Rightly or wrongly, the minivan has long been imputed as the auto enthusiast’s white flag of surrender. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Plymouth is a custom minivan you might get enthusiastic about, that is, if its price proves half the battle.
A few years back I went to a local hang that was offering a $19.99 steak and lobster tail deal. Now, I do love some steak and lobster tail, and hence was really looking forward to this seemingly bargain priced and expectedly delectable meal.
Imagine then, my disappointment upon learning that twenty bucks doesn’t actually buy you steak and lobster tail, but instead a limp piece of gristle and a lobster tail-shaped dog’s chew toy. Ah-well, I guess you get what you pay for.
Perhaps equally disappointing was last Friday’s 1972 Honda N600 which, while described as having a “bolt-off restoration,” presented as a car that, well, was in need of an almost total restoration. That discordance between promise and presentation was enough to dun the car’s $5,590 price tag with a 63-percent Crack Pipe loss. Remember folks, caveat that emptor!
And now: honor guard… present SAWZALLS!
Since Plymouth is a dead brand, you might consider this custom cut-down 1991 Voyager pickup to be a desecration of its corpse. Although, considering tomorrow is Halloween, maybe that’s not a bad thing.
There’s precedence for pickup editions of minivans as the form found its way into the lineups of all three U.S. carmakers’ original minivans—the Chevy Greenbriar, Ford Falcon pickup, and Dodge A100. And of course, Volkswagen still offered (outside of the U.S.) an open bed edition of their small van well into the era of this K-car based custom.
The work done to make this Plymouth less practical but more interesting seems reasonably professional, although the energy to mate cap and cabin seems to ran out where the headliner meets the hatch. Yes, that is a Minivan hatch and glass now serving as the back wall of the shortened cabin. There’s even still the wiper shaft poking through the glass.
The bed is as high-waisted as Fred Murtz’s pants, and lacks any sort of egress other than the old lean-over. Old school Ford van tail lamps serve to both illuminate, and confuse brand loyalists. The paint seems serviceable and the truck rides high on oversized chrome steelies with plain disc centers. Overall it’s weird but oddly appealing.
The interior looks like a decent place to spend drive time, with no major issues on the dash or somewhat scruffy thrones. You’ll note a column shift here, which is for the four-speed Ultradrive transaxle. That’s paired here with a V6 engine.
There are no under-hood shots so we can’t tell if that V6 is the 142-horsepower Mitsubishi unit, or Chrysler’s home-grown 3.3 with 150 ponies. Regardless, the ad claims the truck “runs good” and has “cold A/C,” both pluses in my book.
That’s pretty much all the description we get in the ad which prefers to let the pictures do the talking. They say a lot, and while you would need to build up some upper body strength to use this as a pickup, I cold totally see it carting a little league team in an Independence Day parade, or impressing the Home Depot dude when picking up a Christmas tree. What might all that be worth?
The ad asks $4,500, or about $4,000 more than any regular ’91 Voyager might expect to command. For that premium you get both a clever conversation piece, and what seems to be serviceable transportation. Is it practical? Not so much. Is it funky? Oh hell yeah.
What do you think, is this custom Voyager worth that kind of asking? Or, does that have you saying “truck-nah?”
You decide!
Mongomery, AL Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to DominoTheDestitute for the hookup!
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