Minivan

2011 Toyota Sienna
2014 Honda Odyssey

A minivan is a vehicle designed primarily for passenger safety and comfort, with three rows of adult-size seats, access through large sliding doors, and car-like handling and fuel economy. Minivans are purchased for their versatility and can often transport more people than a three-row sport utility vehicle, and also with better comfort, access, and fuel economy.[1] Like most modern vehicles, minivans are typically of unibody construction with front-wheel drive. They also feature a short, sloping aerodynamic hood. They are usually taller than sedans or station wagons, affording a good view of the road. Minivans usually have removable seats to allow hauling of cargo on a flat floor.

Etymology

In North America, the term minivan derives from the size comparison to traditional full-size vans (like the Ford E-Series, Dodge Ram Van, and the Chevrolet Van); while full-size vans derived their underpinnings upon full-size pickup trucks, the first generation of minivans sold in North America were derived from either compact pickup trucks or passenger cars (or both).[2]

In the British Isles, minivans are sometimes called multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) or people carriers. The Mini Van, a van version of the Mini was produced from 1960 to 1978, after which it was renamed the Mini 95.

Predecessors of the minivan

1964 Chevrolet Greenbrier
1950s Volkswagen Type 2

Predecessors include the 1936 Stout Scarab, which featured a removable table and second row seats that turn 180 degrees to face the rear.[3][4] The DKW Schnellaster, manufactured from 1949 to 1962 was one of the first vehicles to feature the characteristics of modern minivans.[5] In 1950, the Volkswagen Type 2 adapted a bus-shaped body to the compact Volkswagen Beetle. When Volkswagen introduced a sliding side door on their van in 1968, it then had all the features that would later come to define a minivan: compact length, three rows of forward-facing seats, station wagon-style top-hinged tailgate/liftgate, sliding side door, passenger car base. Fiat built a similar vehicle, the 1956 Multipla based on the Fiat 600 with the same "cab over" engine and door layout.

In 1972, designers at Ford Motor Company developed the Ford Carousel prototype as a variant of the upcoming redesign of the 1975 Ford E-Series. To better fit a van into a typical 7-foot (213 cm) tall American garage door opening, the Carousel was designed with a lower (6-feet tall) roofline and trim similar to a station wagon and a personal luxury car; rather than a cargo carrier, Carousel was intended a family vehicle. The vehicle was never produced, due to the mid-1970s fuel crisis and company financial difficulties. Nearly a decade later, the concept was revisited by designers and produced in somewhat different form as the Ford Aerostar.

In the late 1970s Chrysler began a six-year development program to design "a small affordable van that looked and handled more like a car".[6] The automaker introduced the first modern minivans in 1983, the front-wheel-drive Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager.[6]

Asia

North America

First-generation 1986 Dodge Caravan in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

For the 1984 model year, the Chrysler minivans arrived on the market to great success.[7] The minivan replaced the station wagon as the large passenger car of choice in the US.[8] In 1987 Chrysler introduced the extended-length ("Grand") minivans. The Chrysler Town & Country debuted in 1990. The term minivan came into use in North America in contrast to full-size vans. The minivan's market share peaked in 2000 with sales of 1.4 million units in US. This shrank to about half a million in 2013.[9]

Current models

In 2014, sales of minivans in America increased 6% over 2013. In terms of market share, approximately 94% of the segment is shared nearly equally by the Chrysler minivans (Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan), Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Sienna; the best-selling vehicle varies from year to year. The remaining 6% of the segment is shared largely by the Ford Transit Connect, Kia Sedona, Mazda 5 (discontinued after the 2015 model year), and Nissan Quest.[10]

Discontinued models

Europe

Current models include the Mercedes-Benz Vito,[11] Volkswagen Sharan, the Chrysler Voyager (now rebranded as Lancia), the Kia Carnival, and the SsangYong Rodius.

The Renault Espace was produced from 1984, but in 2014 was rebranded as an SUV. From 1994 to 2014 PSA Peugeot Citroën and the Fiat Group produced minivans under the Sevel joint venture.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "Minivan buying guide". Consumer Reports. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Sorokanich, Robert (2 November 2013). "30 Years Ago Today, Chrysler Invented the Minivan, And Changed History". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Patton, Phil (6 January 2008). "A Visionary's Minivan Arrived Decades Too Soon". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Darukhanawala, Adil Jal (May 2001). "Blast from the past: 1936 Stout Scarab". Indiacar.com (source: Overdrive). Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  5. ↑ Niedermeyer, Paul (29 March 2010). "The Mother Of All Modern Minivans: 1949 DKW Schnellaster". The Truth About Cars.
  6. 1 2 "America on the Move - Dodge Caravan". Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Stepler, Richard (February 1985). "New generation minivans". Popular Science 226 (2): 74–75. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "Best of the Minivans". Kiplinger's Personal Finance 44 (7): 41. July 1990. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Eisenstein, Paul A. (10 May 2014). "'Mom mobiles' a shrinking category for automakers". CNBC. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  10. ↑ Cain, Timonthy (13 September 2014). "Chart Of The Day: U.S. Minivan Market Share In 2014". The Truth about Cars. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Meiners, Jens (January 2014). "2015 Mercedes-Benz V-class". Car & Driver. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
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