Honestly, what is up with the stigma of minivans? They're so good, yet so bad. I can't think of anything else that is as good of a product as the minivan but has such a lowly image among consumers. Well, maybe the station wagon... Ugh, I want a Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon so badly. Corvette LT1 engine, dual sunroofs, wood graining. It's so appealing!
Yeah, maybe I'm weird. Anyways, read my report if you would like to. Just click the words "Read more" below this paragraph.
An Overview of Minivans in the U.S.
A
symbol of family, the minivan is a versatile and practical type of car. It has
impacted the daily lives of many families, but its image today has been
degraded to the point where most car consumers are gravitating away from
minivans and towards “cooler” crossovers (car-based SUVs, i.e. tall station
wagons).
The
Origin of the Minivan
Generally,
people recognize the Chrysler minivans of the 1980’s as the first minivans.
While Chrysler did present the modern minivan format, they were not the first
in the minivan business. That started with the little-known Scout Scarab, which
was built in 1936. It was the vision of William Stout, an aircraft designer.
The Scarab had plenty of interior space, a smooth ride, and a plethora of
technologically advanced features for its time. It even had seats that could
swivel backwards to face the rearmost passengers, which is a feature that
Chrysler uses in its minivans today. Only nine Scarabs were ever produced, with
its high $5000 price tag mostly to blame.
The
first real minivan success was the Volkswagen Type 2, otherwise known as the VW
MicroBus or Vanagon in its later years. After it was launched in 1950, it
became widely acknowledged. Though it was woefully slow, it was economical,
functional, and it had a unique style. The Microbus sold so well that the first
generation lasted 17 years without much major updates.
The Volkswagen Type 2
had a lasting impact on popular culture, and production continued through 1991.
Though the Type 2 was completely redesigned twice, it was incompetent in most
areas by the end of its life span.
The
Chrysler Minivans
Chrysler
introduced the modern minivan. Ironically, the idea for the modern minivan originated from
Ford, a major rival of Chrysler. In the 1970’s, Ford employees Lee Iococca and
Hal Sperlich pushed hard for their project, the MiniMax (meaning minimum
exterior volume, maximum interior space). However, both of them were fired from
the then-change-resistant Ford Motor Company. Cash-strapped Chrysler then picked
them up, and accepted the minivan project in desperation for a successful
product.
The Dodge Caravan and
Plymouth Voyager were the original minivan nameplates launched by Chrysler in
1983. In 1984, sales exploded to nearly 200,000 units. Later, Chrysler would
sell about 600,000 minivans in one year.
Why
were the Chrysler minivans so popular? The biggest reason was undoubtedly that
Chrysler used customer research to engineer their minivan. Features like
sliding doors, the dimensions of the vehicle, and the layout of the interior
were implemented based on research conducted back in 1978 at Ford.
Not
only that, Chrysler waited to launch the product so that the developers could
ensure a high quality vehicle. Burton Bouwkamp, head of body engineering at the
time, said, “I resolved not to go into production with a less than fully
developed product, regardless of pressure. At times, I was unpopular when I
told Hal Sperlich (President in 1982-3) that we weren't ready for production.”
Boukwamp’s
persistence paid off. After the minivans were launched, the press gave rave
reviews of the new vehicle. Automotive magazine Car & Driver called it “a sparkling example of Detroit’s new
thinking.” From there, Chrysler dominated the minivan market and still eats the
biggest slice of the minivan pie presently.
Ford & GM’s Reactions to the Chrysler Minivans
In 1985,
both GM and Ford jumped onto the minivan bandwagon with truck-based,
rear-wheel-drive platform minivans. Ford had the Aerostar, which was named for
its wedge-like, aerodynamic shape. GM sold the GMC Safari and Chevrolet Astro,
which were really more truck than van. Though GM’s truck-based vans found their
own niche with aftermarket customizers and commercial customers all the way
through 2005, neither Ford’s nor GM’s first efforts came very close to matching
Chrysler’s success.
Early Japanese Efforts into the American Minivan Market
Early
Japanese competition consisted of Japanese-market vans imported to the United
States. The earliest had mid-engine designs and rear-wheel-drive platforms.
The
Toyota Van was the most popular early Japanese minivan, and was sold in
American from 1984 to 1990. It offered many fancy features, such as dual air conditioning
and an icemaker. Unfortunately, the Van had become a sales failure in America
by 1990, and was replaced by the Previa.
The
Previa still had the same layout of the Van, with rear-wheel-drive and a four-cylinder
engine. Though it improved upon the Van in most respects, it unconventional,
jelly-bean-like styling kept it from selling in any large numbers. By the time
the Previa hit the market, the four-cylinder engine’s power just wasn’t cutting
it, either. A supercharger was added in 1993 to boost power, but it did not
help matters much in terms of sales. The Previa was discontinued in 1997.
The
Nissan Van, which was sold in the U.S. from the 1987 to 1990 model years, had a
disastrous engine in the United States. It made history by being the only model
line to be bought back by a company for safety issues. Nissan later had the
Axxess, a compact van with front-wheel-drive. It was sold in America only for
the 1990 model year.
Mazda
brought the MPV in 1989. Again, this van was based on a rear-wheel-drive
platform. One unique feature about the first-generation MPV at the time was
that it had hinged doors, and not sliding doors at the rear.
Honda
tried its luck with the Odyssey in 1994. It was based on the relatively popular
Accord, and it also had hinged rear doors. It was the first minivan to have
third row seats that tumbled backwards into the floor, a feature that became
widely copied later.
Early Adopters of the Chrysler Minivan Formula
The first automaker to emulate Chrysler’s floor plan of
the minivan was GM, with its Dustbuster minivans in 1989. They were called that
because their “audacious” exterior design resembled the Dustbuster vacuum
cleaner. There were three Dustbuster vans: the Oldsmobile Silhouette, the
Chevrolet Lumina APV, and the Pontiac Trans Sport.
While the
Dustbuster minivans were more successful than the GMC Safari and Chevrolet
Astro at first, they did not sell well enough to make a sizable dent Chrysler
minivan sales. Production of the original Silhouette and Lumina APV ended in
1996, and the Trans Sport ceased production two years later.
Next, Ford and Nissan teamed up to create the Mercury
Villager and Nissan Quest. They brought to the table a new seating
configuration where the seats can be slid on tracks to provide more cargo room.
The two minivans were sold from 1993 through 2002 over two generations. A new
Quest was re-introduced by Nissan in 2003 by its own efforts, and the Quest is
selling in acceptable numbers today.
For the 1995 model year, Ford launched its independent
effort into the minivan market. The Windstar had a focus on safety, but also
had a prodigious amount of reliability issues in its early years. Even when the
reliability issues were not taken into consideration, the Windstar was still a
mediocre minivan.
The Rise and Fall of the Minivan
By 1999, all the major automakers had
conventional-looking, front-engine, front-wheel drive minivans with V-6 engines.
GM had announced a new trio of minivans by 1997, Toyota launched its refined
Sienna in 1997, and Honda introduced its spacious and pleasant
second-generation Odyssey in 1998. In 1999, Mazda became to offer the first
minivan with windows that slide down in the sliding doors with its
second-generation MPV. The minivan
market was in a state of homeostasis, and sales were respectable.
Minivan
sales reached its peak in 2000, when there were 1.37 millions minivans sold. Despite
the fact that present-day minivans are more refined and feature-packed than
ever, total minivan sales were just over 500,000 last year. So what is keeping
minivans from reaching its full sales potential?
Why Minivans Are Not as Popular Today
The biggest enemies
of minivan sales are SUVs and crossovers. While minivans sales have mostly been
steadily declining, crossover sales are booming.
Amanda
Rodriguez from EverdayFamily said that she “totally bought [her SUV] to be
cool.” Sheree (otherwise known as Smart & Sassy Mom) writes, “…minivan
drivers have a cool factor of about…ZERO!” Browsing parent forums and mom blogs
on the Internet reveals similar comments about minivans.
To further
understand people’s opinions on minivans, I also put out a survey for my peers
and English teacher to take. The responses to my survey range from “I. Hate.
Minivans.”, “They’re outdated and ugly.”, and “They’re not aesthetically
pleasing.” to “Useful”, “It’s pretty cool.”, and “There is a lot of space.” The
overwhelming majority of the respondents said they will not consider buying a
minivan, most said they prefer a crossover or SUV over a minivan, and the
minivan only received an average “coolness” rating of about 4.34 out of ten. On
the flip side, the minivan did receive an overall score of 5.5 out of ten.
Generally, the positive and negative responses to
minivans in my survey seem to be split in half. While it’s great that some
people are objective and practical, it’s not so great that others are willing
to sacrifice space and money by shunning the minivan. It’s a shame, because
minivans can offer so much more than crossovers and SUVs at a lower price.
The Value of a Minivan
By doing a simple comparison, you can pinpoint the
minivan’s advantages. Here, we take the second-bestselling minivan, the Honda
Odyssey, and compare it with the best-selling full-size crossover, the Ford Explorer.
The Honda Odyssey EX-L starts at $36,055 with the destination charge, and is
pretty evenly matched with the $36,320 (including destination) Explorer XLT with
the Driver Connect Package, Comfort Package and powered liftgate in terms of feature
content. But when it comes to utility, the gap widens. The Odyssey has a
maximum cargo volume of 148.5 cubic feet, while the Explorer has a measly 80.7
cubic feet of maximum cargo volume. Total passenger volume for the Odyssey EX-L
is 170.1 cubic feet, while the total passenger volume for the Explorer is 151.7
cubic feet. Gas mileage ratings for the Odyssey EX-L are 18/27 city/highway
miles per gallon, while the Explorer with front-wheel-drive and the V-6 gets
17/24 city/highway miles per gallon. Plus, the Odyssey offers features that are
not available on the Explorer such as power sliding doors, a tri-zone climate
control system, and the ability to fit 3 car seats across the second row. You
can see why the Odyssey might be a much better choice for a family.
The market is not paying much attention to the advantages
of a minivan, though. In 2007, both Ford and GM dropped their minivan models
after disappointing sales figures. After a brief run from 2007 to 2009, Hyundai
also dropped its Entourage minivan (Kia, Hyundai’s sister company, still sells
the Sedona minivan even though sales as of last year were only 17,512). Now,
Volkswagen is pulling the plug on the consumer sale of its Chrysler-based
Routan minivan due to low sales. The minivan segment is becoming a sort of
tragedy in the new millennium after an era of growth in popularity during the
1980’s and 1990’s.
If you are just a complete hater of minivans, check one
out. Ride in it, or research and compare minivans to SUVs. You might just be
surprised at the heritage and charms of the minivan.
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