Chrysler, the company that likes to take credit for the invention of the minivan, is these days watching its invention whither on the vine. Never mind that the true roots of the minivan date back either to the introduction of the Ford and Chevy compact vans for 1961 or to the launch of the Volkswagen bus a decade earlier, today the passenger minivan looks like an endangered species.
Through May of 2015, sales of Chrysler’s top-of-the-line minivan, the Town & Country, are down more than 45 percent from the prior year. For its corporate twin, the Dodge Grand Caravan, the numbers are even more bleak, with a sales drop-off of more than 50 percent.
There is no one reason for this dramatic fall-off in sales. Both the Town & Country and the Grand Caravan are nearing the end of their design cycles, with newer models from Honda and Toyota – and even Kia – stealing some sales. There is nothing wrong with the Chrysler vehicles, but newness trumps familiar, and Chrysler’s styling, while unarguably handsome, is conservative.
Having the far more significant impact on minivan sales is the ever-growing popularity of “crossovers,” vehicles with three-row seating like minivans but with sportier styling and pretenses of off-road capability. Crossovers have displaced the minivan as family cars in America, just as minivans displaced the traditional station wagon a generation ago.
And somewhere along the way, minivans acquired a stigma, that of being a boring “mommymobile.” As a result of that stigma, SUVs and crossovers have become the new mommymobiles, with suburban families packing their child seats and strollers and soccer supplies and sippy cups into the smaller interiors of the more stylish exteriors.
Ford and General Motors have already abandoned the minivan market, and in North America, so has the granddaddy, Volkswagen. At Chrysler, a new minivan design is undergoing development, but when – and if – it appears, it will likely be a Chrysler or a Dodge, but not both.
Here at Car Show Safari, in an embrace of exciting cars we coined the phrase, “No one ever said, ’Hey, nice minivan!’” But the truth is, for day-to-day transportation drudgery, minivans are hard to beat for comfort, practicality, and economy. Unfortunately, for those who appreciate those sober qualities over passionate ones, it appears that the minivan’s days may be numbered.