OK, full disclosure: I never figured the Voyager nameplate was this old. I also caught a relatively similar Dodge version of this van (even before I bagged this beaut, truth be told), but rather than write that one up, I elected to take a trip on the Voyager instead. So much more evocative. And not often covered on CC.
Second (and far more substantial) bombshell: the only apparition on CC of this generation Plymouth Voyager, penned by Brendan Saur eight years ago, is of an absolutely identical van. And I mean eerily so: down to the colour, the trim level, those wire wheel covers and the curtains on the windows. CC Effect on steroids?
Brendan’s 2013 article was based on an e-Bay listing, so perhaps this is the exact same one. It was for sale, after all, so maybe the buyer was Japanese. Stranger things have happened, I guess, though finding the very same 1977 Plymouth van on the wrong side of the Pacific about decade after it was featured on CC would be right up there.
Those wire wheels are dodgy (plymouthy?) as anything and have clearly been added sometime later. Looking at the 1977 Plymouth Voyager brochure, the stock items were just as bright, but more tasteful.
It’s always a great help to have the brochure, so let’s peruse it a bit more. Our feature van doesn’t have that funny step in its floor that longer ones have, so it is therefore an eight-passenger version.
Just one more page, as this’ll save me from writing a bunch of technical stuff and add typos here and there. I have no idea what engine is in the van I found, but now we know what the choices were.
So let’s get back to the CC at hand. I’m not sure what the “sport” element is referring to here, by the way. I mean, they always like to add that word to family cars to make them sound less vanilla, which is fair enough. But on a gigantic ‘70s van?
From the side, I would be hard pressed to be able to tell this Plymouth van from a mid-‘70s Chevrolet or Ford, though I guess the latter did have a squarer snout. The Big Three really didn’t try to rock the boat too much, van-wise. After the demise of the Greenbrier in 1965, the basic blueprint for the American van was set in stone – until Chrysler went mini and FWD in the ‘80s.
Whoever ordered this back in 1977 forked out for the Sport’s optional interior package, with the “cloth-and-vinyl high-back Commander seats” (which may or may not swivel). The extra fans might indicate that the A/C box was not ticked on the options list, however.
More of that barcode-themed upholstery for the back seat. There ought to be another bench behind this one, but there was a lot of stuff back there. Remarkable condition for a 45-ish-year-old Mopar vehicle.
The front end is where the Big Three vans show some semblance of individuality, and I must say the Plymouth is very nicely done, compared to its rivals. The Ford Econoline looks like it was drawn with an etch-a-sketch and the Chevrolet G20 is inoffensive. Or really bland, depending on your point of view.
Along with the very real possibility that this Voyager is now clocking its second appearance on CC, this Plymouth is quite an outstanding vehicle. Here’s hoping someone else finds it again on another continent circa 2030, still in use and still looking great in its whitewalls.
Related post:
eBay Find: 1977 Plymouth Voyager – The Ultimate Shaggin’ Wagon, by Brendan Saur
Plymouth also had a version of the Dodge Ramcharger 2 door SUV for several years.
It was called the Plymouth Trailduster.
Basically both vehicles were identical aside from grilles and badging.
Helluva coincidence, there T87.
I don’t think it is the same vehicle, or at least I hope not. Your vehicle seems to still be used to transport passengers judging by the phone mount, GPS and assorted stuff, and is obviously stored outdoors. I doubt someone would buy a collectible vehicle on eBay, ship it halfway around the world just to put it to work as a passenger van.
If you’ve followed T87’s posts from Tokyo, you’d notice that indoor parking is not all that common, and that many vastly rarer and more expensive collector vehicles he has shot are stored outside. And just because it has a GPS and such certainly doesn’t suggest this is used in some commercial passenger hauling use, which would be profoundly unlikely, other than for fun.
There are gobs of much more practical and economical domestic vans for hauling passengers. And I wouldn’t be surprised if commercial passenger hauling vehicles require special permitting/inspections/plates.
This is all too-obviously the same van.
I at first thought there was no way, but now I agree. I think it is the same van. And it’s kind of blowing my mind.
Army MWR had a fleet of these Plymouth vans based all over the world. MWR made them available to soldiers for temporary rentals. I rented one several times when I needed a people hauler for visiting family. First time I picked up the rental, I was surprised to see the Plymouth Voyager nameplate.
Outdoor Recreation also had a version converted to a small camper you could rent. Took the family to Yosemite in one while based at the Presidio.
I hadn’t known there was a Plymouth van and always associated this shape with a Dodge. Outside of the MWR rentals, I don’t recall ever seeing another Plymouth van. Since I wasn’t much into vans, I confess to never looking very close though. These may have been more common than I realized.
I’m inclined that this is the same van Brendan wrote up. Same rust in the joint on the passenger rocker, and the wheel covers are not original, to the best of my reckoning, the odds of two having the same aftermarket are not good – unless it was some sort of conversion package.
This is the ’71-’78 Mopar wire cover:
Looks like the same one to me. I’d put money on it. This is how these old American cars end up in Japan (and Europe), by being offered for sale, especially on a large platform like ebay.
Having the same parts store wire wheel covers is a possibility, the thing that is more unlikely is the parts store dual stripe tape and both have the fancy corners in the same place in under the windows in the middle of the van.
I’m with you guys – I don’t ever remember seeing that striping treatment, and I was tuned into these back in the day due to my best friend’s father’s 73 Dodge Royal Sportsman. It sure looks like the same van to me.
Rather fitting that it’s ended up in Japan, like its “Dajiban” descendants.
I never noticed that the 12/15-passenger variants had a lower body behind the front door.
You and the author are misinterpreting the images in the brochure. Dual hinged side doors were standard on all versions; the sliding door was optional on the two longer 127″ wb versions. The sliding door versions had that drop to accommodate the sliding door’s lower slide attachment rail.
That makes more sense, thanks!
I think that has something to do with the sliding side door.
Both this van and the one written up earlier by Brendan Saur have factory air conditioning. This one has the A/C control panel (one can barely make out lettering that spells out OFF MAX A/C A/C VENT…etc.); Brendan’s has that panel AND the air conditioning air conduits in the center of the dash are plainly visible.
Spectacular. For a beige van with copper accents and gold pinstriping anyway. Beige and copper, the silver and metallic gray of the 1970’s.
An excellent specimen, possibly the best one anywhere? And yes, clearly the same as Brendan’s. The license plate frame advertising Deezcrew.com appears to be for a Yokohama based US-van importer/specialist who likely brought that van over.
And once again, more proof that almost all Japanese cars that are kept exclusively outdoors are still far, far cleaner than most cars in other places that are garage-kept.
Wow, what an amazing coincidence! I’ve found a few cars that have been written up elsewhere on CC, but they’re usually within a few blocks of where they were originally photographed. But 7,000 miles away?!? This Plymouth took quite a Voyage.
I can say that the longer square nose on the Econoline produces usefully more leg and foot room having driven a Dodge van for several months and a Ford for several years. I expect the Chevy G van was somewhere in the middle.
Nissan’s late NV van was the logical extreme to this. Since it was built on the F-Alpha platform used for pickups and SUVs, it had no shortening of the nose at all. It was essentially a modern panel truck. Too bad Nissan never used that extra interior space to put in a front bench seat.
This is glorious .
Nice to see it’s saved and loved .
CalTrans bought quite a few of these in the longer, four rear seat versions with sliding side door, as crew transporters .
Right after the Freemont, Ca. earthquake I was up North buying CalTrans pickups and he bought one of these, a 1979 year model .
The original bid winning Plymouth dealer had ordered it in blue so they slapped a cheap CalTrans orange paint job on it, the inside was nicer than most fleet rigs .
It ran great for decades and eventually was given over to cash for clunkers where it got IIRC, $3,000 and took a couple days fooling with it to make it fail the tailpipe emissions test .
These were stellar and stout vans, just like the Dodge brethren were .
-Nate
Takes me back to the early summer of ’82, when the company I worked for then sent several of us to Clemson university (from all over the country) to start summer studies for grad school. I only went the one year (later completed my studies at another school after changing jobs and locations), but they did make things very easy on us (guess they wanted us to study). I flew to Greenville, was living in New England back then, but several other students brought their own cars (especially if their home location was nearer to South Carolina). I left my Scirocco with a friend up North, his wife used it while I was at school. Whomever setup the program took pity on us without our own cars so we could borrow one of the school’s vans on the weekends, we’d go into town and go out to eat, see a movie, just relax. It was a full sized Plymouth like this (minivans were 2 years in the future, excepting the VW van). We’d go into Anderson to see a movie (something requiring little thought, Porky’s was a popular choice, Conan the Barbarian, forget the others) and eat, including breakfast (loved their biscuits; now live in south central and we don’t have their equivalent here).
One weekend we choose to go a bit far afield and didn’t feel right in using the school van so we all pitched in and rented a B body wagon to go to Knoxville for the world’s fair (reminded me of working for Hertz as a transporter a few years before, where we’d pile into a wagon or spacious car if we had lots of drivers to drop off at various towns to pick up cars to drive back to our home location. Even got to do whitewater rafting trip on Chatooga river weekend before finals (the idea was that if you drowned, at least you wouldn’t have to take the finals). Most of my co-students graduated from the program (took maybe 4 years), but it was a big transition time in my life, had to decide on basically new life (new job, new location 1800 miles away, and eventually went back to studies at another school (no, they didn’t give us a van to drive around in like this one).
@ ZWEP :
There’s plenty of good Southern cooking in South Central, it’s just all at home =8-) .
I keep hoping to find a good Soul Food place like you had back then .
Good on you for getting a good education ! .
-Nate