The much-derided minivan didn’t always have the connotation of a frazzled mom doing the morning school run.
GET IN THE BACK KIDS
In fact, the minivan sprung up during the 80s as a revival of the late-60s and 70s fascination with the van as a method of frugal, high-passenger transport.
There’s a degree of irony to the fact that the preferred method of transport for “flower children” became the method of transport for actual children just a generation later. The same vehicle that represented the free love and counterculture of hippies became a staunch symbol of nuclear family values.
from the manson family to yours!
The oft-repeated claim is that Chrysler “invented” the minivan in the mid-80s, beginning the slow but steady decline of sedans as family vehicles. While the claim they invented it is a bit of Iacocca magic, it’s reasonable to claim that they at least popularized it.
featuring real fake wood paneling!
As the culture shifted again in the 90s, the minivan reached saturation point and popularity waned in favor of large body-on-frame SUVs. The idea was that minivans were unsafe compared trucks, and that families *needed* all that extra space not for children, but for their stuff.
the good ol family truckster
The rise of SUVs coincided with a decline in children having spontaneous play in favor of pre-planned, organized activities, with SUVs acting as the shuttles to and from baseball, soccer, tutors, and a bevy of other appointments.
Wagons had a moment in the brief period of the 90s between “The Minivan Era” and “The SUV Epoch” but were quickly shuffled out of favor when you could have the same vehicle, just with higher visibility and ground clearance.
the most exciting disappointment of childhood
“Peak SUV” was reached somewhere around when Ford stopped making the Excursion, and SUVs lost some of their “cool factor” in favor of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Unlike minivans, however, they never truly lost popularity, they were simply supplanted by crossovers in the mid to late 2000s.
The crossover is truly an odd and unprecedented vehicle. Unlike the minivan or SUV, it doesn’t have a true historical predecessor, unless you can claim the large-tired, slightly-raised cars of the 20s and 30s like early Bentleys designed to drive over grass and mud were the original crossovers.
bonus: bugs in your teeth!
Of brief note is the fact that every era’s “popular vehicle” is simply a smaller version of their most ubiquitous vehicle. The personal luxury coupe of the late 70s and early 80s was a sexier version of the boat-sized family sedans of the era. Hatchbacks and compact cars were the popular version of mini-minivans in the late 80s and early 90s. Two-door SUVs had a brief but strong moment in the mid-90s, carrying into the popularity of compact SUVs in the early to mid-2000s and, currently, mini-crossovers.
how this ever fell out of fashion, i will not know
So what’s next? We’ve gone to the extremes with minivans and SUVs, and met somewhere in the middle with crossovers.
Are we moving towards a singularity of cars, where all of the best designed cars will meld into one ubiquitous, jelly bean design?
but…how do you get in
You wouldn’t initially think of it as such, but the Tesla Model S is an example of this phenomenon. The car seats 7, has a trunk/storage in both the front and back, a hatchback in the rear, and off-the-charts horsepower and acceleration — all in a sedan body. They’re making a crossover version — why would you need anything else?
LUDICROUS
Ahh, that’s the key. Crossover “version”. Essentially, the Model X is a crossover body on top of the Model S platform.
with the awesome falcon doors
With no gas engine components to worry about, and propulsion essentially a question of battery placement, you can create a “skateboard”-like base on which to place any sort of car body you desire?
Feel like driving a convertible to work, but need a crossover to pick up the kids from school? It’s no longer science fiction. Mercedes proposed it in the 90s with the Vario program, and GM in the 2000s with the AUTOnomy.
*jumps on top, rides it, crashes into utility pole*
So the new family garage needs to accommodate two skateboards and storage for a few bodyshells.
Let’s take it a step further. Why would you even need to wait to purchase an expensive metal vehicle body? With 3D printing technology progressing at this rate, why not just download your mid-life-crisis convertible by lunch?
JOHNSON! did you use the OFFICE printer for THIS?!
Perhaps this heralds a whole new era of car design, with vehicle popularity determined by whatever’s trending in the app store.
How popular of a choice would the minivan body be?
there’s a reason you can’t buy this in the US