It is Caravan talk time

"winterlegacy, here 'till the end" (winterlegacy) 01/02/2020 at 15:10 • Filed to: Front Page

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... and I’ll start off with referencing the post that went up on the FP about a rare thing known as a manual diesel minivan.

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Being the owner of an ‘06 Town & Country, I see the appeal of these vans. I like them quite a lot, actually. They’re reasonably well designed, they drive about as well as you expect for a van, and more importantly, they actually move when you demand power from them. My family hasn’t had many V6-powered cars, and I almost want to say that the Duratec 3.0 V6 in the Montego was actually slightly less snappy than this pushrod 3.3L V6 (then again, the Aisin 6-speed auto in that car was delightful) .

But I’m getting off track here.

Given the bargain basement prices of these vans, you could feasibly import one into the US. More importantly, if you were willing to go through the arduous process of a swap , I think you could get away with having a diesel manual Caravan in the US in any generation that had the diesel motor, allowing you to skirt the 25 year rule on these diesel vans. (Or just harvest them for the manual transmissions.)

I think I know what my optimal configuration would be. While I like the AS minivans, I’d have to pick the RS platform van, post-facelift, in Inferno Red Pearl . Extended wheelbase, stow & go, Sport trim package. Combined with the manual and a diesel... hooo boy. I’d be all over it.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 15:18

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I always liked the last-gen of Caravans before they went ‘boxy’ - something about a good ‘jelly bean’ rounded design. :)

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/02/2020 at 15:19

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I like all of them relatively equally! The only generation that I don’t really like is the first generation, and that’s because of the nose.

I used to not like the 5th gens, but they’ve grown on me over the years.

E90M3 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 15:24

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That seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for a donor car for a swap. Probably a lot easier to shoehorn an drive train that was sold in the US in it. 

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > E90M3 01/02/2020 at 15:47

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Just because it’s not a practical swap doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It’s like hackers to software, just because it hasn’t been done yet doesn’t mean it can’t be done, and they’ll do it just to prove you wrong.

See: manual swaps of anything that never came with manuals.

E90M3 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 15:49

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If you’re going to go through the effort to swap it, put an SRT4 engine with its box in it or something. 

Long_Voyager94 > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/02/2020 at 16:09

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1st, 2nd, 5th. I hate the “jelly bean” body, strays away from their winning formula.

Long_Voyager94 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 16:10

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I’ll take an AS body. Lighter, more efficient, less electronics, overall better driving vans.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 16:17

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My soft spot is the second-gen as we had one when I was a kid (1993 Dodge Caravan SE, pictured)

Fond memories of that van and we owned it during the breakup of my parents so mom didn’t have the money to always do quite all the maintenance it was supposed to get at the time...yet it soldiered on like a trooper and the only issue was a dead fuel pump once. We sold when rust eventually got the best of the poor thing....I still miss it!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Long_Voyager94 01/02/2020 at 16:18

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I’m not as big a fan of the ‘jell y bean’ third-gens, but I quite like the 4th-gens for some reason!

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > E90M3 01/02/2020 at 16:36

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Oh yeah no, the SRT4 motor is absolutely the way to go for stupid power. The diesels score 30ish MPG though.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Long_Voyager94 01/02/2020 at 16:38

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The AS is my favorite generation as well, but stow and go still feels like black magic to me.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/02/2020 at 16:41

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My grandfather had an ‘03 GC Sport in the same tint of red, much like the one I used for the article - just pre-facelift. It had the stow & go seating. His next leased vehicle was an ‘06 T&C EWB in Butane Blue Metallic (the same color as my van!) with every single feature under the sun. Power doors, power liftgate, DVD player, drop-down center console display, included headphones... that thing was nice. No stow and go, though.

vondon302 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 16:58

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Why FCA doesn’t make a srt van I'll never understand. 

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/02/2020 at 17:47

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Needs more jelly bean.

My family bought a supercharged Previa All-Trac not long after I was born. I have a strange soft spot for these things, mostly because it was the first car my family owned that I actually have memories of. 

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/02/2020 at 17:47

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Just because it hasn’t run Doom yet doesn’t mean it can’t run Doom.

Long_Voyager94 > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 01/03/2020 at 06:54

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If I had to choose, I’d go 3rd gen every time.

The 4th gens gained too much weight and their engines lost low end grunt thanks to the updated top end design, so they feel so sluggish and they handle terribly.

Long_Voyager94 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/03/2020 at 06:59

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I actually prefer the straight benches of the 2nd gen to the SNG seats.

The reason is 2 fold:

1. With the standard seating in my 2nd gens, I don’t have to lose seating to carry long objects ( like lumber ), I can just slide it under the seats and still have seating for 7. If I need to carry a larger object, I just remove the middle bench and move the rear bench forward, this gives me seating for 5 + a massive cargo area. With SNG, you have to lose seating to utilize the space, which kinda defeats the purpose if you have a family.

2. The weight. SNG tacks on another 800-1000lbs. The difference in driving a non-SNG 4th gen and an SNG 4th gen are night and day. Without SNG, the 4th gens actually drive pretty decent, with it they feel like heavy pigs.

Long_Voyager94 > vondon302 01/03/2020 at 07:08

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There was talk for a while when Sergio was still around of doing a SWB van based off the Journey platform.

The theory was to make a new SWB minivan with the option for AWD and Turbo 4 power.

Long_Voyager94 > E90M3 01/03/2020 at 07:57

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3.6 Pentastar/6-speed should bolt right in.

Getting it wired and working right would be the biggest issue.

That’s what’s kept me from doing it on my 1994. It bolts right in, but the wiring sounds like a nightmare.

Long_Voyager94 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/03/2020 at 07:58

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Eh, SRT4 is overrated.

The stock 3.3/3.8 can handle boost. Just put a small turbo setup on it and it’ll make more power with obscene amounts of torque for way cheaper!

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > vondon302 01/09/2020 at 13:01

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Can’t have it touching the Durango.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Long_Voyager94 01/09/2020 at 13:06

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If this van survives the next couple of years I might just try to cram one of those metal snails in there.

First stop is making sure the van runs, drives, and turns over every day without incident. I’ll probably make a post today about what it’s in need of.