Shelf Life — It’s a term commonly used to describe the period of time in which food is fresh enough for sale and consumption, but it also can be used to describe the general period of time in which a model of car is fit for daily driving, and well, worth more to keep up and running than to sell for parts.
Many factors affect the shelf life of one type of vehicle versus another, and as a whole it tends to vary by geographical region, but at least in the Northeast the first generation Chrysler minivans’ shelf life was about 20 years. Their numbers were already trailing off steadily in the late-1990s, but they were still common sights until the late-’00s, when they all but disappeared. Now almost 30 years after the last year of production, it’s only the outliers that still exist.
Photographed: Tribeca, Lower Manhattan, New York, New York – March 2018
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Haven’t seen one in ages. That was one of our reasons for retiring the 2001 Focus, the wave had crested in the wrecking yards and parts were getting harder to find.
We are thinking the same about our 2007 Caravan today. My FIL just emailed me that there’s one coming in on trade at the Ford dealership. 2013 with 140,000 km. Hmmm.
DougD makes a good point- You can also get a good feel for a vehicles shelf life by walking the aisles of the local pull a part- When a model hits about 10 years of age, the yards fill up with discarded cars, typically suffering from a minor fender bender or an End-of -Life event (blown head gasket or transmission failure).
Twenty years out, these cars begin to thin out, replaced by later generations. The truck cycle runs a bit longer, both due to high sales volumes (Ford F-Series) and a tendency for people to hold on to them for their utility value.
For those of us who buy used and hold on to cars for a while, buying a low mileage ten year old car makes a lot of sense- I just picked up a 2007 Acura TSX, and one trip to the Junkyard fixed several small problems. What would have cost me about $750 at the dealer was corrected with $45 in junkyard parts!
Of course, it helps that I live in LA- Imports are thicker on the street, and there’s a much larger Junkyard stock to work with.
The volume and longevity of the K-car platform helps immensely in keeping this van on the road. There was a 1991 Dodge Shadow in my family until as recently as 2012. There was never any issue finding parts. The 2.2 litre engine was like the new slant 6 for Chrysler. The hood and roof paint wear, plus rust under the rear window molding is very typical for Chrysler minivans of this era.
I’m amazed this one is still soldiering on with the Mitsubishi 3.0 V6.
I never had a problem with that engine in the family’s 1995 Plymouth Voyager. Even when I drove over 5,000 Miles in 3 weeks when the vehicle was 18 years old there was no oil consumption despite 170,000 Miles on the engine.
The 3.0’s were good engines (and had a stout bottom end that could take just stupid amounts of boost) The 2.6 Mitsu engines were the time bombs-the jet valves made the heads crack and the belt and/or gear that drove the oil pump could go, starving the engine of oil. My sister has a “Plymouth Duster” (Sundance/Shadow style, not 70’s Duster) with a 3.0 with well over 200k.
My
Agreed. Here in Australia the 3.0 and later 3.5 commonly go for 450,000 – 500,000km or more, according to my local garage. The transmission might last 300,000, but that engine just goes and goes.
These turned out to be a lot tougher than I thought they would be. It is very rare that I still see one in the midwest, but they are still found, if rarely. I have noticed the 3rd generation beginning to get scarce and they were still fairly plentiful 5 years ago.
I decided to retire my 85 Cutlass Cierra in 2009 when I was told I’d have to go to a custom muffler shop for exhaust work as the garage couldn’t get “off the shelf” components.
The current ride ( 03 Caravan ) hopefully has a few years of “shelf life” left in it!
Perhaps you are visiting a wrong type of muffler shop. There are some who can fabricate the exhaust system by sight.
My father and I visited one in Plano, Texas (across the street from the famous Allison’s AutoCare), and this guy lifted my Chevrolet Celebrity to see its entire exhaust system. He was able to fabricate the entire system, including muffler, and it fit so perfectly. The cost was three times cheaper than what auto part stores would charge for the off-the-shelf component.
I agree with the New England rust thing.
I live in Providence, and this company core biz is sell rust repair parts ( think shock tower) for jeeps and mopar
https://www.autorust.com/safe-t-cap-kits/
It’s amazing when you think about it that something that used to be everywhere can almost completely vanish.
Excellent find. I’m guessing the owner must be quite a fan of these vans, or it just barely has any miles on it, as a car that old should have a substantial amount of rust on it by now.
That “NYP” on the plate stands for “New York Press,” which means its owner works for a news organization somewhere in the state. I wonder if the Dodge is a retired news vehicle that the owner purchased once they retired it.
This van is parked near the La Colombe coffee shop at 75 Vandam Street. WCBS radio has their studios one block away at 345 Hudson Street and WNYC radio has their studio at 160 Varick Street a block away.
Given the faded paint and the pattern of what little rust it has, I have to wonder if it spent most of its time in the south or west somewhere and only recently moved to New York.
You’ll probably see more first gen vans than second. The earlier models had a 3-speed automatic, which I understand was a FWD variant of the old TorqueFlite.
Some 2nd-gen vans still had that, but most of them got the 4-speed overdrive automatic, which held up as well as a Kleenex in a hailstorm.
When I had my COAL stick-shift ’92 Voyager…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1992-plymouth-voyager-they-made-those-with-manual-transmissions/
in around 2006, junkyards were crammed full of second-gen vans with broken transmissions. According to memory, the crisis got so bad that there weren’t even any more rebuildable cores to be had.
First year for the A604
UltraDriveProbleMatic 4-speed transaxle: 1989. Last year for the 1st-generation minivan: 1990.In those two model years, some V6 minivans got the A604 (confirmed just now with FPCs)—the 3.0 Mitsu V6 could be had with either the 3-speed A670 Torqueflite or the 4-speed A604 ProbleMatic.
The 4-cylinder engines stayed with the 3-speed; no 4-speed automatic was offered until the A604 (redesignated “41TE”) became optional with the new 2.4 in the new van for 1996, though it looks like 4-cylinder vans through 2002(!) and 3.0 V6 vans through 1998 were still offered with the 3-speed.
I haven’t heard of a crisis so bad there weren’t any more rebuildable cores to be had, and with the possible exception of a few far-flung local shortages I kind of doubt it. I’d have to call {{citation needed}} on that claim, though one of the more frequent forms of Reverse Telephone Bingo we played winningly as countermen at the wrecking yard was as follows: Pick up the phone, caller says “I have a [year] [Chrysler Corp model]”, and we’d interrupt “Sorry, we don’t have a good 4-speed automatic transaxle for you”. Seemed like at least 90% of the time that ended the phone call: “Okeh, thanks »sigh«” (it worked the same way with Taurus/Sable V6 engines and AXOD transaxles).
A true unicorn would be one of these that
A) Still has the trim over the rear license plate, and
B) It’s not held on with screws through the face.
With the hood ornament still affixed
Excellent find! My 1987 Plymouth Voyager served me well until 1998. Those rear seats were a bear to get out. The back seat was especially hefty, although the fold down seat back feature was often helpful. I did the pinstriping on mine myself.
When I bought my 87 (used mind you) they pushed me hard to get a 4 cylinder with a turbo, but I stuck to my guns for the 6 cyl. Glad I did, I loaded that minivan up to help us move houses a few times in that time span. I got two more Chryco minivans in succeeding years.
can you please send me those AWD Dodge Caravan pictures
I like the really early ones (84-86) with the stacked headlights. The only one I saw in recent years was at the Smithsonian museum!
I thought it was only me, I really like it too.
A little remembered variant of the facelifted 1st gen Chrysler minivans was the cargo van with single sealed beam rectangular headlights instead of the flush lamps in the passenger van models. I liked the cargo van lights better because you could swap them out for Cibie or Hella lights that were brighter and better focused.
My parents had one until about 2009. My family had 3 over the years an 87 88 and 89. 89 was a 4 speed all were 3.0. great engines
The transmission did n the 88 and 89 at realtivly high mileage. Not sure what did in the 87 other then my mother dislikeing the lower trim after the previous two which were loaded.
We had an ’87 Caravan with the 2.6L 4 and the auto transmission. We bought it new and kept it until November ’96, when we traded it in for a new Ford Windstar. That Caravan had 112k miles and a noisy timing chain, but didn’t use any oil and it is still one of the most comfortable vehicles for long distance driving we’ve owned. Even though it could barely get out of its own way, lol.
I miss how spacious and comfy these could be.
It’s the only car I’ve seen in recent memory that had a “hallway” from front seats to back.
Maybe it’s discouraged in the name of safety, but being able to switch seats so Dad could try to angrily smoke out of a rear vent window really saved a few road trips.
The “Hallway” is still present on the 2018 grand caravan, all trims. The center console, or “bin” on lower trims, are removed by 1 hand grip. Works great!
Good for going to the rear captain seat and watching a movie at lunch when on a worksite, or when its raining.
Also great access way for little daughters to give a hug to their dads, as mine like to do. lol
Brendan, this is awesome. I had meant to comment that between this first-generation Mopar minivan, Will Stopford’s Mazda 626 piece, it was giving me serious flashbacks of my high school days, as my best bud’s family had iterations of these same to generations of cars. Thanks for putting a smile on my face.
Just yesterday I saw a 1987-1990 Caravan/Voyager pull out behind me in traffic and I remarked to myself how rare of an occurrance that has become. Even as the SUV craze was ramping up, 25 years ago the roads were crawling with Gen 1 Caravans/Voyagers as well as Gen 1 Taurus/Sable Wagons (the popular and stylish alternative for more traditional families that resisted trends). Today any of those are a rare sight indeed.