Dodge Almost Made An Off-road Caravan

Not gonna lie, this isn’t bad… I’d rock it.

SUVs have decimated minivan sales in part because of their rugged appearance and the promise of off-road capability, but what if you could imbue a minivan with those same qualities? It almost happened with the Dodge Caravan in the 1990s.

First spotted by The Drive, this Dodge Caravan off-road concept was penned by Michael Santoro, who had just finished working on the Dodge Stratus and Chrysler Cirrus “cloud car” sedans at the time. Santoro would go on to work for doomed supercar maker Vector, and help hatch the Jeep Easter egg, but in the mid 1990s he was a minivan specialist.

“One of the best parts about being in a studio that designs the best-selling vehicle a company makes is, there is always interest from upper management in spin-offs and line extensions,” Santoro said of the off-road minivan’s genesis on his personal website… read more >