(First Posted August 30, 2013) I mentioned the other day in the piece about our “new to us” 2012 VW Routan that we have three generations of Chrysler minivans in the driveway right now, so let’s take a moment to compare them. The grill of the Gen 3 GC is almost dainty compared to the Gen 4 T&C, but I think the Gen 5 Routan does an effective job of visually breaking up an even taller frontal area – note the higher base point of the windshield on the Routan, too.
This angle emphasizes how much lower the nose of the Gen 3 is compared with the two later generation vans. Ours has a bad case of headlight cataracts at the ripe old age of 15, and the eight year-old T&C is starting to cloud over a bit, too.
As mentioned in my piece on the Routan, you can clearly see how the GC and T&C tend to look tall and almost ponderous from the rear, primarily due to the taillights being tall and thin as compared to the emphasis on horizontal lines on the Routan.
Boxy is definitely back, Baby! Both the color and the styling of the Routan remind us a lot of the Gen 1 Caravan we borrowed for a few months while looking for a replacement for our totaled ’98 Caravan. So there you have it; all we’re missing is a Gen 1 or 2 Plymouth Voyager to have a complete set!
The perfect minivan: A Gen 3 styling in the Gen 1 size. I’d love one.
In your picture of the vans’ backsides, it is funny how much wider the red Gen3 looks than the blue Gen4 – surely an optical illusion.
As for those headlights, I recently mixed a concoction of water and baking soda to the consistency of runny cream of wheat and hand-polished the headlights on my 93 Crown Vic. Worked quite well, and the price was right.
If you look at the last picture, it’s apparent that the red van is closer to the camera than the other two. With most camera lenses, especially the fixed ones in smart phones, even a slight difference in distance is exaggerated by their optics.
Yep, the vans were all aligned fairly close, but my iPhone tends to fisheye a bit, which exaggerated the two on the outside.
Wow, even minivan styling is going downhill. .:) sundamaged composite headlights are a modern curse..most pick n pulls are having half price sales this weekend.. good time to get a spare set, polish and UV clearcoat them, and then do that to the set on the car and you will have a set ready to go.
We garage our cars & have no problems with UV fade, though I still favor sealed beams since they make more logistical sense. Around here, there’s a lot of gravel on the road just waiting to be accelerated by tires to become high-velocity penetrators.
If van styling is going Back to the Box, that’s a good thing. The best-looking vans are the boxiest: early Sprinter, Transit Connect, & the 1st-gen Scion Xb. Attempts by minivan stylists to escape this have been abysmal failures, IMHO.
It’s a shame the Gen 3 was never offered in a cargo version that retained sealed beams, although the grille surround/upper bumper would’ve had to be modified (possibly hand-cut on the line) to accommodate them.
A great collection Ed! If you’re looking for an earlier Voyager, may I recommend a woody LE version?
Arrg big black plastic triangles ahead of the mirrors, not to mention the abundance of sloppy cut lines between the hood, fenders, pillars and weird trapezoid filler panel between them all (????). The Gen 3 & 4 are so much cleaner in comparison.
always liked the gen. 3. I really liked the Chrysler cab forward cars.
Nice set there.
I agree, at least in the optical distortions department, the 98 looks much wider, though not appreciably less tall than the ’05 van. Those do not feel overly huge, though I’m only familiar with the base non grand version we have at work, that is roughly the same vintage.
The Routan looks noticeably bigger in just about every dimension. The nose of those 3rd gen vans were rather dainty compared to every other variant.
My oldest sister and her current hubby for a time had a well kept, but high mileage ’88 non grand Caravan in the light blue with wood grain sides, however, it had the Mitsu V6 and it got to where it had major blowby and burned oil to the point that periodic oil adding was mandatory. They eventually sold it and bought an ’00 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport.
My youngest sister had the 2nd gen van (bought new), also with the V6, that eventually did the same thing, major blowby, but they had it for quite a few years, and the blow by began sometime around 140-150K miles. And both took care of their vehicles.
I’ve always, liked the Chrysler mini vans of all of them, and had considered possibly a 95-98 model at one time.
The extensions on both sides of the rear bumper cover on the Routan amplifies the “old man without his upper dentures/underbite” look prevalent on a lot of vehicles today, IMO. 🙂
Why would anyone buy a VW Dodge Caravan and pay a premium for it? I heard they do not have some of the key features that are in Caravans like Stow N Go and Swivel N Go.
That is correct – the Routan has the deep well in the 2nd row footwell area but the seats don’t fold into them, VW instead going with thicker seat cushions for added comfort. Chrysler-branded vans at the time also offered non-folding “comfort seats” of similar specification.
CC effect… Saw a Routan on I-270 in Columbus the day after Part 1 of this article was published. Thanks to Ed, I knew I’d spotted something rare & noteworthy. I never knew they were made by Chrysler. Would definitely give one of these a look if I was shopping minivans.
As a sometimes 2nd row passenger, Stow ‘n Go isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It works out great for my brother in his Dodge, because he changes configurations pretty often. If the van was for our family though, it would be mainly for passenger use.
Surely you dont own all three at once, one would be ample.
We owned them sequentially – our sons now own the older ones.
As I noted in the post from a few days ago, the Routan served us well for 125K + miles, when we gifted it to our pastor and his family, who were in dire need of a more reliable vehicle. A ’18 Buick Regal TourX was its successor, so we are minivanless for the first time in 20 years. Well, except when our son brings the grandkids up for a visit – he’s still driving a ’10 Grand Caravan that I helped him select. It’s pushing 218K miles and he’s starting to think towards a non-minivan replacement.
I got a T&C because I kept hearing “Stow’n’Go Good”… and in 9 years I’ve literally never stowed the seats. 🙄 It’s a great idea if you have to fold them down regularly (there’s a HUGE amount of room back there with them down) but until I’m not strapping four car seats into my van, the seats aren’t going anywhere.
VW Designers know their job.
Chrysler guys…not so much.
The gen 3 has a more pleasant design style if compared to the 4th version, although the 4th generation were one of a few nice Chryslers if compared to Sebring II, Concorde II…
Chrysler + Volkswagen: reliability at its finest right there!