2007 Caravan, Town & Country Photos

Prototypes for the Chrysler Group's next-gen Minivan, the RT platform, are starting to pop-up around town.



The above photo is of a Dodge Caravan, which, as can be expected, sports the familiar cross-hair grille. While the mask appears to suggest rectangular headlamps, there appear to be round projectors underneath.



While the majority of prototypes have been of the Caravan, a Town & Country body-in-white was spotted. While not fully built, it does give some indication of where the Chrysler variant is going in terms of styling - which is to say, along the lines of the Crossfire, Airflyte, and Pacifica.

Both vans share a design and profile that's very much European in nature, which isn't surprising. For the last two or three years, Chrysler's had many Renault Espaces running around Auburn Hills for benchmarking.

While these vans will be shared with VW for a North-American minivan, no VW-badged prototypes have been spotted yet.

RHD Euro-Spec Caliber Spotted

While this isn't news to anybody who closely followed DCX's presence at the '06 Geneva Auto Show, I did manage to come across one of the first production-ready examples of a European-market Caliber SXT, sporting a right-hand-drive configuration.



Notable changes, aside from the driver's location being inverted, are metric gauge faces and fender-mounted side marker lights. If this model includes other European lighting changes, particuarly in terms of fog tail lamps, they're integrated into the domestic styling seamlessly - a stark contrast to prior Chrysler vehicles.



And, apparently afraid that European consumers will equate the ubiquitous ram logo with something other than Dodge, European-spec Calibers will also be sporting the marque's name in a small script above the rear logo.

Having seen some diesel-powered Caliber prototypes in the area, the lack of a "Diesel" emblem on the rear hatch signifies that this particular tester was not equipped with the 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder diesel available to European customers.