Almost 40 years after their introduction, it’s still difficult to overstate the influence and impact that Chrysler’s twin minivans had on the automobile industry and marketplace. The two Windsor-built vehicles — the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan — were new in concept and appearance for the 1984 model year, but unlike other revolutionary vehicles from past, Voyager and Caravan quickly captured the public’s fancy.
Indeed, the impact these vehicles had on the marketplace was as profound as Ford’s Mustang, as almost every global automaker eventually introduced its own minivan.
The idea was hatched by one of Lee Iacocca’s lieutenants at the Ford Motor Company, Norm Krandall, who in the early 1970s calculated that a large market existed for a small, utility-type van with seating for up to four people and perhaps as many as six. Krandall’s research showed that as many as 800,000 units could be sold in a single year.
The numbers were presented to Iacocca, who thought the research had some merit. Even if only half as many of the small vans were sold in one year, those sales would represent a substantial volume for Ford and could quite possibly represent a hit, much like the Mustang.
But Henry Ford II, whose relationship with Iacocca was strained, didn’t like the idea. As well, Ford and the other Detroit auto companies were facing myriad challenges, including rising fuel prices, as well as new federal emissions and safety standards. And so the Ford minivan concept was shelved.
Lee Iacocca was fired from Ford in mid-1978 but subsequently hired by the ailing Chrysler Corporation. Iacocca and his new Chrysler team (among them was Hal Sperlich, a former Ford designer who had also pushed for a small minivan) developed new compact cars, the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant. They were equipped with front-wheel drive and four-cylinder engines. They were modest offerings, but the public snapped up the so-called K-cars, helping to push Chrysler into financial health.
In an effort to leverage the K-cars’ technology, Sperlich suggested that Iacocca’s team go back to the minivan idea developed while at Ford. The idea was to use the K-car platform.
What followed was pure automotive magic. The Caravan and Voyager were instant hits, as part of their appeal was the utility and space they offered. They had a lower profile, allowing them to be easily parked in a garage. That profile was possible because the minivans were front-wheel drive.
1984 Plymouth Voyager Photo by Chrysler
No other Detroit company could have then offered the same design because no other Detroit company had embraced front-wheel drive technology as fully as Chrysler.
Within a few years GM and Ford followed with their own minivans, but couldn’t match Chrysler’s overall utility because both GM and Ford were using rear-wheel-drive truck platforms, at least initially.
Chrysler further refined Caravan and Voyager (after adding a third line, the Chrysler Town and Country) with a redesign in 1990, then another in 1996, yet another in 2000, and then another, launched for 2008.
The current Chrysler minivan, Pacifica, was launched for the 2016 model year and although bristling with new technology and wonder, presents the same basic idea as the original minivan offered almost 40 years ago.
1984 Plymouth Voyager Photo by Chrysler
Chrysler’s minivans were built at its assembly plant in Windsor. The plant had previously been devoted to building Cordoba, but by the late 1970s Cordoba production had slowed. A new Imperial coupe was added to Windsor’s production in the early 1980s, but Imperial sales were never strong. Both were built until the 1983 model year, leaving an opening for a new Chrysler project.
News that the new minivans would be assembled at Windsor galvanized the city and the industry. Although there was a risk the minivans wouldn’t enjoy strong sales, there was enough hope that they would also be harbingers of Chrysler Corporation’s future.
The first Voyager rolled out of the Windsor plant on Nov. 2, 1983, and the response was immediate.
The new vans were unlike anything before offered by the Detroit companies and were therefore historic. The wheelbase was a modest 112 inches, yet the small package offered a large interior. Indeed, there was nearly twice as much cargo room when compared to a K-car station wagon.
4 generations of the Minivan, 20th Anniversary – 1984MY Plymouth Voyager, 1994MY Dodge Caravan, 1996MY Chrysler Town and Country, and a 2002MY Chrysler Grand Voyager (outside North America). The DaimlerChrysler Auburn Hill’s Complex stands in the background. Photo by Chrysler
But what sold most people was the minivans’ seating. A standard configuration provided for five passengers in two rows, but a third seat extended that capacity to as many as eight passengers.
There were several seating configurations available, and the possibilities enchanted more than a few prospective customers who recognized the advantages inherent to the minivans’ design.
Because the new Voyager and Caravan were based on the K-cars and their front-wheel drive platform, the minivans’ floor didn’t need to be raised to accommodate a transmission tunnel. And because the floor didn’t need to be raised, neither did the roof. And so the minivans were compact enough, and low enough, to be parked inside a conventional garage.
The minivans were not costly, and that was because they shared parts and mechanics with the Aries and Reliant K-cars.
Dodge Ram Van Photo by Chrysler
But they didn’t share the chassis. The minivans’ K-car chassis was specifically adapted to include MacPherson trust front suspension and a beam rear axle with leaf springs. The minivans featured what Chrysler Corporation called its S-platform.
But the engines were taken directly from the K-cars. For the first three years of production, Voyager and Caravan offered two engines – a based 2.2-litre, four-cylinder engine that delivered a very modest 96 horsepower, and a higher performance fuel-injected version of the 2.2-litre engine. And optional 2.6-litre engine from Mitsubishi was available.
There were three trim levels. For the Voyager, they was an unnamed base model, the mid-level SE and the high-level LE. The LE was dressed in simulated woodgrain paneling – a direct challenge to the traditional American station wagon.
The Voyager and Caravan showed great imagination. Perhaps the most enduring was the introduction of cup holders, a feature now found on every vehicle built on the planet. And in those first years, a handy sliding storage bin was nestled beneath the front passenger seat.
Credit: Chrysler
Of course, rear entry to the minivans was available through a sliding door behind the front-seat passenger. In later years, Chrysler would provide dual sliding doors.
Sales were initially solid but not spectacular. For the 1984 model year, Chrysler sold 209,895 minivans, and for 1985 it sold 242,827. The next year, 1987, was better at 307,841, while sales for 1988 topped out at 422,418. For 1989, the last year of the first generation, sales were 404,519 units.
From the start, Dodge had better sales than its Plymouth counterpart, and that would continue until the Plymouth brand was shuttered at the turn of the century.
GM answered the minivan challenge with its Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari. They were well-received and enjoyed strong sales. But they were not front-wheel drive vehicles and were based on a small truck.
Ford responded for 1986 with its Aerostar. Its design showed more imagination than the GM vans, but was also based on a truck platform using conventional rear-wheel drive.
Eventually, Detroit’s so-called minivan wars would push both GM and Ford to introduce new front-wheel minivans, while Chrysler continued to improve and refine the Voyager and Caravan, while adding a Chrysler luxury variant, the Town and Country, for the 1990 model year.
The minivan killed the American station wagon, which had been a fixture on North America highways since the 1950s. Station wagon sales slowly ebbed away until the car-based wagons became a rarity.
1985 Plymouth Voyager Photo by Chrysler
1987 Dodge Grand Caravan Photo by Chrysler
1984 Plymouth Voyager Photo by Chrysler
4 generations of the Minivan, 20th Anniversary – 1984MY Plymouth Voyager, 1994MY Dodge Caravan, 1996MY Chrysler Town and Country, and a 2002MY Chrysler Grand Voyager (outside North America). The DaimlerChrysler Auburn Hill’s Complex stands in the background. Photo by Chrysler
Keyword: Looking back on the Chrysler minivans that revolutionized the auto industry