2011 Chrysler 300c Base on 2040-cars

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What we think we know about Chrysler's plug-in hybrid minivan, CUV

When the 2016 Town & Country comes to Chrysler dealerships, it will sport something no production minivan has ever had: a plug. That was on bit of news hidden in the massive Fiat Chrysler (FCA) product preview held in Detroit on Tuesday. All FCA would say about the minivan was that the Town & Country PHEV would get 75 MPGe. We know from the product preview slide (click to enlarge) that there are actually two plug-in hybrids coming from FCA. The minivan and a "full-size crossover," due in 2017. While that could describe the next-gen Dodge Journey, it could also be a brand new peoplemover. All FCA said officially was that it will be a "new vehicle or renewal of existing nameplate," which seems like an awful broad definition. We were curious to know more about these products, so we asked FCA spokesman Eric Mayne. Sadly, he was less than forthcoming, telling AutoblogGreen, "I can only refer you back to the presentations in which the PHEV is mentioned. If the answers aren't there, you'll have to wait." There are actually two plug-in hybrids coming from FCA. Well, sure, for actual facts we'll have to wait, but we can still speculate and look into the archives to see what plug-in vehicle technology FCA has offered in the past. Chrysler had an electric vehicle working group called ENVI that created products like an all-electric minivan for the US Postal Service (pictured). ENVI was disbanded in 2009. At the time, the company said plug-in vehicle work would continue, and since then we saw PHEV minivan and PHEV truck test programs from Chrysler and Ram. In early 2012, Chrysler started testing a small, 25-unit fleet of plug-in hybrid-electric Town & Country minivans with the city of Auburn Hills, MI, where the company is located. The $26-million demonstration project was funded in part by the US Department of Energy, which covered $10 million. The stated plan was for those minivans to each hit at least 16,800 miles over two years, but there were hiccups. In September 2012, for example, the liquid-cooled 12.1-kWh batteries from were found to overheat. Those batteries came from Electrovaya and were mated to a 3.6-liter Pentastar engine that could burn E85. Will any of this make it into the production Town & Country PHEV? No idea, but now we know where the company's coming from. FCA also has some EV experience with the Fiat 500e. Chrysler says electrification has been over-blown by the media.

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Chrysler New Yorker Landau Mark Cross Edition

The hallowed American tradition of the cushy, softly-sprung sedan with padded vinyl landau roof and puffy upholstery had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, but you could buy such cars well into the 1990s. Even after Lee Iacocca's modern front-wheel-drive K-Cars appeared in the early 1980s, "traditional" Detroit luxury cars based on the K platform continued to be built by Chrysler for quite a while. A great example of this is the 1983 to 1993 Chrysler New Yorker, which managed to mix up the philosophical concepts behind the plush-yet-affordable 1970 Chrysler Newport with the space-efficient, lightweight Iacocca Era in one machine. I found one of these, a 1990 New Yorker Mark Cross Edition in a Northern California yard, and I wish to share its resplendence with you as today's Junkyard Gem. Lee Iacocca wanted Chrysler-badged cars to seem like Mercedes-Benzes (a little earlier, Ford had the same idea with the Granada), but at one-third the cost, and so we saw these "crystal-pentastar" hood ornaments for quite a few years in the middle 1980s through early 1990s. While Ford had deals with Cartier, Pucci, Bill Blass and Givenchy to sell "designer edition" cars, Chrysler went with leather-goods king Mark Cross. The base MSRP for the 1990 New Yorker Landau was $19,509, and the Mark Cross Edition package tacked on an additional $2,069 to that cost (that's like getting a $4,565 option package on a $43,050 car, when figured in 2022 dollars). For that price, you got power everything: a digital instrument cluster, a bunch of extra body moldings and interior goodies, and throne-like seats swathed in vinyl and Mark Cross leather (which, I'm just guessing, could not be distinguished from the famous (infamous?) Corinthian Leather of this car's Cordoba predecessors). Padded landau roofs were big in the 1970s and fairly deep into the 1980s, but had long fallen out of favor with the under-80 set by 1990. Still, Chrysler was proud of its landaus, and this car has big badges inside and out to prove it. By 1990, most luxury cars came standard with at least an AM/FM stereo radio, and that's what this car has. If you wanted to play cassettes, you'd have to pay at least an additional $254 (about $560 today). The 1990 New Yorker belonged to the extended K-Car family, living on the same platform as the very similar-looking Dodge Dynasty. The only engine available for this car in 1990 was the 3.3-liter Chrysler V6, rated at 147 horsepower.

Junkyard Gem: 1993 UMC Aeromate Food Truck

One of my favorite things about living in the Mile High City is all the food trucks roaming the neighborhoods here. I'm a regular at such fine mobile eating establishments as Tacos el Huequito, Mikes2Kitchen, and Yuan Wonton, and I'm pleased that South Denver's metal-centric Brutal Poodle bar now has its own food truck. The sad part about food trucks, however, is that they're trucks, and sometimes old trucks wear out and have to be sent to the knacker's yard. Here's a once-ebullient Denver food truck that met that fate and now resides in a self-service yard just south of the city. This truck started out as a member of the extended UMC Aeromate family, built in Indiana by the company now known as Utilimaster. I couldn't find much useful information about this particular model, which seems to have the windshield and nose of one of the many UMC-based RVs instead of the typical long snout of most Aeromates. What I do know is that it's based on an early-1990s Chrysler minivan chassis, complete with 3.3-liter V6 engine and the instrument cluster out of a 1992 Plymouth Voyager. The 3.3 made 150 horsepower in 1993, and it was installed in Chrysler minivans through 2010. 150 horses (and 180 pound-feet) isn't much for a big truck packed with a complete kitchen, and the strain on a Torqueflite automatic transmission designed for a 3,400-pound minivan must have been severe. I think the drivetrain on this 29-year-old truck just couldn't hold up under the demands of a hard-working crew of sandwich entrepreneurs in the extreme weather and traffic conditions of High Plains Colorado. The county licensing sticker expired in late 2019, so it took a couple of years for this UMC to reach this place. Don't weep for the Little Big Sandwich Truck, though, because the LBST Empire upgraded to a newer, GM-built school bus a few years ago and appears to be slinging sandwiches outside Denver-area breweries to this day. The headlights and marker lights clearly came from a late-first-generation Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager (the second-generation Chrysler minivans, which debuted in the 1991 model year, got different noses). The grille looks like typical RV equipment. I've seen a few junked ice cream trucks over the years, but somehow a sandwich truck with a stenciled snorkeling dachshund seems sadder. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.