My friend's nanny had one of these, she bought it when she first came to Canada from the Phillipines and ran it into the ground driving the kids everywhere, but she loved it so much that even after she bought a replacement, she kept her old one and spent idk how much money fixing it. She still summer drives it, even though she's not a nanny anymore and her own kids have gone off to university. She says its because it was the only thing that gave her comfort and peace while she was adapting to a new country.
I really love rcr for being this haven of people who just really love cars in general, who aren't necessarily in "car culture" but can understand and appreciate the attachment some have for their wheels, or just enjoy the things that aren't typically what we're supposed to look for according to the auto industry. I find those old, unremarkable, non-appreciating old shitboxes kept alive by their passionate owners to be the coolest things, and I'd drive her old minivan over a lot of other things. These things will never be youngtimers, they'll never be worth anything to the market, but they're worth something for the owner and that is enough. My first and currently only car is a Citroen C3 XTR, a diesel french hatchback from the early 2000s, but fuck me I'm not scrapping this thing until a train t-bones it
“Fine, Marvin, you wanna steal my smokes from me, go ahead. But your friends will kick the shit out of you when they see you sucking down one of my Virginia Slims. And no, you can’t bum any of your dad’s Winstons. He changed the combination on the gun safe, so good luck with _that,_ you little asshole.”
"Oh. A '94 Caravan is now parked on my street. I know what's coming next: FOUR POLICE CARS." This made me laugh so hard I cried and now my stomach hurts.
Any time one of these comes into my shop I know I'm going to end up writing a medium length novel on everything wrong with it, and I'll be lucky if they spring for an oil change.
I drove one to school and parked in a nearby subdivision because I didn’t have a parking pass to use the school’s lot. Cops called my parents a few hours later because it looked “suspicious.”
this is true in most midwestern black neighborhoods; each street has 4 (usually white) single moms, with a bevy of gleefully untamable mixed kids that are a puberty and a fun bad idea away from forming their own sibling-gang.
Oh yeah! Then again, our 02/03 Plymouth Voyager (it's replacement) also carried on the tradition of Chrysler quality with the constant squealing fan belts and sticky arm rest compartments that you literally went to war with for at least 10% of any given trip.
@@jayive34 ouch... that hurts. I have done OK in life but NO, My dreams of being a fighter pilot are over. I just could not keep my second head out of the bush.
Hey I wouldn’t be where I’m at now if it wasn’t for a Dodge Caravan. It’s given me awesome experiences until a man who gave up on his dreams crashed his Isuzu Rodeo into my van. 😕
@@sammy13ificationable Well, yes, you could, but then you'd be that guy with a turbo van and of all the chryslers that can make choo-choo noises, the caravan's novelty will wear off the fastest.
He’s technically not wrong. If my memory serves me correctly, our country is a republic rather than a Democracy. Nothing wrong with that of course, as being a republic has served us well.
bro mr regular getting a lil too reel there for me ik his responsibility talks are needed but man that's not what im trying to do but ig im learning things about my time i didn't know when i was a 90s SOB
I was a freshly licensed 16 years old, my gf was 14, her dad let me borrow his van so we could go to the city, it was an old caravan like that. Nothing bad happened, but I gotta say, it sounds weird when I think back, I'd never let my kids do this, lol.
It has three needles. My 97 Jeep Cherokee has that beat with two needles: speed and fuel (in the position and size of the tachometer). Everything else is guaged-sized idiot lights where the gauges would be on every other trim.
No it is not. Far from it. They are still on the road because they sold in the hundreds of thousands and they are reliable and dependable. The manual transmission ones are the FIRST to hit the junkyard because when you are living on $1k a month you cannot afford to fix shit like that. They end up scrapped and the person goes and buys a used Corolla or something. Also MT models sold in the least numbers when new because your target market for a minivan did not want a manual, and much of the manuals that did sell in the decades since have ended up in Russia from gray market mafia exports. Which also segways into why the Camry AllTracs are rare. Putting a locking 4WD sedan into the hands and price bracket of a high school and college student ensured they all were scrapped before the millennium even hit. They need a lot of maintenance and upkeep - something car owners are incapable of anymore.
The manual transmission is the total value of the car, I would not be interested in it otherwise. Also, if the current owner is entertaining bids I am prepared to make a reasonable offer
Holy shit the "kickstarting a political discussion with your nurse as they hook up the IV bag" is scary accurate. I lost track of how many times a patient has tried that with me. I just wanna be like, if I give you morphine will you stop talking about politics please.
Yeah, so true. There are so many more appropriate topics, if the nurse has the time and inclination to chat. While on chemo I got to know the nurses in the infusion clinic pretty well, because I was in my thirties and superficially well, where most of the patients around me in beds were ancient or very ill. Still, I'd never have brought up politics.
This review makes me feel like I understand the experience and asthetic of a 3-4 child, divorce-ridden, rural-area, overwhelmingly conservative family with a sub 60k household income from the Midwestern US in the mid 2000s, despite being Canadian, urban, and hardly remembering the time period. RCR is a storyteller.
This is a sub 40k income car at least. Also this seems more like a weird gen x formerly conservative but now liberal car. This might just be me projecting my own weird family events and issues on to this car.
3:10 "Oh, a '94 Caravan is now parked on my street. I know what's coming next! Four police cars." Absolutely accurate, and absolutely hilarious. Bravo!
In 1997 a Taco Bell opened in my hometown and we set the single day sales record on opening day. There was a line out the door. I was there. That gordita was worth the wait.
My friends and I left the strip club with 2 dancers one night. The one dancer had a 5 speed caravan with three child seats in it. We all piled in and went home to party. What a great night.
This one hits home. My parents bought a first-gen Voyager when I was born and they got the 5-speed manual. I learned how to drive in its 1992 replacement but they went for the automatic on the second one. Many years and 3 transmissions later, they traded it in for a '04 Forrester that they still have. And, yeah, my town went nuts when the Taco Bell opened. It was like we'd finally made it. No more driving to York for Taco Bell, and yet, we never seemed to go to the local one.
I learned to drive in one of these. My favorite feature was the blown out shocks that let me go whatever speed I wanted over train tracks. Didn't matter.
You forgot that the kid seated on the right hand side of the back bench had the unspeakable power to pull the handle to flatten the back seat at any time, causing their siblings to crash backwards when they least expected.
Kinda reminds me of the second gen Renault Espace we got here in the UK. My dad and granddad each had one back in the early '90s and I have fond memories of them. But if I saw one now, it would also conjure the same feelings as these Caravans apparently do. The few survivors are run into the ground in the same way that their owners are run into the ground.
Wow I was thinking the exact same. When I was a kid in the 90s my mum had a mark 1 Espace, huge white thing, and then a fiat ulysse after that, which was the first car I learned to spanner on as it sat in the driveway for months with bald tyres and failed MOT. The family car of choice is now a german SUV for rich people, or a crossover hatch thing for poors. The only people you see with old MPVs are those who want a cheap hack for trips to the tip, or just as a dog car, no ones gonna preserve them
Funny the espace 2 jumped to my mind also, even though i've never even been inside one. They just embody so much the spirit of abandonning everything in favor of practicality. The part about being grossly underpowered match so well too :/
@Richard Harrold The Espace was something I always envied from here in the US, but Renault had already blown it a few years earlier with the AMC acquisition. They tried selling a few models here, but the only common one was the Alliance/Encore, American-built versions of the 9 and 11. My family had an Alliance. It was comfortable, roomy, and quiet, and we were all fond of it, but it was seriously underpowered, especially at altitude, and the poor reliability was astonishing. That car spent a ridiculous amount of time in the shop,, and they weren't small things. We were used to the gross unreliability of 1970s American cars, but that Renault was far worse. It was finally replaced by a Ford Escort that broke a lot less often, but which my mother, who usually barely noticed cars, detested for being cheap and ugly. The Renault may have been a disaster, but it felt a lot more cheerful. Some of that was just color. It was a nice metallic red, where the Escort was a dreary flat grayish blue.
My dad imported a 1st gen Voyager from Germany into Lithuania and it honestly ruled, later on he got a 2nd gen in late 2000s again from Germany in mint condition and it also honestly was great. They were never too cheap here and were kind of actually considered to be a bit of a fancy family car as you had to afford the gas to run them compared to the typical vw or audi station wagon.
@@Marklin15 Mr Regular was slightly wrong on this. It sat for 5 years until I got it last year. The guy I bought this from purchased it from a repo auction / lot. The lady that it was repo’ed from keyed the leaving hell out of this thing. It was still keyed when I got it, except the exposed metal was rusted to hell. I spent countless hours fixing up the keyed areas (plus all of the other body issues it had.)
@irwinisidro the trick is get them to give you a total vehicle price in writing (they usually try to go low here), then you reveal that you'll be buying it outright and won't be financing it.
Childhood dream. Get one of these, and replace the rear seats with a row of excessively big subwoofers. Then cruise at 10mph through suburban areas with the foulest 80's rap making dads reach for their bibles.
I've seen two 5 speeds, the one was a dark blue, no rear seats (no mounting holes), and it was a TURBO! I did the oil change on it when I worked at firestone a few years back. It was in great shape and all original.
@FBG KOut your lack of compassion is telling. I'm sure several were. But 6 were in the navy. And one ran a marathon every weekend. Over half of them were under 35. Even if this disease has a high survival rate you are ignoring it's high contagiousness. A 99% survival rate means alot less when it infects people at a rate 1000 times more than say, the flu. Seriously tho, yo have me curious. What the hell does abe simpson mean?lol
There is a 94 Dodge Caravan in my neighborhood... I know its previous owner... and know who owns it now, alot of truths about what this van represents now.
My dad had this van when I was growing up, and you basically nailed every single thing about it. When he had it, he was a man with an established career and an established family, living in a quiet middle class neighborhood, so a Dodge Caravan was basically the cherry on top of that "I have my life together" vibe. Now when you see one of these, the vibe is the exact opposite. You can smell the meth and broken dreams just looking at this thing. I've always loved how poignant you get with your videos, especially at 10:34. "Embrace the transience and impermanence of your car. Enjoy it for a limited time in participating lifetimes, because so are you."
my neighbor and former friends dad had one of these. they got it from their grandma after theyre Mitsubishi Montero blew up cause they started taking things off the car too scrap for meth money. ended up selling the villager after taking off the exhausts cats and anything else they could scrap. shame what drugs do too people
'94 AWD Model Vet here. I got to many parties in the deep woods while 2Pac and Biggie were the shit, past Grand Cherokees, >96 Blazers, and some Wranglers that had more capability than their drivers. 1999-2001 were great years for that van until I learned that steering lock to either side + a nice ~3k-rpm drop from neutral to drive on an ice laden parking lot would result in a spin centered around the single side sliding door, and the NH equivalent of the carnies "gravitron" ride... until the transfer case gave out. I found the weak spot.
@@5roundsrapid263 You never see those Astro's hardly anymore. I think I saw one last week. The other one you never see anymore is the Ford Aerostar, I remember the commercial for the Aerostar compared it's profile to the shape of the space shuttle so you knew it was aerodynamic. Never mind if you ask a astronaut who's flown the Space shuttle that they compare it to a flying brick.
My parents bought one from some friends for $1 when I was 7(?). They drove it into the ground. Eventually we removed all the seats and my dad used it to move around rocks and firewood, drag logs, whatever the farm needed done. Seeing you failing to open the door cubby brought me back. It was a really great piece of shit.
My family had the MT version of this when I was in high school. I used to take the seats out, fill the back up with friends and do stupid $h!t in heavy snowstorms.
@@nthgth you probably don't have any triggering physical features: my buddy and I were getting lunch one day and some old guy accosted us asking if we wanted to send him to the gulag, presumably because her jacket had a russian band name on it
Not gonna lie, the nostalgia is strong in this video! Like Mr. Regular, I also learned to drive in a ‘94 Plymouth Voyager (99% identical, sharing even the hood ornament). By that time, vans were not cool but I didn’t care because I got to drive the van I grew up in! We took many road trips in it, and took it to weekend boyscout campouts, band camp, among many more memorable moments. The main reasons this thing has survived is because of the 4 banger and the 5 speed.
I remember back in High School (2005) a senior had one of these and it blew my ever loving mind that a minivan had a manual transmission.. That memory is old enough to drive
@@noheadundead COVAN-19! We rallied with you guys in New England; my brother and I were in the '68 Cougar, but continuous mechanical setbacks kept us from interacting with most other participants along the way. Good to see the COVAN is still going!
I see Lemons Rally stickers on the rear windows and I now know the owner is KING. Same with the van and its owner wearing matching masks, that's awesome.
I'm in a porta-potty on the north end of campus. I'm in a porta-potty on the north end of campus. I'm on a porta-potty and no one's around. Hello everybody in town!
My parents had a manual '88. White with a VERY 1980s maroon interior. It's also worth pointing out there is no tachometer, just a "SHIFT UP" light in the dash.
My parents had a '94 Caravan when I was a kid. The thing I remember most about them was the horn buttons and how weird they were. And the trick to opening the cubbys is to not let go of them and keep your fingers under the lid so it can't close. Sure, you're gonna smash your fingers but at least you can grab your sunglasses that your sister put in there
Now that makes sense. But what did they try and sell this thing for? I mean $1000 would be too much, even five years ago as has been said. Did they get 2 or 3k on this car? I can't imagine a loan is worth writing the paper work up on at $1000. But something closer to 2-3k I suspect they could write those up all day long, because they know they will make 5-7k on it over the lifetime of the loan. Those BUY HERE PAY HERE lots are just to get people into high interest loans. The cars are 10 year old high mileage cars that have no warranty to speak of. Car Lots that are located next to the Payday loan sharks. By the way these BUY HERE PAY HERE never report installment loans monthly, so you never build up good credit. Nothing to show for all your on time payments. Which for a lot of people will help their future if they have little to no credit, but five years of payments could make a difference. But they sure as hell will report your loan in default if you stop making payments.
They cut prison labor at ours so they shut down the Waffle House close to me and now the only option is the one staffed by non-convicts willingly working in a Waffle House 5 minutes away from the other Waffle House.
As someone who grew up riding in the back seat of a 94 Grand Voyager, learned to drive on it, was the car I first took out when I got my license, got laid in the back that one time, borrowed it from my dad when I bought my first motorcycle to haul it back, and still use it occasionally to this day, this hits home. My dad still has that van, and other than a recent rear ending it got, is still in wholly working order. He swears by that vehicle. Ya know what, so do I.
I learned to drive on a 92 Dodge Grand Caravan. Dad bought it used for mom, and it took about a year for the cigarette stench to die down. It was the only van driven to band camp that one summer, but it didn't bother me much. I had freedom! Thanks for reviving old memories!
As a 2005 Caravan SXT owner, I'll proudly keep the Caravan legacy alive for at least a little while longer (regardless if it should be kept alive). RIP
So many memories - we had a '93 5-speed that replaced the '88 1st gen 5-speed. I remember being tailgated by a semi driving up a long, steep hill on the way home from a music lesson - the 4 banger was giving all it had. But wow - thanks for bringing back all the memories of the little details like the cubbies, that weird washer fluid filler for the rear window, the push button headlights (which often failed and we had to stop for 10 minutes while they calmed down before they would work again), and those pull-out cup holders, and the springy star emblem. Fun times.
Another runner-up should be a squarebody Chevy truck,ha. One thats been poorly spray painted black with overspray on the few trim pieces still on it,a set of worn-down offroad tires and more rust spots than you would care to count.
My mother had an 85 5MT Voyager when I was young. I didn't appreciate how cool a stick minivan was at the time. In part because it left us stranded so often.
And from draft dodgers to yuppies to cleaning out the Greatest Generation with their inheritances and destroying the housing market and refusing to retire because they have Hellcat payments to make while complaining that millennials are ruining everything because they are buying avocado toast instead of buying a half million dollar house on minimum wage. They still are the me generation.
@@Bartonovich52 Dude you are so on point! The boomer generation has taken everything they want and given very little back to it's offspring and their offspring. They delayed retiring by 10 years on average and that has an impact on the generations following them getting their first or second or even third jobs advancement. Because they can't advance, the younger generation can't build up a bigger nest egg, can't build wealth as fast as the boomer, everything is delayed for the younger generations behind them. Can't get a bigger house, decide to wait to have kids or have another kid, don't buy a new car, keep the old one going. It just trickles down, and not in the trickle down voodoo economics kind of way boomer so loved.
And don’t forget, they also set the qualifications for job hunters. As boomers were promoted they added qualifications that they, themselves don’t have to make themselves harder to replace. Want to know why you need a bachelors degree to work as anything other than a burger flipper? Boomers. That’s why.
My parents had a 96 Plymouth Voyager back then in the early 00’s and it would always break down. Once they got it sorted they trade it in for a custom GMC suburban with a tv/vhs player. My mom has always hated minivans after that and always gotten suvs or pickup trucks
Man watching this definitely brought some nostalgia from my childhood. My dad loved his grand caravan so much he bought a parts car for it to keep it alive
Back in 1992 our local Dodge dealer tried to sell my mom one of these with a manual. She wasn't against the idea until she drove it, the comically short shifter sitting on the floor was what kept her from buying it. She ended up in a standard SWB Caravan, with the same 2.4L as above but with the automatic. It's still with us, 29 years and 64,000mi later.
I got an ‘84 caravan 2.2 5 speed in 1987. In those days the caravans were cool. I loved that van. It was so slow, particularly when loaded, it was actually fun. Basically it was “foot to the floor” all the time. How fast you “accelerated” was dependent not on how far you pushed the gas, but on how high you rev’d it.
The hood emblem is called "Spirit of Poverty"
Underrated comment.
Yes
“Spirit of Fruit Punch Stains”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
That was good. Really good.
My friend's nanny had one of these, she bought it when she first came to Canada from the Phillipines and ran it into the ground driving the kids everywhere, but she loved it so much that even after she bought a replacement, she kept her old one and spent idk how much money fixing it. She still summer drives it, even though she's not a nanny anymore and her own kids have gone off to university. She says its because it was the only thing that gave her comfort and peace while she was adapting to a new country.
That is awesome. Thanks for sharing!!
That's such a nice story, thanks for sharing
that's probably the most wholesome sweet story to come out of a 2nd gen caravan.
The women that come over alone, sponsor their family and build a life in a new place are some of the strongest people I know.
I really love rcr for being this haven of people who just really love cars in general, who aren't necessarily in "car culture" but can understand and appreciate the attachment some have for their wheels, or just enjoy the things that aren't typically what we're supposed to look for according to the auto industry. I find those old, unremarkable, non-appreciating old shitboxes kept alive by their passionate owners to be the coolest things, and I'd drive her old minivan over a lot of other things. These things will never be youngtimers, they'll never be worth anything to the market, but they're worth something for the owner and that is enough. My first and currently only car is a Citroen C3 XTR, a diesel french hatchback from the early 2000s, but fuck me I'm not scrapping this thing until a train t-bones it
The official car of “I gotta go pick up my kid, he got detention again”
"Life is unfair"
@@eliseoarroyo2030 you're not the boss of me now
“Fine, Marvin, you wanna steal my smokes from me, go ahead. But your friends will kick the shit out of you when they see you sucking down one of my Virginia Slims. And no, you can’t bum any of your dad’s Winstons. He changed the combination on the gun safe, so good luck with _that,_ you little asshole.”
Or you just don't bother saying "again" because it's a given at this point
"Everyone else has good well behaved kids , and what do I get..."
@@alkzavaleta7876 And you're not so big.
"Oh. A '94 Caravan is now parked on my street. I know what's coming next: FOUR POLICE CARS."
This made me laugh so hard I cried and now my stomach hurts.
Any time one of these comes into my shop I know I'm going to end up writing a medium length novel on everything wrong with it, and I'll be lucky if they spring for an oil change.
Same here 😂 in a customers house, changing out a furnace, got this playing on the airpods, gets me everytime.
I drove one to school and parked in a nearby subdivision because I didn’t have a parking pass to use the school’s lot. Cops called my parents a few hours later because it looked “suspicious.”
this is true in most midwestern black neighborhoods; each street has 4 (usually white) single moms, with a bevy of gleefully untamable mixed kids that are a puberty and a fun bad idea away from forming their own sibling-gang.
The armrests sticking brought back so many memories.
When these cars came out they immediately felt 10 years old
Mine has 300000 miles has never left me stranded
Yes..
Oh yeah! Then again, our 02/03 Plymouth Voyager (it's replacement) also carried on the tradition of Chrysler quality with the constant squealing fan belts and sticky arm rest compartments that you literally went to war with for at least 10% of any given trip.
This van represents exactly how I don't want my life to turn out.
It's the car of a man who gave up on his dream and life aspirations.
@@jayive34 ouch... that hurts. I have done OK in life but NO, My dreams of being a fighter pilot are over. I just could not keep my second head out of the bush.
Hey I wouldn’t be where I’m at now if it wasn’t for a Dodge Caravan. It’s given me awesome experiences until a man who gave up on his dreams crashed his Isuzu Rodeo into my van. 😕
What if I told you could bolt a 4g63t into it
@@sammy13ificationable Well, yes, you could, but then you'd be that guy with a turbo van and of all the chryslers that can make choo-choo noises, the caravan's novelty will wear off the fastest.
“The guy whose only valentine comes from team Snapchat.” Ow, oof, my bones
Me too thanks
I'm in this photo and I don't like it.
Yep, that hurt and I don't even have Snapchat
RCR doesn't nor will he ever pull punches.
If Ya think THAT'S sad, I used to only get Christmas cards from......Radio Shack! 😳🤦♂️
A guy tried selling us one of these and I distinctly remember him saying “lemme tell ya something, democracy in America died in 1776”
My ears are bleeding
Damn loyalists!
Cyclone style on this van would be sick
1976, i can agree with.
He’s technically not wrong. If my memory serves me correctly, our country is a republic rather than a Democracy. Nothing wrong with that of course, as being a republic has served us well.
This was my first minivan as a kid, automatic, of course. Barely have any memories of it other than cheerios everywhere.
My Aunt Melody Used To Drive This Minivan in 2001.
But this was a 1994 model!
Cheerios and floor fries
I bet if you dug all the loose cereal and food from the cracks of
these minivans there would be enough to feed a small country.
Same here, only mine was a Plymouth Voyager.
The 1994 Dodge Caravan broke my parents’ heart. They had been a four car Dodge family, and this van was the last straw. They went Toyota.
Oh, so my family isn't the only one who's family went Dodge -> Toyota for life
"Responsibility always comes crashing down like a New Mexico weather balloon."
Nice.
It was actually Zoidberg :)
Ah, balloon boy, a simpler time that I’m too young to remember.
bro mr regular getting a lil too reel there for me ik his responsibility talks are needed but man that's not what im trying to do but ig im learning things about my time i didn't know when i was a 90s SOB
“I know what’s coming next...”
FOUR POLICE CARS
This happened in my old neighborhood. Don't forget the old crappy Nissan with 4 different wheels. Luckily I moved out before it consumed the street.
Or apparently the repo man.
HAHAHA
@@hemifan3925 silver altima/sentra with missing plastic hubcaps, huge scratch on the side and piles of garbage on the floor, smoking from burning oil
@@DrewLSsix if your $600 Van is getting repo'ed, you done fucked up
As a Pennsylvanianian who HAS purchased inspections stickers during a lean time.... you're doing gods work.
I was a freshly licensed 16 years old, my gf was 14, her dad let me borrow his van so we could go to the city, it was an old caravan like that. Nothing bad happened, but I gotta say, it sounds weird when I think back, I'd never let my kids do this, lol.
Helicopter parent, huh?
I think it's illegal being in a relationship with a 14 year old. I have to report you to the authorities 🥵
@@robertschnobert9090 16 and 14 is legal in canada. 18 and 14 is not.
@@robertschnobert9090 romeo and juliet laws. Not illegal unless one of them is 18
I always loved Chrysler's brutally simplistic gauge cluster.
If it works, why make it more complicated than it needs to be?
There’s a turbo 5 speed one of these on cars and bids right now or at least there was on Friday.
Sure. When they work. Ours didn't last long and it was crazy expensive to replace. Common issue. Van was such a POS. Lol
It has three needles. My 97 Jeep Cherokee has that beat with two needles: speed and fuel (in the position and size of the tachometer). Everything else is guaged-sized idiot lights where the gauges would be on every other trim.
@# 3.14 fuck off
One large reason this car is still on the road: the manual transmission.
That and the fact that they sold huge numbers of these things. I see them pretty regularly.
...the automatics were always crap in these vehicles 🤔
The three speeds that those 4 cylinders had were pretty bulletproof. The overdrive ones the V6's had sucked.
No it is not. Far from it. They are still on the road because they sold in the hundreds of thousands and they are reliable and dependable. The manual transmission ones are the FIRST to hit the junkyard because when you are living on $1k a month you cannot afford to fix shit like that. They end up scrapped and the person goes and buys a used Corolla or something.
Also MT models sold in the least numbers when new because your target market for a minivan did not want a manual, and much of the manuals that did sell in the decades since have ended up in Russia from gray market mafia exports.
Which also segways into why the Camry AllTracs are rare. Putting a locking 4WD sedan into the hands and price bracket of a high school and college student ensured they all were scrapped before the millennium even hit. They need a lot of maintenance and upkeep - something car owners are incapable of anymore.
The manual transmission is the total value of the car, I would not be interested in it otherwise. Also, if the current owner is entertaining bids I am prepared to make a reasonable offer
Holy shit the "kickstarting a political discussion with your nurse as they hook up the IV bag" is scary accurate. I lost track of how many times a patient has tried that with me. I just wanna be like, if I give you morphine will you stop talking about politics please.
2 hydros and you have a deal.
I had morphine in the hospital once. If you’re giving me some, I’ll do whatever you say...
usually i just talk about food when i get an iv because i usually haven't eaten in over a day by the time I'm getting one for my procedure
Erh..HI from Denmark :-/
Yeah, so true. There are so many more appropriate topics, if the nurse has the time and inclination to chat. While on chemo I got to know the nurses in the infusion clinic pretty well, because I was in my thirties and superficially well, where most of the patients around me in beds were ancient or very ill. Still, I'd never have brought up politics.
This review makes me feel like I understand the experience and asthetic of a 3-4 child, divorce-ridden, rural-area, overwhelmingly conservative family with a sub 60k household income from the Midwestern US in the mid 2000s, despite being Canadian, urban, and hardly remembering the time period. RCR is a storyteller.
This is a sub 40k income car at least. Also this seems more like a weird gen x formerly conservative but now liberal car. This might just be me projecting my own weird family events and issues on to this car.
3:10 "Oh, a '94 Caravan is now parked on my street. I know what's coming next! Four police cars."
Absolutely accurate, and absolutely hilarious. Bravo!
Laughing at the beginning. I paid $600 for my 94 Caravan. But that was back in 2002.
Cars lose value so fast in the US it's insane. Here where I live you'd be lucky to find a '94 car under the equivalent of 1500 USD
Togs if it’s in good shape you wouldn’t find a car under 1,000 here, no matter what year.
@@gavinthroop2839 94 caravan 200k miles $3,000. It's a classic, no tire kickers I know what I have. Cash in hand
@@gavinthroop2839 really? I find running cars for like $500 pretty often. Usually cavaliers or old saturn's but still
@@brysonkuhn3290 where do you see them? Sites like Auto Tempest? Print ads?
"It went thru 2 transmissions." That could be the epitaph of the dodge caravan.
"It went thru 2 transmissions." That could be the epitaph of the dodge -caravan.-
fixed that for ya
Only 2? 😁
Roflmao! Jatco cvt much?
“…..in 3.5 years.”
Isn't Chrysler as a whole notorious for bad transmissions?
"For the small town that gets worked into a lather whenever a new fastfood franchise opens."
That hit a little to close to home, ngl.
It’s not just small towns. The San Diego Cane’s was a M A D H O U S E when it opened here.
In 1997 a Taco Bell opened in my hometown and we set the single day sales record on opening day. There was a line out the door. I was there. That gordita was worth the wait.
@@joeandmax1 When an In-n-out opened in Scottsdale, AZ, there was a 4+ hour line. News helicopters were circling overhead. It was crazy.
My friends and I left the strip club with 2 dancers one night. The one dancer had a 5 speed caravan with three child seats in it. We all piled in and went home to party. What a great night.
Username checks out
Dirty mike and the boys!!😂🤙🤟🍻
Was that when Diamond was 8 months with her 4th ❓👶
I can imagine how that minivan smelled.
This one hits home. My parents bought a first-gen Voyager when I was born and they got the 5-speed manual. I learned how to drive in its 1992 replacement but they went for the automatic on the second one. Many years and 3 transmissions later, they traded it in for a '04 Forrester that they still have. And, yeah, my town went nuts when the Taco Bell opened. It was like we'd finally made it. No more driving to York for Taco Bell, and yet, we never seemed to go to the local one.
Only real rcr fans remember when the title was “caraven”
4 minutes ago lol
still to this moment
Still is lol
7:34 am
3/1/21
(My time zone at least)
I saved mine with a screenshot 😂
I’m going to replace the CARAVAN emblem on the rear hatch with a CARAVEN one. Lol!
Totally getting Malcolm in the middle vibes from this van
light blue with woody side panels, ahh the memories
The Malcolm in the middle van had a sliding window in the sliding door if I recall correctly.
@@nathanlewis5682
Yeah it did. Unusual feature and it was leather.
Theirs was a first gen, but the vibe is still there
@@nathanchildress5596 did first gen have the v6 engine? I thought I saw the V6 tag on the front fender on the Malcolm in the middle van.
I learned to drive in one of these. My favorite feature was the blown out shocks that let me go whatever speed I wanted over train tracks. Didn't matter.
Mine does that too, speed bumps at 40? Not a problem. For the van, the concision is very real though.
"My dad loved his! It went through 2 transmissions!" Of course it did, it's a Chrysler product. Probably before 100k miles too
You forgot that the kid seated on the right hand side of the back bench had the unspeakable power to pull the handle to flatten the back seat at any time, causing their siblings to crash backwards when they least expected.
Kinda reminds me of the second gen Renault Espace we got here in the UK. My dad and granddad each had one back in the early '90s and I have fond memories of them. But if I saw one now, it would also conjure the same feelings as these Caravans apparently do. The few survivors are run into the ground in the same way that their owners are run into the ground.
Wow I was thinking the exact same. When I was a kid in the 90s my mum had a mark 1 Espace, huge white thing, and then a fiat ulysse after that, which was the first car I learned to spanner on as it sat in the driveway for months with bald tyres and failed MOT.
The family car of choice is now a german SUV for rich people, or a crossover hatch thing for poors. The only people you see with old MPVs are those who want a cheap hack for trips to the tip, or just as a dog car, no ones gonna preserve them
Funny the espace 2 jumped to my mind also, even though i've never even been inside one. They just embody so much the spirit of abandonning everything in favor of practicality. The part about being grossly underpowered match so well too :/
Unfortunately I can't think of the MK1 Renault Espace without thinking of Harold Shipman...
@Richard Harrold The Espace was something I always envied from here in the US, but Renault had already blown it a few years earlier with the AMC acquisition. They tried selling a few models here, but the only common one was the Alliance/Encore, American-built versions of the 9 and 11.
My family had an Alliance. It was comfortable, roomy, and quiet, and we were all fond of it, but it was seriously underpowered, especially at altitude, and the poor reliability was astonishing. That car spent a ridiculous amount of time in the shop,, and they weren't small things. We were used to the gross unreliability of 1970s American cars, but that Renault was far worse. It was finally replaced by a Ford Escort that broke a lot less often, but which my mother, who usually barely noticed cars, detested for being cheap and ugly. The Renault may have been a disaster, but it felt a lot more cheerful. Some of that was just color. It was a nice metallic red, where the Escort was a dreary flat grayish blue.
When I lived in the Czech Republic in the early 90s it was interesting to see these over there factory equipped with a manual transmission.
My dad imported a 1st gen Voyager from Germany into Lithuania and it honestly ruled, later on he got a 2nd gen in late 2000s again from Germany in mint condition and it also honestly was great. They were never too cheap here and were kind of actually considered to be a bit of a fancy family car as you had to afford the gas to run them compared to the typical vw or audi station wagon.
Honestly, the past owner probably financed this thing for $4k-$5k from a sketchy car lot using a questionable bank.
Or the sketchy lot is owned by a sketchy finance company that caters to tweakers, welfare bums, etc.
@@jaxes88 and lower-enlisted soldiers.
About 7 minutes in he mentions it was repoed about 15 years ago and sat.
@@Marklin15 Mr Regular was slightly wrong on this. It sat for 5 years until I got it last year. The guy I bought this from purchased it from a repo auction / lot. The lady that it was repo’ed from keyed the leaving hell out of this thing. It was still keyed when I got it, except the exposed metal was rusted to hell. I spent countless hours fixing up the keyed areas (plus all of the other body issues it had.)
@irwinisidro the trick is get them to give you a total vehicle price in writing (they usually try to go low here), then you reveal that you'll be buying it outright and won't be financing it.
Childhood dream.
Get one of these, and replace the rear seats with a row of excessively big subwoofers.
Then cruise at 10mph through suburban areas with the foulest 80's rap making dads reach for their bibles.
but be careful because you can find yourself in area where the bible is a case for 9mm semi auto
@@ShitHappensRLY ahh... America
Or some BONES and $uicideboy$, with some Three 6 mixed in.
I've seen two 5 speeds, the one was a dark blue, no rear seats (no mounting holes), and it was a TURBO! I did the oil change on it when I worked at firestone a few years back.
It was in great shape and all original.
"The condom broke, and now you're stuck with this dodge caravan" could have been the entire video
Took me a full 5 minutes to realize the van is wearing a face mask
The brainwashing runs deep
@@JAMESWUERTELE Some people may try to put two masks on their vehicle 😆
@@JAMESWUERTELE brainwashing? I have 23 dead friends from covid. Maybe you're the one that has been brainwashed.
@FBG KOut ??? Abe simpson???
@FBG KOut your lack of compassion is telling. I'm sure several were. But 6 were in the navy. And one ran a marathon every weekend. Over half of them were under 35. Even if this disease has a high survival rate you are ignoring it's high contagiousness. A 99% survival rate means alot less when it infects people at a rate 1000 times more than say, the flu.
Seriously tho, yo have me curious. What the hell does abe simpson mean?lol
"...for the guy whose only valentine comes from team snapchat."
Going to be honest, i feel attacked.
Yeah and I don't even drive this van, let alone any van....
i let out an audible jesus christ thats hard after this one
I feel personally victimized by that line lmao
"For the small town that gets worked into a lather whenever a new fast food franchise opens." So it's personal attacks now, Mr. Regular? 🤣
Man got welcomed into Altoona with open arms, and this is how he repays them. That's just plain rotten!
He doth project too much.
There is a 94 Dodge Caravan in my neighborhood... I know its previous owner... and know who owns it now, alot of truths about what this van represents now.
I can smell the interior of this van
Musty.
I remember a country girl driving one of those too fast on back roads, i was in fear and in love....
I would drive that van with a bumper sticker that says " the condom broke, now I drive a Caravan"
or just "the condom broke"
😂😂😂
How about "I Could've Bought Meth Instead"
@@freestang6662 more meth
"Pulling out don't work" or "Just the tip is just enough"
2:23 You just took me back to my childhood.
That part made me laugh so hard. Damn lid.
My dad had this van when I was growing up, and you basically nailed every single thing about it. When he had it, he was a man with an established career and an established family, living in a quiet middle class neighborhood, so a Dodge Caravan was basically the cherry on top of that "I have my life together" vibe. Now when you see one of these, the vibe is the exact opposite. You can smell the meth and broken dreams just looking at this thing.
I've always loved how poignant you get with your videos, especially at 10:34. "Embrace the transience and impermanence of your car. Enjoy it for a limited time in participating lifetimes, because so are you."
My childhood minivan was a Mercury Villager, called “The Pillager” by my dad. Mr. Regular I’d love to see you review one of those some day!
LoL!
Lol my dad still has his 97 Villager to this day...
@@eduardoreyes2933 your dad sounds like a smart man!
my neighbor and former friends dad had one of these. they got it from their grandma after theyre Mitsubishi Montero blew up cause they started taking things off the car too scrap for meth money. ended up selling the villager after taking off the exhausts cats and anything else they could scrap. shame what drugs do too people
This is the kind of car you would see at anime conventions
Absolutely true, there was always one of these at Youmacon, complete with an "OTAKU" vanity plate.
As either capes or long coats hop out with enough force to visibly tilt the van
It's either the van nobody will lose their virginity in or the one with more people than seats banging in the back. No in between.
I can smell the sweat already
"Yeah I tinted the back windows so I can change into my Jiraya cosplay there."
@@deathbycitrus2369 Sounds about right. I miss Youmacon.
Man that’s crazy you don’t see manual minivans all that often
The only one made since this was discontinued in 1995 was the Mazda 5 (at least in the US), and even those are hard to find in Manual.
@@SkylineFTW97 Toyota Previa could be had with a manual as well. Also rare
@@rslover65 The manual option was discontinued in the US after the 1993 Model year.
You need a free hand to smack the kids in the middle seat.
yeah because they don't sell lol
My friend had one back in the mid-aughts at college. We discovered that carrying a few cinder-blocks in the back of it improved the handling.
'94 AWD Model Vet here. I got to many parties in the deep woods while 2Pac and Biggie were the shit, past Grand Cherokees, >96 Blazers, and some Wranglers that had more capability than their drivers. 1999-2001 were great years for that van until I learned that steering lock to either side + a nice ~3k-rpm drop from neutral to drive on an ice laden parking lot would result in a spin centered around the single side sliding door, and the NH equivalent of the carnies "gravitron" ride... until the transfer case gave out. I found the weak spot.
"The illegitimate son of Sitting Bull and Teddy Roosevelt". Classic.
OGs remembering his aforementioned Caravan was the 3rd overall ep of RCR
I can't stop laughing at the door cubby bit!
*OH FOR F_CK SAKE! HOW HARD IS THAT IS NUTS, YOU CAN'T...* There we go. ( 2:23 )
It almost looks like you’re supposed to push down on it first and then it pops up....
I felt real second hand frustration lol
I laughed so hard!
Chrysler’s overengineering
The condom broke and you end up in a Caravan? It was always one of my greatest fears. LOL Classic. Nice work guys.
his accent really came out when he was trying to open the "coobie hole"
The official car of a Latino home and office cleaning service here in South Florida.
Not just South Florida, but anywhere there are Latinos. It’s either one of these or a Chevy Astro.
@@5roundsrapid263 You never see those Astro's hardly anymore. I think I saw one last week. The other one you never see anymore is the Ford Aerostar, I remember the commercial for the Aerostar compared it's profile to the shape of the space shuttle so you knew it was aerodynamic. Never mind if you ask a astronaut who's flown the Space shuttle that they compare it to a flying brick.
"I know what's coming next! 4 police cars." got me good.
1994 Dodge Caravan. Brought to you buy Poor Life Descisions. And never having enough condoms.
1994 Dodge Caravan - brought to you by “I’m 3 weeks late...”
10:45 that roadkill blends well with the subject of the video
The sound of that cubby snapping open and then closed made me go into a wave of nostalgia.
My parents bought one from some friends for $1 when I was 7(?). They drove it into the ground. Eventually we removed all the seats and my dad used it to move around rocks and firewood, drag logs, whatever the farm needed done. Seeing you failing to open the door cubby brought me back. It was a really great piece of shit.
A meth pipe just manifested itself on my desk after I saw this video.
Underrated comment
Officer I swear I was only watching RCR when suddenly....
Do you need my lighter?
@@darksu6947 Oh look, the methhead side of TH-cam
@@savagesock3598 Yay!
My family had the MT version of this when I was in high school. I used to take the seats out, fill the back up with friends and do stupid $h!t in heavy snowstorms.
Was the factory gearshift that tall?? Nevermind, just heard this one was modded.
I remember when "BOOMERS" were the "Me Generation", LOL.
Always have been...
They still are the “me” generation. Just to to a Hobby Lobby or a mc Donald’s drive thru and listen to how they treat employees.
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245 I go to places like that all the time and people are generally more civil the older they are 🤷🏻♂️
@@nthgth you probably don't have any triggering physical features: my buddy and I were getting lunch one day and some old guy accosted us asking if we wanted to send him to the gulag, presumably because her jacket had a russian band name on it
@@TheFinalFrontiersman That's fucking hilarious, if I were you I would have said yes old man, you will pay for destroying the motherland.
Not gonna lie, the nostalgia is strong in this video!
Like Mr. Regular, I also learned to drive in a ‘94 Plymouth Voyager (99% identical, sharing even the hood ornament). By that time, vans were not cool but I didn’t care because I got to drive the van I grew up in! We took many road trips in it, and took it to weekend boyscout campouts, band camp, among many more memorable moments.
The main reasons this thing has survived is because of the 4 banger and the 5 speed.
I remember back in High School (2005) a senior had one of these and it blew my ever loving mind that a minivan had a manual transmission..
That memory is old enough to drive
Head slapping moment when he explained why there were lemons painted on the front! I literally said ," OH Yeah!"
I thought they were pineapples at first
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 I did too! Then I thought they were faded pears................then when he mentioned the lemon rally was the oh yeah moment.
Well done! Thank you for reviewing my crappy van! We had a blast!
This car was parked in 1995?!
Enjoy your hunk of junk!
@@sparkybutts142 no. Mr regular mis-spoke. It sat for 5 years (2015 - 2020.)
@Jon The Motormouth you bet it is!
@@noheadundead COVAN-19! We rallied with you guys in New England; my brother and I were in the '68 Cougar, but continuous mechanical setbacks kept us from interacting with most other participants along the way. Good to see the COVAN is still going!
I was really hoping there was an album called 50 Free Hours of AOL.
11:59 love the vice grip permanently holding those two things together
The ending ballad was beautiful
I see Lemons Rally stickers on the rear windows and I now know the owner is KING. Same with the van and its owner wearing matching masks, that's awesome.
Thank you!
@@noheadundead
Been a long time since I’ve seen a manual one
@@12yearssober this was literally the first one that I’ve ever seen in person. When I saw it for sale on FB Marketplace, I knew that I had to have it.
Both are equally stupid. Too bad. This could have been a good one.
@@noheadundead
Thanks for sharing it!!!!
"The RUsty Sandusky"
Classic
I'm in a porta-potty on the north end of campus.
I'm in a porta-potty on the north end of campus.
I'm on a porta-potty and no one's around.
Hello everybody in town!
The Dodge Caravan is good for hauling kids around.
The Dodge Caravan is good for hauling kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
"Was like putting all your stat boosts into Health"
Okay, that got me
My parents had a manual '88. White with a VERY 1980s maroon interior. It's also worth pointing out there is no tachometer, just a "SHIFT UP" light in the dash.
My parents had a '94 Caravan when I was a kid. The thing I remember most about them was the horn buttons and how weird they were. And the trick to opening the cubbys is to not let go of them and keep your fingers under the lid so it can't close. Sure, you're gonna smash your fingers but at least you can grab your sunglasses that your sister put in there
Thanks !!
Dodge Caravan: the official car of "if you wait to have kids until you can afford to, you will have waited too long"
A line of reasoning that still doesn't make a goddamn bit of sense.
I imagine the previous owner, from whom this was repo’d, was a Waffle House waitress whose hours were cut in March 2020 because of covid
Now that makes sense. But what did they try and sell this thing for? I mean $1000 would be too much, even five years ago as has been said. Did they get 2 or 3k on this car? I can't imagine a loan is worth writing the paper work up on at $1000. But something closer to 2-3k I suspect they could write those up all day long, because they know they will make 5-7k on it over the lifetime of the loan.
Those BUY HERE PAY HERE lots are just to get people into high interest loans. The cars are 10 year old high mileage cars that have no warranty to speak of. Car Lots that are located next to the Payday loan sharks. By the way these BUY HERE PAY HERE never report installment loans monthly, so you never build up good credit. Nothing to show for all your on time payments. Which for a lot of people will help their future if they have little to no credit, but five years of payments could make a difference. But they sure as hell will report your loan in default if you stop making payments.
..they probably defaulted on a Title loan, that's what happens a lot. those loans are ridiculous, they're worse than loans issued by the Mob 🤨
This shit made me laugh so hard idk why.
Dude quiet down, I’m in a Waffle House right now.
They cut prison labor at ours so they shut down the Waffle House close to me and now the only option is the one staffed by non-convicts willingly working in a Waffle House 5 minutes away from the other Waffle House.
Yo, can we talk about how beautiful and perfect that outro was?
As someone who grew up riding in the back seat of a 94 Grand Voyager, learned to drive on it, was the car I first took out when I got my license, got laid in the back that one time, borrowed it from my dad when I bought my first motorcycle to haul it back, and still use it occasionally to this day, this hits home.
My dad still has that van, and other than a recent rear ending it got, is still in wholly working order. He swears by that vehicle. Ya know what, so do I.
I learned to drive on a 92 Dodge Grand Caravan. Dad bought it used for mom, and it took about a year for the cigarette stench to die down. It was the only van driven to band camp that one summer, but it didn't bother me much. I had freedom! Thanks for reviving old memories!
The turbo engines were rare, good, and VERY RARE when paired to the 5-speed manual.
I have an '89 turbo with an A/T. Bought it last April with 99k miles on it. Absolute unit in the summer time.
“I know what’s coming next: 4 POLICE CARS”
Actually whats coming next is a comment that says, "Hey, I watched the video too!"
Bet you didn't expect THAT, wise guy!
As a 2005 Caravan SXT owner, I'll proudly keep the Caravan legacy alive for at least a little while longer (regardless if it should be kept alive).
RIP
I have no doubt this very recognizable name will be revived at some point.
2.5 5mt, grew up in one of these. Thanks for the trip through nostalgia lane.
So many memories - we had a '93 5-speed that replaced the '88 1st gen 5-speed. I remember being tailgated by a semi driving up a long, steep hill on the way home from a music lesson - the 4 banger was giving all it had. But wow - thanks for bringing back all the memories of the little details like the cubbies, that weird washer fluid filler for the rear window, the push button headlights (which often failed and we had to stop for 10 minutes while they calmed down before they would work again), and those pull-out cup holders, and the springy star emblem. Fun times.
You know whenever I see one of these cars on the road now they usually look like "probable cause" on four wheels
Another runner-up should be a squarebody Chevy truck,ha. One thats been poorly spray painted black with overspray on the few trim pieces still on it,a set of worn-down offroad tires and more rust spots than you would care to count.
Loved this one guys! That song at the end was sooo good, Roman.
Thank you!
@@LimitedTimeRoman From the heart! ♥
Damn Roman, getting all the feelings at the end there.
My mother had an 85 5MT Voyager when I was young. I didn't appreciate how cool a stick minivan was at the time. In part because it left us stranded so often.
These also had the 3.3L V-6 starting in 1990.
"Were not aiming for the truck"
"Me generation," was coined by Time Magazine in the 60's to describe the boomers.
And from draft dodgers to yuppies to cleaning out the Greatest Generation with their inheritances and destroying the housing market and refusing to retire because they have Hellcat payments to make while complaining that millennials are ruining everything because they are buying avocado toast instead of buying a half million dollar house on minimum wage.
They still are the me generation.
@@Bartonovich52 “fuck you, got mine, and I’m taking yours too”
@@Bartonovich52 Dude you are so on point! The boomer generation has taken everything they want and given very little back to it's offspring and their offspring. They delayed retiring by 10 years on average and that has an impact on the generations following them getting their first or second or even third jobs advancement. Because they can't advance, the younger generation can't build up a bigger nest egg, can't build wealth as fast as the boomer, everything is delayed for the younger generations behind them. Can't get a bigger house, decide to wait to have kids or have another kid, don't buy a new car, keep the old one going. It just trickles down, and not in the trickle down voodoo economics kind of way boomer so loved.
And don’t forget, they also set the qualifications for job hunters. As boomers were promoted they added qualifications that they, themselves don’t have to make themselves harder to replace. Want to know why you need a bachelors degree to work as anything other than a burger flipper? Boomers. That’s why.
Lol. Y’all play the generational victims pretty hardcore. I think “but...the boomers!” is the new “but...Benghazi!”
My parents had a 96 Plymouth Voyager back then in the early 00’s and it would always break down. Once they got it sorted they trade it in for a custom GMC suburban with a tv/vhs player. My mom has always hated minivans after that and always gotten suvs or pickup trucks
Man watching this definitely brought some nostalgia from my childhood. My dad loved his grand caravan so much he bought a parts car for it to keep it alive
I dont watch these for the car but I watch them cause I love your style. I gotta say this one is one of the best.
there really is something melancholy about this car
Back in 1992 our local Dodge dealer tried to sell my mom one of these with a manual. She wasn't against the idea until she drove it, the comically short shifter sitting on the floor was what kept her from buying it. She ended up in a standard SWB Caravan, with the same 2.4L as above but with the automatic. It's still with us, 29 years and 64,000mi later.
This car just screams "pull me over!" Also that ending was beautiful
I Have one of these with the 3.3 v6, 4-speed automatic, and BRIGHT RED PAINT!
I love it.
I got an ‘84 caravan 2.2 5 speed in 1987. In those days the caravans were cool. I loved that van. It was so slow, particularly when loaded, it was actually fun. Basically it was “foot to the floor” all the time. How fast you “accelerated” was dependent not on how far you pushed the gas, but on how high you rev’d it.