The Plymouth Backpack was a front wheel drive concept car, Unveiled at the 1995 Chicago Auto show at the same time as other concepts, the Chrysler Thunderbolt and the Eagle Jazz, the Plymouth Back pack was a small pickup truck concept vehicle. A front wheel drive vehicle, the quirky Back pack could carry two passengers with ease, and even left enough room for a laptop on a small table inside the cabin. A bike rack on the back was also built into the vehicle.
Tom Gale, Chrysler's design chief that had visions of the future vehicles of the company; 'not what Plymouth is today, but what it will be', designed the sporty Backpack. The Back Pack was such a vehicle, and it was based on Neon underpinnings. Producing 135 horsepower, the Back Pack featured a MoPar 2-liter OHC 4-cylinder engine. [1]
Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis North America, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above Plymouth.
Eagle was a brand of the Chrysler Corporation following the purchase of American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1987 and marketed through the end of the 1998 model year. It was aimed at the enthusiast driver and promoted as more "European" than the automaker's similar models.
Plymouth was a brand of automobiles produced by Chrysler Corporation and its successor DaimlerChrysler. The brand was launched in 1928 to compete in what was then described as the "low-priced" market segment that was dominated by Chevrolet and Ford. It became a high-volume seller for the automaker until the late 1990s. Plymouth cars were marketed primarily in the United States. The brand was withdrawn from the marketplace in 2001. The Plymouth models that were produced up to then were either discontinued or rebranded as Chrysler or Dodge.
The Dodge Rampage was a subcompact unibody coupe utility based on Chrysler's L platform and manufactured and marketed from 1982 to 1984 model years. Plymouth marketed a rebadged variant for model year 1983, as the Scamp.
The Chrysler Cirrus is a mid-sized 4-door notchback sedan introduced by Chrysler motors for the 1995 model year. Built on the Chrysler JA platform, the 4-door notchback sedan joined Chrysler's roster of "Cloud Car" models drawing their names from meteorological terms, including the mid-priced Dodge Stratus it was based on introduced at the same time, and the low-priced Plymouth Breeze variant a year later.
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The Dodge Omni and the nearly identical badge engineered variant, the Plymouth Horizon, is a subcompact car manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Corporation for model years 1978-1990. The first Chrysler model line produced with front-wheel drive, the Omni and Horizon were also the first front-wheel drive economy cars assembled in the United States. Marketed for eleven years with very few changes, around 2,500,000 Omnis and Horizons were manufactured, with the Plymouth variants more popular than the Dodge-branded models.
The Chrysler minivans are a series of minivans that have been produced and marketed by the American automaker Chrysler since the 1984 model year. Currently in its sixth generation, the model line is marketed worldwide, primarily in North America and Europe. Introduced as the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, the Chrysler minivans have been marketed under a variety of nameplates under the Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, and Ram brands; through the use of rebadging, the model line has also been marketed under the Lancia and Volkswagen brands.
The Ford Aerostar is a range of vans that was manufactured by Ford from the 1986 to the 1997 model years. The first minivan produced by Ford, the model line was marketed against the Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari and the first two generations of the Chrysler minivans. Introduced shortly before the Ford Taurus, the Aerostar derived its name from its slope-nosed "one-box" exterior.
The Neon is a compact car that was built from in January 1994 until 2005 by the American Chrysler Corporation over two generations. It has a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout and came in two-door and four-door sedan body styles. In the United States and Canada it was sold as either a Dodge or a Plymouth, while in Europe, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Australia, South Africa, and South America it was branded as a Chrysler, the Neon was offered in multiple versions and configurations over its production life, which lasted from the 1995 model year until 2005. The Neon nameplate was subsequently resurrected in 2016 for the Dodge Neon, a rebadged variant of Fiat Tipo sedan for the Mexican market.
The Chevrolet Lumina APV is a minivan that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. Launched as the first front-wheel drive minivan sold by Chevrolet, the Lumina APV was sold in a single generation from the 1990 to 1996 model years. Marketed alongside the Pontiac Trans Sport and Oldsmobile Silhouette, the Lumina APV competed against the Dodge Grand Caravan/Plymouth Grand Voyager, the extended-length Ford Aerostar, and the Mazda MPV.
Chrysler Europe was the American automotive company Chrysler's operations in Europe from 1967 through 1978. It was formed from the merger of the French Simca, British Rootes and Spanish Barreiros companies. In 1978, Chrysler divested these operations to PSA Peugeot Citroën.
TorqueFlite is the trademarked name of Chrysler Corporation's automatic transmissions, starting with the three-speed unit introduced late in the 1956 model year as a successor to Chrysler's two-speed PowerFlite. In the 1990s, the TorqueFlite name was dropped in favor of alphanumeric designations, although the latest Chrysler eight-speed automatic transmission has revived the name.
The Dodge Ramcharger is a large sport utility vehicle built by Dodge from 1974 to 1993, based on a shortened-wheelbase version of the Dodge D series/Ram pickup chassis. A Plymouth version, named the Plymouth Trail Duster, offered from 1974 to 1981, was Plymouth's only SUV.
The Plymouth Prowler, later the Chrysler Prowler, is a retro-styled production sports car manufactured and marketed from 1997 to 2002 by DaimlerChrysler, based on the 1993 concept car of the same name.
The Ultradrive is an automatic transmission manufactured by Chrysler beginning in the 1989 model year.
In the context of the automobile industry, downsizing is a practice used to transition vehicles from one size segment to another. Commenced during the Malaise era, downsizing is done in response to consumer and government demands influencing vehicle design. As vehicle product lines completed their model cycles, automobile manufacturers developed the next generation of a vehicle with a smaller exterior footprint to allow for weight reduction and increased fuel economy, using a shortened wheelbase and body length.
The first-generation Chrysler minivans are a series of minivans produced and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from the 1984 to the 1990 model years. Introduced as the first minivans from an American-brand manufacturer and popularizing the minivan as a vehicle, the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager were launched ahead of chief competitors Chevrolet Astro/GMC Safari and Ford Aerostar.
The second-generation Chrysler minivans are a series of minivans that were manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Corporation in North America and Europe from 1991 to 1995. Officially designated the AS platform by Chrysler, the second-generation minivans were an extensive revision of the first-generation chassis and body. As before, passenger and cargo configurations were sold by Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler divisions. The first minivans offered with driver-side airbags and with optional integrated child safety seats, the second-generation Chrysler minivans offered all-wheel drive as an option for the first time; a manual transmission would be offered for the last time in the North American market.
The third-generation Chrysler minivans are a series of passenger minivans that were marketed by the Chrysler Corporation from the 1996 to 2000 model years. The first ground-up redesign of the model lines since their introduction, designers added a further degree of divisional identity between the Plymouth Voyager, Dodge Caravan, and Chrysler Town & Country. In a notable change, the cargo van was discontinued, with all examples sold as passenger vans. Coinciding with the retirement of the Plymouth brand during 2001, this is the final generation marketed as the Plymouth Voyager.