hello dodge family

my name is jay and I am a young guy in my 20's always fascinated by chrystler/dodge minivans that were once a time a dozen in the 80s and 90s. Being the guy I am, I looked into if dodge produced any strange runs of the dodge caravan and I was surprised; there was a short-live turbocharged model produced. For years I always wanted one but could never to seem to find one, and if I did, it was rusted for parts-only. Being from Ontario and a hockey playing family, everyone had old caravans in town because they just would keep working. This was all until last week when I was at school.

Looking on facebook marketplace, I found a gentleman listing a "1989 dodge caravan" in burgundy/purple for sale for with only 84,000 km on the clock. From my knowledge I knew something was off about this van, and it was in fact a turbocharged 2.5L 4-banger caravan. The decals gave it away. I immediately begged the gentleman to reserve it for me, and I would swing by at a moment's notice. But unfortunately, 2 buyers had already reserved their interested only after 45 minutes of posting the car. It wasn't until days later he got back to me and both buyers bailed & tire kicked the van. I rolled by and it was the real deal, a 1989 Dodge caravan with the factory turbocharged motor with only 84,000 km on the odometer.

I bought it.

My brother being the jack-of-all-trades he is in rebuilding Nissan Skylines, American muscle cars and regular Japanese commuters, had to see it before I handed over the cash. Even he couldn't explain how clean this example is. It's the real deal and I am now a proud owner of it. The previous seller drained and replaced all the fluids, brand new tires, new fuel tank and lines, serviced brakes and it came with a full tank of gas. Would like to add, it's way quicker than I ever imagined.

From what I gathered, it was owned by a chinese-immigrant family who bought it new, serviced it regularly and moved back to China with the caravan sitting in the garage for over 20 years. The son, who they drove as a baby, owned the seller some money and gave the caravan as collateral, and I bought it after the fact.

This may or not gain some attention but I am looking for the factory floor mats for this vehicle as I learned they weren't a standard option like present-day cars. In the red/burgundy color.

Thanks for looking

 

Nice find! Good luck with it!