Plymouth Voyager. Photo courtesy Chrysler.
Every once in a while a new car actually stands up to the hype that automakers generate to tout it. When Chrysler introduced the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager in 1983, they declared a “Transportation Revolution,” and the all-new minivan truly was a revolution for American families.
For the first time, here was a van with copious amounts of room that drove like a car and not a truck. Here was a large space-efficient vehicle built first with passengers in mind and cargo second. Its mission was to haul your family around town, not deliver packages or carry service equipment (though later cargo versions were introduced). Based on Chrysler’s near-ubiquitous front-wheel drive K-car platform, which underpinned everything from the Aries sedan to the Daytona sports car, the Caravan and Voyager caught the rest of Detroit by surprise. Years later, attempting to play catch up, neither GM nor Ford was ever able to steal Chrysler’s thunder.
With the first production vehicles coming off the Windsor, Ontario, assembly line on November 2, 1983, and the first examples getting into consumers’ hands at the start of 1984, the minivan was an immediate sales hit. It was truly a case of people not even knowing how much they wanted something that didn’t previously exist. The minivan had it all: seating for up to eight, space for the proverbial 4 x 8 sheet of plywood (with the middle and rear seats removed), excellent fuel economy and enough cup holders to keep everyone’s thirst sated for a good, long road trip. The minivan quickly became the go-to choice for families on the go, which is pretty much any family these days.
1984 Plymouth Voyager. Brochure image courtesy OldCarBrochures.com.
The first vehicles were powered by the same 2.2-liter overhead-cam four-cylinder engine that also powered virtually every other front-drive Chrysler of the day. Rated at 101 horsepower, it was enough to get the Caravan and Voyager to highway speeds, though not necessarily too rapidly. It was good for gas mileage in the high 20s on the highway with the five-speed manual and for those with a light touch of the gas pedal. A three-speed automatic and a larger Mitsubishi-sourced 2.6-liter four-cylinder were optional.
Chrysler’s designers wanted to appeal to women, the primary market intended for the vans. With a very low load height, a wide-opening right-side sliding door (one of the best features cribbed from the full-size van) and a reasonable five-foot, five-inch overall height, they nailed it in that regard.
The story of the minivan’s development has been told various times, but it bears repeating and just a bit of clarification. Lee Iacocca was president of, and Hal Sperlich the chief product planner for, Chrysler Corporation at the time, but their relationship started a couple of decades earlier at Ford, the two very much part of the birth of the Mustang.
Lee Iacocca at the introduction of the Plymouth Voyager.
In the early 1970s, Sperlich was vice president of truck operations at Ford, which left him in charge of the development of an all-new van for the mid-1970s. Alongside that new Econoline, Sperlich led the development of a lower-roof version called the Carousel, intended as an alternative to the station wagon that would fit inside a standard residential garage. But with its high floor and low roof, it proved impractical, and its egregious fuel economy pretty much left it stillborn after the first energy crisis in 1973. Later in the decade, Sperlich would head product development in Europe, and championed the MiniMax, a small front-drive, four-person people mover concept.
But Sperlich often clashed with Henry Ford II and, as Sperlich saw it, Ford’s finance-focused, tight-fisted board. Sperlich and Ford went their separate ways. A few months later, Iacocca and Henry Ford had their own bout of separation anxiety. Sperlich, having landed at Chrysler as the new product development boss, convinced Iacocca to join as well. Hired as president of Chrysler Corporation, Iacocca soon after became chairman of the board. Along with wholesale changes, such as jettisoning Chrysler’s Euopean operations, Iacocca unleashed Sperlich to develop the minivan.
With Chrysler engineers and designers well along on the K-car sedans, coupes and wagons, Sperlich finally had the right platform to build his efficient people mover and garageable van in the same vehicle. Although it debuted more than three years after the Aries and Reliant K-cars, the Caravan and Voyager arrived at exactly the right time just as the economy was beginning to pick up speed after a long and deep recession.
It took a couple of years, but both Ford and GM responded with rear-drive minivans that never found favor with consumers the way the Chrysler vans did. Chrysler added longer-wheelbase versions in 1987 as the Grand Caravan and Grand Voyager. Later upgrades included a Chrysler-branded version, the Town & Country, V-6 and turbocharged engines, a driver’s side sliding door, power sliding doors and other conveniences.
Since January of 1984, more than 13 million Chrysler minivans have been sold. Though the rest of Detroit has thrown in the towel, competition from Japan and South Korea remains sharp. Still, the combined market share of Chrysler and Dodge-branded minivans remains around 50 percent, the vehicle still a big seller for Chrysler, even as consumer tastes have moved on to SUVs, hybrids and other vehicles.
