When I saw these two old and somewhat tired survivors in front of a student apartment building, I couldn’t help but imagine this pair sitting side by side in a nice suburban driveway in 1987 or so. Dad had to buy a 2+2 version of the ZX so he could haul the kids when they were little. And as they got bigger, and after number three arrived, a spanking new Grand Caravan was bought for Mom. And are they now being driven at school by those same kids?
Pure speculation, of course. To tell the truth, these are unusually old cars for today’s students to be driving. It’s a sea of 5-15 year old cars and CUVs around campus, and it’s getting harder and harder to find interesting cars over there.
I see this ZX has California plates, which strongly suggest it belongs to one of the so many out of state CA students we have here, and that are helping to pay for our dear university with their out of state tuition. We’ve had a huge influx of CA students in the past decade because of funding issues in their home state system. But that will likely change, now that CA has finally come to grips with its fiscal situation.
It’s probably a good thing this is a CA ZX, as these cars are prone to nasty structural rot.
I’m not going to try to peg the exact year of this Caravan, but probably it has the Mitsubishi 3.0 V6 and the good old three-speed A670 TorqueFlite. I once drove a 1990 with the new 3.3 and Ultradrive on a school field trip, and it sure drove nicely. That was the most advanced automatic I had ever driven at that time, with such smooth and intelligent shifting. It’s what convinced me to buy a new 1992 GC, and that was a mighty nice van, except of course for going through four(!) transmissions, as well as numerous high-pressure ABS pumps (permanent life-time warranty!). I’m guessing Chrysler’s heft profit margin when I bought it was eaten up by all those replacement trannys and pumps. Boo-hoo!
Not a bad looking ZX – although I do prefer the 2 seater roofline.
Dreary colours; silver cars on either end of these two as well.
What year is the Datsun?
I always kind of liked that silver blue/navy blue two-tone on the Chrysler minivans of those years.
Replace the Datsun with a Chevy S-10 and you have our family. Mom later bought a ’94 Caravan and I think it went through 5 transmissions.
Would the established unreliability of this transmission, not be grounds for a class-action suit at the time? I’d have difficulty accepting two transmission failures, let alone five. Even if under warranty.
I thought the lengthened proportions of this extended Caravan were a big improvement over the first generation of magic wagons. I felt this way about the extended Aerostar and Astro as well.
Here’s what was in our driveway in ’85: Wife’s ’85 Nissan 300ZX Turbo and our ’79 Toyota Longbed automatic with $600 cab-over camper. Not shown is the company car I had for weekday duty.
Had an 85 Turbo Z as well – great car.
On a round trip to Florida and back to New York* in the family’s 95 Voyager back in 2008 I decided to keep count of ever 1984-1995 Chrysler Minivan I saw. Most of what I saw was 1991-1995 Caravans/Grand Caravans with 1991-1995 Voyagers in close second with a combined total of about 40. These 87-90s numbered about half a dozen and I saw one or two 84-86s. Even in Northwest Oregon these 1st gen Chrysler Minivans are not very common because I only see 1-3 a week including one from New Mexico a few weeks ago.
A family friend had an ABS equipped 2nd gen Dodge Grand Caravan and he said that while driving through a Vermont blizzard he could ride the brakes all the time because of how much snow there was and how little traction there was. He said the ABS system was designed to grab the brakes for 6 feet, release for 6 feet. My family’s 95 Voyager only needed two trannys in 174K miles.
* Route from NY to FL. NY 13, I-86, I-99, I-81, I-77, I-26, I-95. Staying off of I-95 as long as possible means you avoid DC area traffic, general I-95 traffic (since it is the major coastal Interstate), and for the most part Virginia cops that patrol I-95.
Old cars in areas where they would be out of place when new seems to be today’s theme.
I have had two sisters who have had Dodge vans, my oldest and her second hubby bought a shortie 88 Caravan used in 1998 or so, and drove it two years before it began to smoke badly, and burn oil, it had the Mitsu V6 in it if I recall.
It was a beautifully kept di-noc’d light metallic blue van with the top flight Infinity factory deck in it and strangely enough, had the styled steel wheels with trim rings and the fancy plastic center cap in argent. It looked very nice indeed. I remember driving it and it was a very decent vehicle, burning oil notwithstanding. They replaced it with a brand spanking new Dodge Grand Caravan Sport in 2000, that they got over 150K on it before my sister rear ended someone about 2.5-3 years ago and totaled it. They had virtually NO car for a while, while they were unemployed, and were given a well driven ’01 Plymouth Voyager shortie from family friends that had been loaned out, but driven hard, and put up wet, and it showed.
They now drive a used Oddy that they got in trade for the truck that they barely drove.
My youngest sister had a brand new Plymouth Voyager back in the early to mid 90’s, that they kept for about a decade or more before finally replacing it as it, too had the Mitsu V6, and it began to burn oil at 150K miles. It’s been replaced with a 2001 Toyota 4Runner that they bought gently used when it was I think 2 years old, and still drive it to this day.
One thing is nice about Puget Sound, rust forgets we exist so 11 YO vehicles that are native to the area won’t be rusted out by now. 🙂
Looks like an ’89 or ’90 Grand Caravan SE
I’d take that Grand Caravan. They were good all around vehicles, if you didn’t mind the minivan stigma…
We had a 94 Grand Voyager, 3.3 AWD model and we sold it at 125k without needing a tranny. It had other problems tho.. something with an axle needing replaced (not the CV), some front-end issues (common in minivans, I’ve noticed) and something in the rear driveline would rattle loudly and shake between 30 and 35 mph but if you sped up or let off the gas it would immediately stop. The fuel pump went in a Mcdonalds drive-thru before I could pull up to the 2nd window and get my food (we had to push it and wait for a tow). Oh yeah and the sliding door would FALL OFF when opened.. my uncle slammed it shut too fast or something and messed the track up. Bit of an embarassment in my sophomore year in HS in an upscale suburb when some kid would inevitably forget what I told them about climbing thru the front and try that slider and it’d drop down off the van.. they’d usually be like WTF and crack up laughing. And I’d say WTF, I tried to tell you!! Memories..
The other weak point with these (and any other Chrysler product from the 90’s) was the “glow-ring” ignitions which made them incredibly easy to steal.. all someone needed was a flathead screwdriver and a minute or two. I don’t know that the vans were a popular target for theives but in my town the Grand Cherokees sure were.