General Introduction

These vehicles were introduced to the market sometime in 1983. They were launched as the 1984 model together with a sister car which was the Plymouth Voyager which was later renamed the Chrysler Voyager. One of the first known modern minivans, Chrysler's minivans are often lauded with the distinction of creating a new and entire market of buyers for these kinds of vehicles. Dubbed as the Chrysler twins, these two vehicles were then introduced a month in advance to its same class competitor, the Renault Espace. This other branded minivan was said to have been the first minivan to hit the European market and was first promoted to executives with the name Talbot way back 1979, however this car was not released until sometime in 1984. Making these automobile twins the first of the minivan kind, that did not make them the best, however. They did not have the much needed interior versatility that is defined by singular folding seats which could subsequently be used by passengers as tables or even be completely removed as compared to that of the first generation models of their counterpart, the Espace. This was later changed after a few generations though, to fit the public's demand for versatility.

Despite this drawback, since they were first introduced and up until now, the twin Chrysler vehicles have earned the label as the United States' best-selling minivans of all time.

History

The minivan was first conceived in the brains of Lee Iacocca and his counterpart Hal Sperlich while they were still ensconced at Ford Motor Company's offices. Ford Motor's head, Henry Ford declined Sperlich's and Iacocca's brainchild, both men wanting to start producing a minivan prototype way back in the year 1974. Then Iacocca was thrown into the responsibility of trying to turn around Chrysler Corporation which was beginning to show signs of going down the drain. He then contacted Sperlich and had him move over to Chrysler. Soon the prototype vehicle they called the T115 minivan was born. This T115 minivan prototype was later on given the name Voyager and Caravan.

From the time they began the production of these units in fall 1983, roughly over eleven million of these Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth brand minivans were said to have been transferred to their new owners by middle of 2005.

Engine

The original Caravan vehicles utilized Chrysler's S platform. This platform is a close relative of the Plymouth Reliant's and the Dodge Aries' K-Car platform. The three levels that composed this generation of Caravans were the mainstream SE, the base model and upscale LE. They were equipped with four-cylinder engines. This included the more powerful turbocharged 2.5 0 liter engine which was considered a rather rare engine combination. The cargo variation of the Caravan, which was christened the Mini Ram, was introduced that same year, 1984. This vehicle was then rechristened with the name Caravan C/V which was released in 1989. The engines that replaced the original ones included the 1984 to 1987 2.2 liter Inline-4, the 1989 to 1990 2.5 liter Inline-4 Turbo , the 1984 to 1987 2.6 liter Inline-4 Mitsubishi G54B and the 1990 3.3 liter V6 EGA which had a 150 hp kick under the hood.

Differences Between The Voyager And Caravan

While both vehicles share so many distinctive innovations and are even called twins, there are some notable differences between the two. The Caravan can easily be differentiated from its sister, the Plymouth Voyager by its badging. Another obvious difference between the two includes the difference in the headlights as well as in the taillights. While it can be noted that the headlights installed on the Voyager has chrome strips attached on top as well as on the bottom of these lights, the Caravan's headlights have none of these chrome strips and have headlights that are slightly higher in comparison to the Voyager's. Another distinct contrast between the Caravan and the Voyager is in their taillights. The Caravan's taillights seem to appear as having black stripes that run on the horizontal, while those on its counterpart, the Voyager, do not seem to be there. The Voyager's taillights, however, seem to have rather textured grooves.