Start with what the Plymouth Caravelle is: a 4-door sedan / 2-door coupe with 2.2 L Chrysler K engine#2.2, built from 1983 to 1988, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer. 133,677 were built.
Where it came from
The Plymouth Caravelle is a mid-size sedan that was introduced by Plymouth as a 1983 Canadian model. The Caravelle came to the United States in 1985 to replace the Chrysler E-Class. It was essentially identical to the concurrent Dodge 600. It was replaced by the Plymouth Acclaim in 1989. The Caravelle was Plymouth's first front wheel drive mid-size sedan. The name of the vehicle was inspired by the word Caravel, a 15th-century sailing ship used by the Portuguese; the ship was noted for its speed and agility.
Under the skin
The engine is 2.2 L Chrysler K engine#2.2; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 2598 lb. Drive goes through a 5-speed A520 manual / 5-speed A525 manual / 3-speed A413 automatic / 3-speed A470 automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 103.3 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Plymouth line-up the Plymouth Caravelle has a clear place: it replaced the Chrysler E-Class; it handed the line to the Plymouth Acclaim; the factory was Detroit, Michigan (Jefferson Avenue Assembly), United States. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Honda Civic, the Toyota 4Runner, the Peugeot 205. Nearby in the Plymouth catalogue sit the Plymouth XNR and the Plymouth Laser.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Plymouth Caravelle has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.