It's time to reinvent the minivan

Rick Kranz is product editor of Automotive News.

RICK KRANZ
Little has changed since the original Caravan, Voyager

Rick Kranz | | Automotive News / December 4, 2006 - 1:00 am The formula Chrysler Corp. created for making minivans hasn't changed much in 22 years.

It's quite simple: Create a rectangular shape, provide seats that can be removed or hidden when cargo space is needed, add sliding doors to ease second-seat entry, and attach it all to a front-drive engine configuration.

It all started with the 1984 Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, and it has been repeated over and over by most automakers.

But it's time for a change, because the 22-year-old recipe is losing its appeal with today's buyers. Although competition has intensified, U.S. minivan sales nose-dived 19 percent from 2000 to 2005. The pattern for the future is just as gloomy unless an automaker can reinvent the segment. And that's just what Honda and Toyota are trying to do as they develop their next-generation redesigned minivans, due around 2009.

Both companies are concerned about the segment's sliding sales, even though the sales of their own minivans have increased since 2000. Both hope to reinvent the minivan concept, creating a vehicle that breaks the mold without risking sales, says Jim Hall, vice president of AutoPacific, a consulting company in Southfield, Mich.

Where it all started: The 1984 Dodge Caravan, with the ubiquitous sliding doors still seen on today's minivans. Sales slip away How bad is the drop in minivan sales? Last year 1,110,541 minivans were sold, 260,693 fewer than in 2000. The Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna accounted for 66.9 percent of the 2005 sales. Their totals were Dodge, 226,771; Chrysler, 180,759; Honda, 174,275; and Toyota, 161,380. Through October this year, the total market slipped 10.9 percent, while those four nameplates held 71.4 percent of the market. General Motors' decision to drop out of the minivan market is no surprise. Its Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander and Saturn Relay held a mere 9.8 percent of the market last year, and through October that percentage was down to 7.9 percent. Why is the minivan segment dying off? Many of those avoiding minivans are kids of baby boomers. They spent their childhoods in minivans. They have no interest in owning their father's minivan, no matter who produced it. Others are current or former minivan owners who want something different, such as a crossover. Some in the industry fear the minivan eventually could go the way of the full-sized passenger van. So automakers have tried to distinguish their minivans by such things as theater seating, Stow 'n Go seats, clear glass roof panels, even the number of cupholders. But the overall market keeps slipping away.

Although the minivan shape remains similar, Ford changed the rear doors on its Ford Fairlane concept "people mover" to hinged ones.

What's the answer?

Doors might be one way to reinvent the minivan.

I've never understood why the industry believes all minivans must be equipped with sliding doors. Yes, I know, the first Caravan and Voyager had a sliding door.

While I like a minivan's flexibility -- the flat floor, seats that can be removed or lowered into the floor -- I've never been a fan of sliding doors. When my daughters were in grade school, they had the strength to close a conventional door but usually had difficulty closing our minivan's sliding door. It required the assistance of an adult.

And, as the minivan got older and the parts for the sliding door system wore out, it sometimes took two hands to close the sliding-door -- one to pull the door and the other to push it closed when it was properly lined up.

Instead of sliding doors, why not use conventional hinged side doors that open 100 degrees? A passenger of nearly any age could handle that -- if it's designed so it doesn't interfere with opening a front door.

The Ford Fairlane concept foretells the replacement for the Ford Freestar minivan. But Ford is not using the word "minivan" for that vehicle. "People mover" is one term Ford representatives use to describe the Fairlane.

Instead of sliding doors, the concept has suicide-style doors (rear doors hinged on the C-pillar). It's not clear what type of doors Ford will engineer when that vehicle heads to production in 2008. They could be conventional doors. But at least Ford is thinking outside the box.

The world has changed. And with a forecast of fewer minivan buyers, the doors might be a starting point for reinventing the minivan.