Delivery vans usually do not reach retirement age, because a hard life often means an early death in the car country. All the more special that this Chrysler Voyager Commercial is still among us.
In this section often shine cars that are cherished by their owners. Being old is not a requirement to perform in ‘In het wild’, but who doesn’t love a fresh (semi-) classic of an almost extinct species? Such a life is usually not reserved for the workhorses among the cars. ‘Nurturing’ usually does not (rightly) appear in the dictionary of the plasterers, parcel deliverers and other hard workers who drive such a bus.
This Voyager Commercial, an original gray license plate version, has therefore been exceptionally lucky. Strictly speaking, it is an American, but a Chrysler doesn’t get much more European than this. The Chrysler Voyager name was only used in Europe and the second generation of this model was built in Graz, Austria. Of course it is also a short version, which was very popular in Europe. The car is also equipped with a very un-American manual gearbox.
What this red Chrysler doesn’t have, however, is a diesel engine. It was available at the time, but the first owner of this copy opted for the 2.5-liter four-cylinder petrol engine. This may be the first sign of the seemingly exceptionally quiet existence of this order version, which was registered in 1993 in the name of the first Dutch owner. The order version was of course particularly interesting for the Netherlands, because of the tax benefits that even applied to private individuals at the time. On the outside you can hardly see it and it stays with closed windows and a license plate with a ‘V’.
The Voyager is not in competition condition, but it is neat. Major damage is not visible, the paint still looks fine and the ‘American’ is completely original. These are often signs of a loyal owner and that is also the case now: the current owner has owned the Chrysler since at least 2006. Happiness can be that simple.
Fun fact: order versions of the subsequent, more rounded Voyager generation were called ‘Dodge Ram Van’ in the Netherlands. That somewhat misplaced name actually belongs to a real Dodge delivery van that was delivered in the US for decades, but was used here in the country to distinguish the delivery version from its practical MPV brother.