PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

While the 1994 Grand Caravan was very reliable, it was not without its quirks...

For starters, there the rear view mirror that would randomly detach itself from the windshield, which I mentioned above...

Then, in 1997 or so, the van suddenly started experiencing bizarre electrical problems; Whenever my aunt hit the slightest bump or took a turn too sharply, etc, the electrical system would go haywire! The dome light would turn on and off, the open door/key-in-ignition chime would ding repeatedly, and the clock/display on the radio would dim; The van never showed any signs of dying altogether, and I found the whole debacle rather amusing. I was eight years old, and affectionately dubbed the van "The Haunted Caravan." These bizarre symptoms were either corrected by a repair shop or went on their own...

 

Mine brother

 

One thing I'd like to point about both the 1994 Dodge Grand Caravan LE, and the 1997 Plymouth Voyager Rallye owned by my other aunt and uncle, is that they both had surprisingly decent factory stereo systems for 1990s minivans...

The 1994 Grand Caravan had your basic AM/FM cassette with four speakers (may have been six; Don't remember), and 1997 Voyager had an AM/FM CD/cassette combo with the factory Infinity speakers! My aunt and uncle bought the Voyager brand new in the summer of 1997, and I remember being infatuated with that van almost entirely because it had both a cassette player and a CD player!

The first vehicle my parents bought that had both a cassette player and a CD player from the factory was a brand new 2000 GMC Safari conversion van, and it had a surprisingly good stereo as well. It had the upgraded 4-speaker "component system" with tweeters and woofers in the front doors; It definitely did have at least two speakers in the back; I believe they were 6x9s that were installed by the conversion company.

 

I thought it was already upgraded?

 

Top what I posted but that was 4 years ago. Want to get a new Head Unit with Android Auto etc. New 5 Channel Amp probably JL Audio, and all new front and rear 6.5's maybe Hertz or Morel.

 

Since yours is a 2015, it has the backup camera display built into the radio, right? My truck was prewired for a backup camera (as all 2009-2014 base model regular cabs are) but didn't actually come with one; Everything about my stereo system/backup camera set up is aftermarket, so I have absolutely no experience with wiring an aftermarket head unit to a factory backup camera! Is this a hard thing to do?

 

Nope it's pretty much plug and play

 

The last brand new vehicle my parents bought that used R-12 Freon was a 1993 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer 4x4; The last vehicle they bought ever that used R-12 was a 1990 Mazda B2600i 4x4 pickup, purchased from the original owner in 1998, for about five grand cash...

Not including my 2010 Tacoma, or the 2018 Yukon (which uses R1234yf refrigerant), every other 4-wheeled vehicle* my parents have bought since 1996 besides the 1990 Mazda has used R134a refrigerant...

• 1996 Nissan Pathfinder SE 4x4 (Owned May 1996-September 2009; Traded for 2010 Tacoma)
• 2000 GMC Safari conversion van (Owned May 2000-May 2004)
• 2004 Honda Odyssey EX (Owned May 2004-May 2013)
• 2003 Honda S2000 (Owned September 2005-July 2007)
• 2002 BMW 325Ci convertible (Owned May 2006-August 2008)
• 2008 Acura TL (Owned August 2008-September 2014)
• 2013 Honda Pilot Touring 4WD (Owned May 2013-November 2018)
• 2013 Nissan Murano SV AWD (Owned September 2014-present)

*Between 1996 and 2016, my dad owned three motorcycles; A 1997 Yamaha Virago, a 1999 Harley-Davidson FXDX, and a 2009 Harley-Davidson Road King

I am not including the 1987 Mercedes 300E in this list because that was still legally my grandmother's during the time we had it, and while my dad almost bought it for me as a first car, he and my grandmother mutually decided to sell it because it had some mechanical issues. It sat for over a year; My dad "rescued" it and drove it around as a third vehicle from August 2003 to May 2005...

 

I like having the backup camera mounted above the license plate, instead of in the factory tailgate handle location...

 

And then, not including the 1978 MGB or the 1983 Datsun 280ZX that my dad bought used in the eighties, this is the list of vehicles that my parents owned between 1983 and 1996...

• 1983 Toyota Celica GT (Dad's first new car; Owned 1983-1990)
• 1985 Ford Escort (Mom's first new car; No A/C; Owned 1985-1990)
• 1990 Toyota Camry LE V6 (Owned roughly July 1990-June 1998)
• 1986 Mazda B2000 pickup (No A/C; Owned summer 1990-June 1992?)
• 1992 Dodge Dakota LE (Owned roughly June 1992-June 1993, so barely a year! My dad only put like 10K miles on this truck!)
• 1993 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer Tahoe 4x4 (Owned June 1993-May 1996)

 

My mom's 1985 Escort was your typical no-frills commuter appliance...

My dad taught my mom how to drive stick in his 1983 Celica GT when she moved from New York City to California to live with him in like 1984 or 1985...

In the interest of saving money on her first new car, she opted for a manual transmission; She also opted to not get air-conditioning in the interest of saving money, which is something that she very quickly regretted! She assumed that she would not need A/C since she lived in Northern California, and found out this was not the case, especially since she spent a lot of time in her car for work...

The Escort was not totally no-frills though; It did have power steering and an AM/FM cassette. My dad's 1983 Celica had A/C, cruise control, and an AM/FM stereo, but it DID NOT have a cassette player. The 1978 MGB and the 1983 Datsun 280ZX that he owned simultaneously along with the Celica did have tape players though...

 

On the day my mom bought the Escort, that particular dealership in Sunnyvale, California had a pink Escort on the lot, that my mom believes did in fact have air-conditioning. Obviously someone had special-ordered it, and from what my mom remembers, the original buyer had backed out and the dealer was stuck with a pink Escort that they were understandably having a very hard time getting rid of. They discounted the pink Escort deeply, and the salesman tired to get my mom to buy it; However, having air-conditioning was not worth driving a pink car, and my mom didn't go for it; She settled for a white one with no A/C...

I scanned a bunch of old photos, including one of my mom's '85 Escort that was taken in the late 1980s, and put them on Facebook back in 2009; When I find this photo, I will post it!

 

A couple years ago, my mom came across this old bill of sale or something from when she bought the car; I don't think it was a bill of sale, but it had the car's VIN and even showed she'd paid for the car and what her interest rate was! The original cost of the Escort when new was like a little over five grand; Even with her decent credit, the best interest rate my mom was able to get at the time pushed the final cost of the car to nearly double what the MSRP was!

Obviously, since I had the VIN right in front of me, I could not resist putting it into Carfax and seeing where the car had ended up...

The 1st Gen North American Escort was in production from 1981 to 1990, and even from about 1994 to 1999 when the newest examples were newer than my Tacoma is now, I cannot recall seeing that many of them on the road...

In my opinion, the older Escorts were reliable, but once they were over a decade old and something incredibly expensive failed, they got a one-way trip to the junkyard!

 

So, I ran the VIN of my mom's 1985 Ford Escort, and found that it spent its entire life in California; I was amazed that it remained on the road until well into the 1990s; The Escort's last known location was Truckee, California; It failed a smog test here in 1997 and the trail goes cold...

This likely means that it went to the junkyard since it was, you know, a 12-year old Ford Escort with no A/C!

 

Many otherwise decent vehicles in California reach the literal and metaphorical end of the road prematurely because in California, the ability to renew a vehicle registration is directly tied to passing a smog test!

 

When we lived in Oak Harbor, Washington from 2000 to 2002, one of my neighbors had a 1989 or 1990 Ford Escort hatchback; It was beige, had a 5-speed manual transmission, and did not have air-conditioning or power steering! However, the car was mint! My neighbor was not poor by any stretch of the imagination and bought this car purely as a fuel efficient commuter vehicle. The car was totally stock except for one of those old-school shaft-style tape decks with the volume and tuning dials on either side...

 

One of the bouncers at the bar where I used to work had a 1995 Escort wagon that he bought for next to nothing; It had ICE COLD A/C and an automatic transmission, and I'm pretty sure that as of 2018 it had less than 100K miles. Like the aforementioned neighbor from Oak Harbor, he bought it purely as a cheap commuter.

 

@Taco critter

Did any of your Escorts have A/C?

 

He's merging a bunch of threads from December 2015-Decmeber 2017 into this one!

 

The wagon didn't?!?!