Admittedly it was the gen2 Econoline that caught my attention, as they’ve become scarce. But the reality is that these 1996-2000 Caravans are getting pretty thin on the ground too. This is a swb version, which by this time was very much playing fiddle to the lwb Grand Caravan.
So did they buy the Caravan to replace the Econoline, but then couldn’t bear to part with it?
This was also around the time minivans without a driver-side sliding door were being phased out – it was an optional feature for several years before it became standard equipment. I can’t remember which was the last with only a passenger-side sliding door.
I think the Ford Windstar may have had that honor – which they attempted to remedy for a couple of years with the stretched “King Door” on the driver’s side.
Those caravans had their issues but some soldiered on as taxis. I painted many of them, they would arrive from the auction with a hundred thousand miles on them and family debris still scattered throughout the inside. Mask off the black bumpers and the huge side windows, apply a single stage yellow or bronze and they were off to work.
The last Chrysler minivan without the driver side sliding door was 1995. The 96-00 vans were notorious rusters, with some scrapped due to rust out of the strut towers.
Can’t be; this is at least a ’96 and doesn’t have one.
This is incorrect. The driver’s side sliding door was optional on SWB Base models throughout most of the third gen. I can check collected brochures to verify, the the driver’s side slider was even optional on LWB SE models with the most basic option package and also still had the 2.4 and 3-Speed!
Great find of two strange bedfellows, Paul.
Never knew that generation of Caravan/Town and Country/Voyager would be scarce in the Pacific Northwest.
To me, being a Bostonian, Washington and Oregon was the time warp where 20th Century iron flourished.
Now, that you mention it, they’re not as numerous as 10 years ago.
I think the road salt, potholes and Cash for Clunkers took quite a few off the New England roads, maybe?
I recently worked for a medical transport company in 2019, we had a whole fleet of 1990s and early 2000s minivans… The 1996- early 2000s Mopars ruled the roost, along with a Pontiac Montana(plagued by electrical gremlins), a Chevy Venture, and a Ford Windstar.
The Caravans ran round the clock all day and nite. The treat was using the Town and Countrys, loaded with leather, AC and that Infinity stereo system (I think Chrysler was still using em?).
As for private owners, one woman owns a maroon Caravan with 350, 000. All highway miles, due to the many treks from Massachusetts to California.
Everytime a cheap example pops up on FB Marketplace, they seem to find a home.
My neighbor, across the street owns a blue 3g Caravan, with rotted rocker panels, but it seems to get more use than his other minivan, a Honda Odyssey.
Could be a husband/wife duo. The Caravan might be the kid-hauler, and the Econoline the work van.
Loved my 2005 Town & Country Touring even with the rust, blown water pump, leaky radiator, bad front end and the engine fire. Good times, good times
I had a ’99 Voyager, just on a lease. I was going to buy it out but they talked me in to trading it in on a 2001. I liked the dashtop on the 99 better, it had a shelf that could hold light stuff while driving.
To my astonishment, I viewed a Gen 1 Voyager the other day, driving about. It wore its 1987-88 original registration plates, and was in tremendously rust free shape. I couldn’t follow it because I was on my where to somewhere or another. I could only imagine how different it would be to drive one of those again in terms of road feel.
This is a ’96 that followed me home. They are virtually gone in Southern Ontario, with even the scrap yards cleared out. I’m seeing plenty of the latest “square” bodies flowing into the salvage yards, with most ridden hard until something expensive breaks, Minivans appear to be the least “collectible” vehicle out there.
Depends on whether your definition of “minivan” includes 21- or 23-window VW T1 microbuses…
Nope. I didn’t consider Dymaxion’s, Corvan’s or Multiplia’s either. They weren’t that common up here even when new.
I consider this generation to be the best-looking minivan of all time. Chrysler got this one right, along with pretty much everything else they released in the mid-to-late nineties.
Me too, Chrysler had superb styling in the mid 90s, this and the Gen 2 Ram look timeless
We had the Plymouth version, a 98 Grand Voyager in that same ubiquitous shade of green. It was the perfect family vehicle for 3 kids under 5, and was pretty reliable, thought not quite in a Toyota-never-have-to-touch-it way. The biggest thing – which could’ve been much bigger – was with the transmission. Luckily all it needed was a new solenoid pack.
We sold it after almost ten years to get a new ’08 Odyssey for a cross-country driving vacation. (Which was a great experience for all involved BTW.) For some reason we never got as attached to the Oddy as we were to the Voyager, and we traded it in on a ’10 CRV which we still have. But the Plymouth is still my wife’s favorite car.
Very uncommon around here – as a matter of fact, I just saw a swb Voyager the other day and was taken aback at how much rounded and shorter these vehicles appear today. I always preferred the longer wheelbases, and it seems that these were more common back in the day. So, I hadn’t noticed the round shortened loaf-look until now that these vehicles are 25 years old.
There was no rocker panels on it, I suppose this generation just rusted away. I don’t see these as collectables, however, I do know that if an old Corvair-based minivan could become a collectable – I bet these old Plymouth Voyagers can as well.
This is the only minivan I’ve driven (once), if you don’t count several Rendezvous I almost bought. Neither would allow the seat to go back quite far enough for my 34″ inseam legs. I guess it reduces whining from the second row, but I decided against constant manspreading.
I had one just like that.
It was a very common color.
I like the styling of it second only to the follow-up version.
Solid car; had the Mitsu V6.
There are not a LOT of them here in NorCal, but they are seen running around town every day. Some are in remarkably good condition.
I’d say the survivors are those that escaped the Obama Car Crushing Fiasco Disguised As An Economic Stimulus And General Purpose Public Relations Exercise.
I genuinely loved my 99 Chry T&C. They have become quite rare in the midwest too, but no nearly so rare as that Gen2 Econoline, which is as close to extinct around here as is possible.
I was just thinking this morning how you can stand in a new car showroom and have no idea if what you are buying is going to be considered “peak whatever” or a disappointment in about a dozen years. Not everyone buys a car looking for longevity, but for those of us who do, a crystal ball would be wonderful. As it is, all we can do is look back on cars in our past and say “Ahhh, peak minivan” or “ooooo, had I only known.”
Me, I never liked anything about the way these look, and I hated driving them, especially after dark with their inexcusably pathetic headlamps.
Yes, my headlights weren’t even hazy on the ’98 yet as it was only a few years old, and they still weren’t the best. Our ’03 T&C had the (much) bigger lamps and they seemed to work well.
What are your thoughts on the ’02-’07(?) gen vans’ light qualities, or lack of?
The ’01-’07 minivans’ North American-spec headlamps were somewhat less useless. They were still cheap low-bid junk, but they weren’t ridiculously undersized like the ’96-’00 items. The rest-of-world ’01-’07 headlamps had a lot more money and technology in them, and worked a lot better (the rest-of-world ’96-’00 headlamps were different, but at least as useless as the American-spec items—just too damned small for the job!)
I really liked the styling of these back when they were new, gracefully stepping the minivan shape into the modern age… and that the 2001-07 facelift was a retrograde move. 25 years later, they look quite dated, though many of the paint colors that were available back then seem extra de-luxe in today’s parade of hues that emulate pavement or dirt.
Totes agree on the headlamps. Though I’ve never driven a Mopar minivan in these years, I recall the garbage headlamps on other Chryco vehicles of the era… can’t remember whether it was an Intrepid, Concorde, or Cloud Car that I got stuck driving after dark, but it wasn’t good. Could tell that the lamps on these were made of the same stuff by observing their beam pattern on walls and on the road while traveling next to one. I don’t have your superpowers, but these are easy pickins.
Hadn’t seen a 1996-00 model in quite some time, but a battered one with a broken rear window zipped in front of me at the gas station last week on its way to the parking lot of the Dollar General next door. It also had a connecting rod knock-knock-knockin’ on heaven’s door, so it might well have breathed its last between then and now.
And these vans have a very poor taillamp design — all red, but the top part of the assembly serves as the turn signal (red of course). When the brake lights are on along with a turn signal, you can barely see the latter. To me, this is a worse design than having the all-in-one taillamp/brake light/turn signal bulb.
Correct on all counts. If the rear turn signal is red (which—again—it really shouldn’t be) then it should either be combined with the brake light or separated from the brake light by at least 10 cm between nearest adjacent lit edges.
The rest-of-world vans, of course, had real turn signals.
All(not even exaggerating) of my aunts and uncles shuttled around my cousins in this generation Caravan at one time, I can remember arriving at my grandpas old house at any given get together and it looking like a popup dodge dealership, the one that belonged to my Aunt was even bright red like a Dodge Viper. I’m not a minivan fan but I did think these looked very good and for people movers they had a really broad color palate that people actually bought like my Aunt, I remember the vast majority of Caravans of this time in red blue or green rather than silver or white.
That being said ALL of my aunts/uncles and now grown cousins haven’t had any chrysler products since them, so the positives were seemingly only skin deep.
A company I worked for had a 2005 Dodge Caravan, when I came aboard it was a spare/backup vehicle. The 3.3 V6 had 305k miles on it and it ran fine. Rust of course, did it in. I followed my co-worker to the junkyard with it. Ran great the few times I drove it. We kept the decent looking alloy wheels from it and put them on a 2003 Caravan.
Ahh, the “Island Teal” color….my wife’s minivan was painted in this same shade.
I have nothing good to say about that little money pit, so I’ll just wish you all a Merry Christmas and a better 2022.
I once owned 2000 plymouth grand voyager ( I think the last year Chrysler made the plymouth mini-van ?) It was great functional van (camp in it, store my 12 speed Raleigh bike flat upright across the rear tailgate without taking the front wheel off, slept in it as well doing motor block cooking and etc) It was how ever high maintenance vehicle and seem always need attention My 1989 plymouth grand voyager had some issues like auto transmission replaced and repaired and etc. I did have some good memories when I owned those 2 min-vans from 1989 to 2007 I wonder if i had more money I would have less repair issue if I gotten a toyota Sienna mini van?? We live and learn