1984 was a Great Year, The Beginning of Dodge Caravan

 

1984 was a great year!

Dynasty and Dallas were the most popular television shows; Van Halen score a hit with “Jump”; Footloose and Beverly Hills Cop were the top two movies; Tina Turner won the Grammy for ‘Song of the Year’ with “What’s Love Got to Do with It” and the Chrysler Corporation started making the Dodge Caravan, the minivan that started it all and has been marked as the greatest vehicle of the 1980s.

The Caravan kicked off when it rolled off the line in 1983, even though competitors would introduce their own minivans in years that followed, Chrysler remained the king of the market. All roads lead to Chrysler – more specifically, the 1984 model year. That year, Chrysler introduced the Dodge Caravan and its Plymouth Voyager sibling – kicking off a minivan boom that lasted from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.

Lee Iacocca, the renowned auto executive credited with bringing the Ford Mustang to life in the 1960s, spearheaded the minivan project at Chrysler after joining the company in the late 1970s.

Early ads described the Grand Caravan as “one vehicle that takes the place of an economy car, sporty car, station wagon and van.” It was a “transportation revolution”, the ads said.

Chrysler’s minivans became and overnight success, with Dodge selling and astonishing 209,000 minivans in the first model year.

Other automakers soon followed in Chrysler’s footsteps, adding minivans to their lineups, including Ford with the Aerostar, GM with the Chevrolet Astro & GMC Safari and Toyota with the Previa. Chrysler followed up its two wildly successful first vans with the upscale Chrysler Town and Country in 1990. The Town and Country was known as a van for “rich people” at the time due to its sticker of about $25,000 – roughly $50,000 today.

1990 was a huge year with two million minivans sold. By 1991, Chrysler’s vehicles accounted for half of all minivans built across the industry. By the second half of the decade, Chrysler was selling upward of 600,000 minivans each year. 

Just a year later in 1992, three million minivans were sold. Chrysler was the first company that first to offer integrated child safety seats.

A continual growth in sales, the minivans sold four million units in 1993 and then reached five million by 1995. 

The third-generation Chrysler minivans hit the road in 1996, and with their arrival, access improved as a second sliding door was added to the design. The dual-sliding-door van was hailed as the greatest automotive innovation in decades, Chrysler’s minivans racked up a lot of awards that year; including winning North American Car of the Year.

In 1998 Chrysler celebrated their 15th Anniversary of the Minivan, selling seven million minivans, they then added a new luxury minivan by introducing the 1999 Chrysler Town & Country Limited. New features include chromed wheels and door handles, body-color luggage rack, winged badge on liftgate, a rear seat with center armrest, upgraded seating material, carpeting and steering-wheel audio controls. Chrysler was the first to offer Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV) availability and rear seatback-mounted grocery bag hooks.

The 21st Century started off with a bang when, MotorWeek awards Chrysler minivans “Best Minivan” award and Dodge Caravan is the best-selling vehicle in Canada. Chrysler minivans were the first to offer a 6.4-inch (16.2-centimeter) LCD screen and wireless headphones for in-vehicle entertainment. 

2005 model-year minivan with more minivan-first features including the innovative Stow ‘n Go® seating and storage system. The fourth generation receives exterior and interior refresh, Sirius Satellite became available for U.S. Customers. Chrysler minivans begin to offer what is now known as Uconnect phone with Bluetooth wireless technology, among many other new and unique features and three-row side-curtain air bags and Occupant Classification System (OCS) are available.

In 2008 Chrysler celebrated 25 Years of the Minivan, a quarter-century of innovation and leadership. They created a unique 25th Anniversary Edition models for Chrysler and Dodge are introduced to mark the milestone.

Four more minivan-first features are introduced for the 2009 model-year minivans including: Blind Spot Monitoring System, Rear Cross Path System, SmartBeam® headlamps and swiveling third-row entertainment monitor. 

In 2019, Fiat Chrysler celebrated its 15 millionth minivan sold. Also In 2019, FCA was responsible for 54% of all minivans sold in the US and the Dodge Grand Caravan is North America’s best-selling minivan overall.

The Dodge Grand Caravan continues to sell in large numbers in Canada, at least seven times more then the Chrysler Pacifica. 

After nearly 40 years, Fiat Chrysler has discontinued the Dodge Grand Caravan. Ending its production run in August 2020. 

Chrysler is more about comfort and convenience for families, so naturally Chrysler picked up where Dodge left off by introducing the brand new 2021 Chrysler Grand Caravan. The Grand Caravan has become synonymous with affordability, safe and innovative family transportation vehicle. The Chrysler Grand Caravan is offered in both a base trim (SE) and SXT for 2021.

Standard features include seven-passenger seating with a second-row bench seat and third-row Stow ‘n Go 60/40 bench seat, Uconnect 4 with a seven-inch touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, keyless entry with push-button start and 17-inch steel wheels. Eight-passenger seating and second-row Stow ‘n Go fold-in-floor seats with in-floor storage are available.

For those who want more content, there’s the Chrysler Grand Caravan SXT, which can be compared to the Premium Plus trim at Dodge. This one adds 17-inch alloy wheels, second-row removable bucket seats with in-floor storage bins, an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat and tri-zone climate control.

All Chrysler Grand Caravan models can be had with the Stow ’n Place roof rack and the SafetyTec Group, which includes ParkSense Rear Park Assist with Stop, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross Path Detection, Forward Collision Warning with Active Braking and Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Detection. The SXT also has optional Cold Weather Group, Power Group, Trailer-Tow Group and single overhead DVD.

From a technical standpoint, the new minivan shares its platform, steering and suspension with the Pacifica. Naturally, the engine is the same 3.6-litre Pentastar V6 that produces 287 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque via a nine-speed automatic transmission. Unlike the Pacifica, however, there won’t be a plug-in hybrid model.

The 2021 Chrysler Grand Caravan will be built at the same Windsor, Ontario assembly plant as the other minivans. You can also find them right here on our lot at Manitoulin Chrysler.

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