Cindy and I had never owned a Chrysler product before, but I was a fan of Lee Iacocca just from watching him fix Chrysler. And by the early 2000s, I was about to get personal experience with one of that company’s signature products, the minivan.
So when it came time for an inexpensive, but reliable replacement for my 1977 LTD Landau (Paul N. would have been proud!), I went to my guy mechanic friend, Tim, who always seemed to either have a few cars on hand or always knew someone who did.
Tim then showed us a clean 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager LE. It was burgundy, sans Di-Noc, with red cloth and had the Quad Command seating. However, the rear bench seat was long gone, so he was selling it cheap; just $1300. With just about 90,000 miles, we were in as buyers. However, Tim sweetened the deal by giving the unit a tune up, oil change, and tires.
Soon after, we had a memorable trip.
We had not really been a Honda family, but had owned a few imports.
As I mentioned in previous posts, my mom had asked Cindy and me to move from Davie, FL to Delaware, OH, to help my recently divorced sister, Cathy, with her three kids. Once there, Cindy’s parents asked if they could fly us down to pay them a visit in Florida. Something I couldn’t do right away, so Cindy asked her parents to give her a week before making any reservations.
My employer eventually agreed to let me have time off, but by then, there were no flight seats available (at a reasonable price) for the whole family. Cindy came up with an ideal plan; Melissa (our daughter) and I would leave early enough to drive to Plantation Florida, in time to meet Cindy and our son, Jacob, as they landed.
We would not tell the in laws, just surprise them by meeting them at a dinner Cindy had already booked. The plan worked. Melissa and I followed my father in law, after he pulled up to the restaurant in his silver Acura RL with everyone with him. We let them go in and came up behind them as they waited to be seated! They were thrilled. We spent a very nice and warm week visiting family and friends. When it was time to leave, Cindy, Jacob, Melissa and I drove back to Ohio on the Voyager.
Not ours, but close enough. Image from the web.
Now about the Voyager; I was really impressed. I’m sure not everyone had the same experience as us, but it was a very comfortable vehicle. As is my highway driving habit, I dropped the wheel into my lap, set the cruise usually about 5 over, and let the vehicle do what it did best. About my only complaint was that the seats felt unsupportive, maybe a bit too soft. I’m sure the leather option would have been firmer.
Meanwhile, the 3.3 engine kept up nicely, even when traversing the mountains, and I seem to recall that we got 22-24 miles per gallon.
On our return to Ohio, Cindy had not driven the van since we bought it and soon pressed it into service. I will tell you, it became one of her favorite vehicles.
No Haynes Manual was to come to rescue our ’93.
We would go on to drive that Plymouth some 40,000 miles over the two years we owned it, including several more road trips. I felt that Chrysler had done it right, until the UltraDrive reared its ugly head. It began to shift strangely and I took it into Tim. He diagnosed the issue was the transmission was on its way out.
We discussed rebuilding or replacing it, but he advised me against that idea. He explained that certain vehicles might be worth the trouble, but the UltraDrive was not one of those. So it was time to let go. Upon purchase of another vehicle, I traded it for… $1300!
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan – This Is How We Do It Nineties Style
When the Ultra Drive on my Caravan failed after 125k miles, the service writer was amazed that it was the original transmission and was never replaced.
Another great tale Chip. Nice to have a trusted mechanic around. Until you’ve owned or driven a minivan of this era, most folks don’t understand the positives. I eventually saw the light and purchased 2005 T&C Touring 10 years ago. A bit of an abused puppy, and once it understood the love it came around. Stow and Go seating for a flat floor or seating to separate the kids, a factory cassette and CD player, and ease of entry and exit for everyone made it my favorite vehicle for a while. But during our 40,000 mile tenure, the power hatch developed a mind of it’s own,as did the side doors, plastic radiator side tank cracked, water pump failed, clear coat peeled, and the sun roof drains plugged up (easy fix in the rain). High point was camping in it, low point when it caught fire as I parked for a job interview. Leaky power steering hose sprayed on the exhaust and poof. Insurance totaled it. Only needed a new hose but wife said no.
You can’t drive them any cheaper than that!!
I had the same experience with a high-mile 99 T&C. They were really nice to drive, and while the 3.3 was no race engine, it had a fat sweet spot in the torque curve where most of us actually drive.
In the 90s, I was working for an engineering company. One of our jobs was for Chrysler to retool a 3.8 plant to make more 3.3 engines. My boss talked highly of the 3.3 in the Caravan he was driving at the time.
We had a few at work, at the airport, for on-field errands and running crews into town. Dependable (and abused a lot.) Very different from anything else when they came out.
87 new dodge caravan. !st tranny went at 60K covered by dodge. The new rebuild lasted 35K more. Had that one fixed on my own dime more like 20000 dimes that one lasted 25 k. by then I traded it in. Never bought a chrysler since. My neighbor had a 3 peed auto and that one didn’t/doesn’t break.