Yahoo Autos 1987 Plymouth Grand Voyager LE: The Minivan's Next Big Leap
From the July 1987 issue of Car and Driver.
We know that a lot of you would rather go ten rounds with Leon Spinks than slide behind the wheel of a van. Any van. And we know who you are, so don't try to hide. We see you in the morning playing Nelson Piquet by weaving back and forth in your lane, warming your tires for the off-ramp. In your frame of reference, vans are for delivery geeks, teenagers overdosing on hormones, and young couples who haven't learned the subtleties of birth control. Forgive us if we call you insular and shortsighted. For a significant portion of the motoring public, vans are absolutely necessary. Not necessary evils, mind you, like high-fiber diets or strip mining, but just plain necessary. To a lot of people, vans are as much a staple of civilized life as napalm-grade chili verde or a clean video copy of Double Indemnity. And vans don't exact as large a penalty on driving fun as you might think.
We first learned that vans don't have to be penalty boxes four years ago when Chrysler introduced the T-van twins, the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager. We found that you could slide a T-van into a standard garage without rearranging the ceiling, and that no major recalibration of your driving style was required to feel comfortable behind the wheel. Aside from the fact that the trunk started at the back of your neck, the T-van gave the driver all the usual car cues: a soft ride, middle-of-the-pack steering feel, excellent sound deadening, even adequate handling.
Last January, in response to the V-6 offered in the Chevy Astro and the Ford Aerostar, Chrysler introduced a Mitsubishi-built 3.0-liter V-6 for the Caravan/Voyager. With the newfound power and smoothness, the T-twins moved one step closer to passenger-car refinement. Now, taking a step in the other direction, toward traditional van virtue, Chrysler is offering a longer cabin as well.
Sliding a V-6 into the same space occupied by an in-line four might sound like a shoehorn operation, but the T-van's engine bay was in fact designed from the beginning to accept a larger powerplant. The addition of the V-6 adds only 50 pounds to the van's overall weight: the engine itself weighs 30 pounds more than the Mitsubishi 2.6-liter four, which was the largest optional engine before the introduction of the six, and about 20 pounds of additional front structure comes with the new motor. The total weight penalty for the V-6 and the additional cabin space is 300 pounds.
The extended versions of the Caravan/Voyager carry a "Grand" prefix to distinguish them from their standard-length stablemates. The overall length has increased to 190.5 inches, 14.6 inches longer than the standard van. Of that extra length, 7.0 inches was gained by stretching the wheelbase and the remainder came from adding bodywork behind the rear wheels. In the past when Chrysler needed to stretch its full-size vans, the alteration was accomplished crudely, with extra flanges and a welded-on bustle. In the case of the Caravan/Voyager, the body engineers specified all-new exterior stampings.
The base engine for the standard-length van is still the ever-popular 2.2-liter four, producing 97 hp. Chrysler's 100-hp, 2.5-liter four is optional in the standard van and base equipment in the stretched model. Either version can be ordered with the new 3.0-liter V-6, which produces 140 hp. (The Mitsubishi 104-hp 2.6-liter is no longer available.) The V-6 comes only with a three-speed automatic transmission. The other two engines are available with either a five-speed manual or the automatic.
The suspension of the Grand minivan is virtually identical to the standard van's, though the rear longitudinal leaf springs had to be lengthened three inches when the wheelbase was stretched. The reason is that the mounting points for the rearmost bank of removable seats would have interfered with the springs' mounting points in the floorpan. Rather than sacrifice rear-passenger legroom, the engineers chose to design longer springs. The spring rates are slightly different, too, but the overall ride rates of the standard and Grand versions are identical.
One of Chrysler's criteria for determining how much cargo space the longer van would offer was the ability to accommodate the familiar four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood. (Van guys consider plywood as much a staple of suburban life as GroMulch and variable-rate mortgages.) Remove the Grand van's rear benches and the cargo hold can swallow as much plywood as an owner would care to haul. You can shut the rear door on it too, without the need of unsightly rope. With the rear seats removed, the stretched van's cargo volume is 150 cubic feet, twenty percent greater than the standard van's. In addition, the V-6 increases towing capacity from 2000 to 2750 pounds.
If carrying people rather than plywood is your priority, your rear passengers will find their lives measurably improved. Legroom for both second- and third-seat passengers has been increased. The only dimension that seems to have suffered is the second seat's headroom, which is reduced from 38.5 inches to 38.3, but this isn't a major sacrifice unless one of your passengers is wearing a beehive hairdo. Every other critical dimension has either remained the same or improved.
In addition to the extra room, the rear riders are treated to such ambassador-class amenities as cup holders molded into the plastic bulkheads and ashtrays to keep them from parking their chewing gum under the seats. They are further coddled by fairly comfortable benches upholstered in grippy fabric and by deep, living-room-grade carpeting. Wind and road noise is subdued, so it's possible to converse at normal levels of speech. For ventilation, rear passengers can rely on the vehicle's excellent climate-control system or pop the flip-out windows. And thanks to the extended cabin, there is now sufficient room behind the rearmost bench for most of their luggage.
The driver and the front-seat passenger are treated to first-cabin accommodations in the form of big, comfortable seats. Our fully optioned Grand Voyager LE test sample was equipped with six-way power adjustment for the driver's seat, while the front passenger's seat offered only fore-and-aft travel and a reclining seatback, both manually controlled.
Overall, the Grand Voyager provides a pleasant and comfortable environment, whether you're slogging around town on plywood runs or trekking cross-country with the babies on board. Unless you have luggage stacked to the headliner, visibility at all compass points is terrific. The optional roof console features individual map lights, a digital compass, an outside-temperature gauge, and compartments for a garage-door opener and sunglasses. A fold-down tray in the center console offers two depressions for road drinks, but they're too shallow to be truly useful; one good corner and you'll be mopping Slurpees off that thick carpeting. In lieu of a glove box there is a slide-out bin under the front passenger's seat (a feature introduced in the original T-vans), but it's inaccessible to the driver while on the fly. The instrument cluster houses an 85-mph speedo (13 mph short of true top end) and gauges for oil pressure, engine temp, fuel level, and voltage.
Whether lightly or heavily laden, the V-6 provides enough smooth power and the suspension is competent enough that you almost forget you're piloting a minibus. This maxi-minivan's ride quality, steering feel, bump absorption, overall handling, and reassuring feel of being solidly planted on the road are without a doubt the best in its class. In fact, our Grand Voyager test van felt better in many ways than some of Chrysler's conventional passenger cars. Within limits, it was fun to drive—and definitely not a penalty box. Although we can't point any accusing fingers at the new van's mechanicals or basic goodness, we must urge care during the ordering process. Our test unit, as you have no doubt noticed, was equipped with the rolling-coffee-table wood-grain side molding and wire wheel covers—a retina-searing combination guaranteed to raise questions about your taste in motor vehicles. We'd like to see Chrysler scrap that whole ethic and opt for cleaner, simpler exterior decor. The Caravan/Voyager twins sit at the top of the minivan market, and they should look as slick as they are.
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