'd start switching it the van would start to run a little hot. You could get heat while pressing the gas pedal but not at and idle. Had the thermostat replaced and heater core flushed, didn't really fix it. Finally, hubby figured out it was getting vapor locked. Filled it with antifreeze and bled the system. Problem fixed. Now at 13600 it is time to trade it in due to ticking in the engine when cold. Could last a long time that way but just not willing to take the chance. All in all I still love this van. I did my research so I know most other vans of its time had MAJOR xxxxxxlike transmissions. Chrysler, Dodge, Toyota, Honda, all had bad trannys. This van made it to 136000 with relatively minor probs. They all have xxxxxxthis one just had the least.