Cooperative caching, which allows sharing and coordination of cached data among clients, is a potential technique to improve the data access performance and availability in mobile ad hoc networks. However, variable data sizes, frequent data updates, limited client resources, insufficient wireless bandwidth and client's mobility make cache management a challenge. In this paper, we propose a utility based cache replacement policy, least utility value (LUV), to improve the data availability and reduce the local cache miss ratio. LUV considers several factors that affect cache performance, namely access probability, distance between the requester and data source/cache, coherency and data size. A cooperative cache management strategy, Zone Cooperative (ZC), is developed that employs LUV as replacement policy. In ZC one-hop neighbors of a client form a cooperation zone since the cost for communication with them is low both in terms of energy consumption and message exchange. Simulation experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of LUV based ZC caching strategy. The simulation results show that, LUV replacement policy substantially outperforms the LRU policy.