[Bond007]

The Voyager will have an LXi trim version which is the top of the Voyager line. It is also the one designed for fleet and rental sales only. It will not be sold new through dealers. It will have leatherette seating and is the only Voyager with Stow n Go middle seats. In two or so years the LXi will show up as used cars in dealer lots, and will be a pretty well equipped vehicle that will move easily. One interesting LXi touch: it gets the garage door opener, which seems stupid on a rental. However, it will be a nice selling point when they are sold to suburban families.

The other two Voyager trims will be for retail. They will lack things like power side doors and lift gate, Stow n Go, and deluxe center console. They have a 7" display instead of the 8.5. Remote proximity fob is for the driver door only. In other words, they are a really stripped Pacifica. I think the reason is to give dealers something to advertise for around $20K without having to explain why a Pacifica in stock actually costs $34K!

Is this only speculation or statement from FCA?
I’m sort of in two minds about this stripped out Pacifica, aka Voyager thing. My question is, will the Voyager be comparable to Dodge GC in price (and features), if no; then I believe FCA will lose market share. The biggest advantage of GC is the sheer value for money. That includes the huge discounts you can get with Dodge products as well. As far as I know, the GC is pretty well equipped as well with stow go seats and has a very comfortable ride. That would make the Voyager simply non competitive save the fleet version.
One good aspect is that we can see how many Pacificas are actually bought by consumers vs fleet. Hopefully they have done enough ground work and researched out all possibilities and scenarios. Wishing them good luck.

 

[SWPacLim]

Is this only speculation or statement from FCA?
I’m sort of in two minds about this stripped out Pacifica, aka Voyager thing. My question is, will the Voyager be comparable to Dodge GC in price (and features), if no; then I believe FCA will lose market share. The biggest advantage of GC is the sheer value for money. That includes the huge discounts you can get with Dodge products as well. As far as I know, the GC is pretty well equipped as well with stow go seats and has a very comfortable ride. That would make the Voyager simply non competitive save the fleet version.
One good aspect is that we can see how many Pacificas are actually bought by consumers vs fleet. Hopefully they have done enough ground work and researched out all possibilities and scenarios. Wishing them good luck.

I think you have to remember these vehicles are already selling now simply as base trim Pacificas. They're simply changing the badge on the back, it will sell to the same people who are buying those trims now (mainly fleets).

The GC is archaic, and not nearly as safe a vehicle as the Pacifica. Sure, they're cheap, but personally I would buy a used Pacifica before I bought a new GC for the safety benefits alone.

 

[Bond007]

I agree about the age of GC and the safety features. I’d like to know how does this base Pacifica/ Voyager compare to let’s say a Kia Sedona which I believe is pretty cheap and may be loaded with options too. In that case why would a fleet operator prefer the FCA product vs other cheaper rivals. With GC no one can compete on price, but with this base Pacifica they can.

 

[Norbert]

While I agree the GC is an aged product, FCA just last year shut down the factory to upgrade the GC line to conform to current safety regulations. And if a family is in the market for a people mover in the low $20s, its probably the only game in town.

 

[SWPacLim]

I personally would not trust the GC until I saw another one tested.

IIHS doesnt give them any change in ratings for 2019:

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/dodge/grand-caravan-minivan/2018

 

[Cornfield]

I purchased several Grand Caravan base models as cargo vans for my small business. They were spacious enough to carry 8' long items, and work crews. Also very reliable and cheap. I like them.

 

[Frig]

I personally would not trust the GC until I saw another one tested.

IIHS doesnt give them any change in ratings for 2019:

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/dodge/grand-caravan-minivan/2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_-q1EJjA8o

Crash tests only go so far as compared to real world situations. I believe they gave the GC 4 stars, the side impacts looked great from what i remember when i was researching, and it's a solid, well proven design. Pacificas are better but that doesn't mean the GC isn't acceptable either. And manufacturers do all sorts of tricks that pass the tests, but that may not translate into real world. Just stating the obvious.

 

[SWPacLim]

Crash tests only go so far as compared to real world situations. I believe they gave the GC 4 stars, the side impacts looked great from what i remember when i was researching, and it's a solid, well proven design. Pacificas are better but that doesn't mean the GC isn't acceptable either. And manufacturers do all sorts of tricks that pass the tests, but that may not translate into real world. Just stating the obvious.

Worst performance ever in the small overlap crash test. Not for my family, thanks. All you can do is take the information that is available and use that to make the best decisions you can. If you were to have a family member or yourself involved in an accident in that van and have somebody life alteringly hurt or killed your response wouldn't be "Well, I saved that $5,000 at least"

 

[tdietro]

Thats a little bit of a different situation, but there's no need to be snippy, its just my opinion. I know several people who rent cars whenever they go on a trip, I just don't get it.

Sorry if it came off that way, I wasn't being snippy.

We expressly bought the Pac for road trips, but we didn't expect to have to make 4 round-trips in a year.

Ironically, I had a business trip early in 2018 and it was close enough to do a rental or use my personal car. My family wanted to go, so I rented a van. Got a Pac Touring-L and we were so impressed we went out and bought our Pac Limited several months later.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[voiceofstl]

voyager has to have FU:LL stow&go or it won't sell.