September 6th, 2007 by John Hagen
Chrysler is again missing some important sales opportunities here. The cargo van page notes that “the rear hatch and dual sliding doors ease loading and unloading.” Dual sliding doors, yes, rear hatch, very definitely no.
For a commercial vehicle, hatches do not work. For most courier, messenger, and delivery work, hatches are slow, hard to use, and get in the way. Try to load a small skid with a fork lift, or use a courier loading dock without banging your head on the hatch.
I did this work for 10 years, much of that time as a supervisor of 25 messenger routes. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, side-opening rear doors were available on Caravans though they were advertised so poorly that many Dodge truck salesmen did not know they existed.
This could be a hot item. Vans are more versatile than pick-ups for this work. And, yes, there are full-size cargo vans available. But back when Chevrolet sold Astro vans, they were very popular in the delivery business, (while neither the Ford Aerostar nor the FWD vans could make any kind of inraod). They were cheaper to buy, much more maneuverable around town, saved on fuel, and had normal rear doors. All these items are even more important today, but there is no small van available for this use due to the lack of proper rear doors.
Whatever the new commercial Caravan sales will be, they could be increased probably 50 - 75% with a pair of side-hinged doors on the rear if they were properly advertised to the trades.
(Dave from Allpar added: What’s more, many tradesmen build shelves and other storage units inside their vans. If Chrysler provided accessible floor and roof mounting points and made optional interior-window-blocks, it would also greatly expand the usefulness of these vehicles.)
September 4th, 2007 by Dave
The Allpar All-Chrysler Registry has finally hit 1,000 vehicles. That’s far fewer than we had hoped, but it’s also a huge milestone.
We have to thank Bob O’Neill and Allpar’s many Dodge Daytona owners for putting us over the top; overall, Daytona owners are responsible for 75 of the thousand vehicles in the Registry, more than any other car. Second place goes to the Neon, with 63, and third place to the Caravan, with 52; a close fourth is the Ram at 50. The numbers then drop quite a bit to 31 for the LeBaron, and so on, with Dakota, Charger, Voyager, PT Cruiser, and Shadow all having good representation.
Ovrall, the list includes 546 Dodges, 213 Chryslers, 193 Plymouths, 34 Jeeps, four Mitsubishis, and a scattering of Eagles, Imperials, AMCs, DeSotos… and one Rover. About 10% of the cars have a turbocharger of some sort. Years represented go back to 1992 and forward to 2008; the most popular years are, not unexpectedly, the 1990s and 2000s, with 2005 and 2004 claiming the most cars, followed by 1994, 1987, 1992, and 2006. The 1970s are somewhat under-represented, and pre-1967 cars are downright rare. We have to work on that!
Thanks to everyone for registering your cars - and if you didn’t, please do it today! Just go to the forums, click on Registry (it’s in one of the white boxes with a light blue border), and put your car in. You can change your listing later. You do have to register for the forums, but long-time members will attest that we don’t spam you; we send out two or three global messages per year and you can opt out of receiving those.
Best regards,
Dave
September 2nd, 2007 by Mark Dubeau
I own three chargers, a 1972, a 1974, and a 2006. While I like the 2006, my main gripe is not the 4-door aspect, but the front end. I’ve attached a bit of a concept (I design for film and television) that I would love to see if others feel the same way about. Judging by the reaction to the new Mustang and the upcoming Camaro, I really wish Chrysler would recondition the front end to be more of a throwback to that most loved feature, the grille “maw” and hidden headlights. While it may not be as aerodynamic, I’m sure enthusiasm would skyrocket with just this bold decision. It would be worth it if all of those tuner body kit guys would set about looking at making a throwback kit like this, in between the umpteenth 1995 Civic add-on.
There is no mistaking, that grille says Charger. Let me know what you think.
