This started out as the straight announcement that 2023 marks 40 years since Chrysler positively upended the North American auto market by introducing the first of its groundbreaking, T-platform minivans. Chrysler marked the occasion by beginning volume production of its current minivan, the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica, which has sold to the tune of 100,000 plug-in hybrid units turned out over the semi-EV model’s lifespan. But something else about the anniversary caught our eye.
Some of the earliest roots of Chrysler’s people-mover heritage date back to this vehicle, a 1946 Chrysler Town & Country sedan, which took the gigantic full-sized Chrysler four-door and transformed it with wooden exterior bodywork, a premium interior, heavy accessorization and on some, the roof rack depicted here. The Town & Country sedan was built for only three years, and was a premium car even back then, with 2,169 examples built in 1946. Today, any wood-bodied Chrysler in even barely presentable shape is worth serious money.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 