The Van’s Demise: Where Did All the Good Ones Go?
The minivan, once the king of family transport, is fading. Once found in nearly every suburban driveway, today’s market offers only a handful compared to the peak years. It’s a decline that has many car enthusiasts scratching their heads.
An empty minivan parking lot, symbolizing the decline in popularity.
Once, every major automaker churned out minivans, loaded with features to appeal to families. In 2000, Americans snapped up around 1.3 million minivans. Now the options are down to just four: Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, and Kia.
What happened?
Seven-seater SUVs, they’re the usual suspect for the minivan’s decline. But, let’s be real, those SUVs can be a pain to get into, especially in the back. Minivans offered sliding doors and clever seating arrangements.
Consumers seem overly worried about what others think. That’s led them to SUVs, which often cost more to run and are harder to drive than the van they’ve dismissed as uncool.
The Atlantic explored the history of minivans and how their rise gave way to a downturn. The story starts with Lee Iacocca, the man behind the Ford Mustang. He led Chrysler’s reinvention, betting big on the K-car and its family versions of the Caravan and Voyager.
The introduction of the minivan was innovative. It offered room, easy access, and the ability to create a cargo space by stowing seats. Sliding doors and cupholders were other modern features, and all this came at an affordable price. Chrysler sold 210,000 Dodge Caravans and Plymouth Voyagers in the first year.
By the end of the decade, sales reached 700,000, and the station wagon all but disappeared. However, the minivan design also came with a stigma. It came to represent the family you love but must support, and also transport. It symbolized the burdens of domestic life.
The auto industry hasn’t done much to overcome this problem. To revive the minivan, a new approach is required. Nearly all cars have shifted to the SUV format. Perhaps a combination with the utility van, which seems ready for its own comeback, could be the key.
Volkswagen is selling a new electric version of its Microbus, a minivan precursor that has kept its connection to counterculture. GM’s SUV-inspired U-body minivans seemed to mark the beginning of the end for the minivan. Called Crossover Sport Vans, they failed and killed the company’s van projects. The Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana, Saturn Relay, and Buick Terraza, built on the same platform, were gone in three years.
GM sacrificed its vans to pander to a public that it had convinced to love SUVs. The minivan’s story is a lesson in the whims of the market and the persistence of perception.
