My recent travels in Sweden took me to Hönö Island, which requires a short ferry ride from the mainland. On one such ride, I slipped my hire car in behind this Chrysler Grand Voyager, thinking, “Oh, this is one of those from right after when the Plymouth brand was killed off…”
It turns out that the Chrysler minivan was sold as a Voyager/Grand Voyager right from the beginning (1988) in Europe and Mexico. It was only the USA market short wheelbase Plymouth Voyager that got rebadged as a Chrysler Voyager from 2001-03, when it was renamed Town & Country.
Current generation Grand Voyagers are manufactured exclusively in Canada, with a diesel engine sourced from VM Motori as standard. As shown in the photo above (not of our subject car), right hand drive as well as manual transmissions are also available (hey, you *know* I’d jump at the chance for a diesel/manual version for our driveway!). The V6 badging on our subject car indicates it likely has a petrol engine and automatic, however.
The 4th-gen Grand Voyager is still manufactured in China exclusively for that market. As of 2011, Grand Voyagers have been sold under the Lancia marque (rather than Chrysler) with exception of vehicles offered in the UK, Ireland and China markets where Lancia has no sales network. Over 13 million units of all generations/badge brothers have been sold of the Chrysler minivans, making it the 13th highest selling nameplate of all time (to date).
How I miss Plymouth Voyagers 🙁
I know I miss mine for sure, but it had been a New York vehicle for over 15 years and you cannot fight the tin worm on a limited budget especially when there are cheap creme puff examples just waiting for you in Arizona. Who knew an O2 Sensor, EGR Valve, Distributor, Power Steering Pump, and Mitsubishi 6G72 could last so long without needing replacing.
My family just bought an 03 Chrysler Voyager, but for some reason the paper work says Dodge on it so maybe Chrysler Voyagers are not in the NYSDMV database. I will find out when I see the vehicle in person next week what the vehicle actually is. I would like to get Euro taillights for this “new” Minivan due to the orange turn signals and I assume the wiring is all the same.
When I was in the Republic of Ireland over 2 years ago 3rd gen Voyagers were a somewhat common sight, but I did not pay attention to the 4th gens if there were any. I assume the steering wheel has been moved over to the right for those two Euro Zone countries that require it.
We have those here in LWB and diesel the same engine as the Jeep and Chrysler 300, though our 300s come from Belgium in RHD I presumed the others did too.
These Chryslers were popular in the nineties, very popular. The first diesel in the Voyager was the 2.5 ltr. 4 cylinder VM Motori. The current “Lancia Edition” has the newer 2.8 ltr. 4 cylinder diesel engine. It’s also in the Wrangler.
Often they were literally “minivans”: pull out the back seats, blind the rear windows and make a nice flat cargo bed from the front seats all the way to the back. Then it became a “commercial vehicle”. Cheaper to buy and less road tax for those who used it for their profession. (The Jeep Grand Cherokee often gets the same special treatment)
This is what I mean, a true Chrysler Minivan:
I borrowed a plymouth van from my daughter to do a job. She pulled the seats out and it looked just like this. It held an AC/Furnace system and all my tools with plenty of room left over. Then the ungrateful wench just laughed when I tried to buy it. Because I’m not too smart and didn’t have loads of jobs (all moonlight) I went back to my small car after that job.
Darnit, a diesel-powered, manual-transmission minivan that we can’t get here in the US. Speaking for the mother of my two children and myself, and as the current owner of a Passat TDI, this is our dream vehicle!
It would take some getting used to shifting on the left side, however.
These vans were built for European consumption for a long time in Austria, by Magna-Steyr, along with Jeeps. I have forgotten exactly when that ended; a few years ago.
The gen 2 and gen 3 Chrysler vans were surprisingly popular in Europe,which is why they started building them there. Some claim that the M-S Austrian vans are better built than the NA built versions.
That explains the VM diesel; Magna did all the engineering for that, and the diesels were the majority of those built; more like the overwhelming percentage.
These vans pioneered the whole mini-van wave in Europe, along with the Renault Espace. I would guess that there were some years when the Chrysler vans may well have been the best selling van in certain European countries like Germany; Austria for sure, where there were scads of them ten years ago. But I suspect they’re selling in rather small numbers now, another reason why they import them from Canada now.
That explains it I suspect a lot of ours are ex JDM like the Blazers we have anything interesting in Japan turns up here eventually
Chrysler name games as usual- we had no Plymouth badged cars after the late 1950s, in Australia, though we had many Plymouths sold under Dodge and Chrysler names. The 1960s Fury came as a Dodge Phoenix, fitted with upgraded Monaco interiors. All Valiants were sold as Chryslers and for some reason Dodge tended to be a bit more up market than Chrysler until the relaunch of the Dodge brand here a few years ago!
I owned a Gen 4 Chrysler and sold it to my daughter. US manufacture is outside of St Louis. The Euro spec diesel was said to get 43 mpg and was restricted by the Californistas who hate all sane options. This from a vehicle with curb weight of 4700. The first motor was from VW and the tradoff was the VW Routan (rebadged Chrysler). Chrysler Europe roots go back to Simca and beyond.
The third generation Chrysler Voyager, oddly, used the Dodge grille treatment instead of the flossier T&C trim
Chrysler and Jeeps were popular here in the late eighties and nineties. This Voyager,
the Cherokee and the Grand Cherokee were the best sellers. And the PT Cruiser and
-somewhat later- 300C were certainly no rarities. The Wranglers were only bought by real 4×4 enthusiasts.
In those days Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge had a decent network of dealerships. The Dodge Caliber and Avenger were once on the price lists too, but they didn’t sell very well.
These cars were relatively compact (to US standards) and, what Chrysler did very well, all of the above models had a diesel engine as an option. They came from Renault, VM Motori, Mercedes and Volkswagen. Every car model here must have at least one diesel engine as an option.
I have been noticing the same recent US-market cars being popular in Sweden: Chrysler minivans, Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, Chrysler 300C. The Mustang, Corvette and Seville/STS also appear to be fairly popular. I find it noteworthy that all are niche vehicles that are highly distinctive in some way, that most of them carry a name that has a strong image earned for over a half century (Jeep, Mustang, Cadillac, Corvette), and that most are V8 powered. I think that it shows that, contrary to the negative views that many Americans have about their domestic auto industry, new American cars can be quite competitive and popular outside of their domestic market when they are distinctive and well designed.
Recent Corvettes, Mustangs, Chargers, Challengers and Camaros are all exotics here and the owners are real passionate enthusiasts.
I wouln’t say that Voyagers, Cherokees and Grand Cherokees were at every street corner in the nineties, but they sure came close !
Back then Buick, Ford USA, Mercury and Lincoln still had “official” importers. All gone now, unfortunately. Cadillac tries to hang on, won’t succeed I’m afraid. No 3.0 ltr. 6 cylinder diesel mill for example.
With gasoline prices as high as they are, I can see why US V8 muscle cars are exotics! I recently had to fill up a 1.8L Toyota Avensis, and even that was a painful experience.
Chrysler seems to have tried harder to sell in Europe than GM and Ford, which already had Opel and Ford Europe in their corporate families. As you mentioned, marketing diesel powered cars to conform to mainstream European preferences was a significant good decision. With the Voyager and Cherokee, Chrysler also had reasonably compact vehicles that filled unique market niches especially well, better than their GM and Ford competitors. Recent Chrysler products seem to be much rarer, though; am I observing correctly?
Well, I don’t know how the situation is in the rest of Europe, but Chryslers and Dodges are no longer officially imported here anymore.
Jeep is all that’s left, and a rebadged Chrysler 300C and Voyager, those come with a Lancia nameplate. All this due to the Fiat/Chrysler partnership of course.
I just checked a price list in a car magazine, I only see the Jeep Wrangler,
Compass and Grand Cherokee on the list. No more Patriot and Cherokee/Liberty.
Because of our CO2 based taxes on top of the factory price anything with a big gasoline engine is completely overpriced !
I mean, a Wrangler V6 gasoline for nearly 77,000 euro….you must be some hardcore fan to pay that sum of money for a new basic offroader !
I see US V8 pick-up trucks quite regularly, but only as a “commercial vehicle” (owned by people who run their own business) and with an LPG-system, often an American Impco system.
Chryslers are still sold as such in some markets (the U.K. gets a version of the 300, in fact), but if I understood it correctly, Fiat decided that they wouldn’t use the Chrysler badge anywhere they were selling Lancias and vice versa.