Back when I was a kid, families loved buying minivans. I grew up in the back of a few different vans, including a swanky Oldsmobile Silhouette with leather seating, power sliding doors, rear entertainment system, and more. Minivans used to be a huge category, today they’re almost a niche. Now, the crossover is king – and that’s fine!
Matt wrote about how he tried to convince his neighbor to buy a minivan or a Mazda CX-90, but they bought a Toyota Grand Highlander instead. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the Grand Highlander. It’s big, it’s reasonably luxurious, and it gets great fuel economy for its size. The Bishop’s Brother points something else out:
Hmm. To me it is odd – these days, a three-row crossover is ABSOLUTELY the “I’m a bougie soccer mom” or “I’m a bougie baseball dad” vehicle. There’s literally NO difference in perceived cachet to a minivan, other that I know the SUV owners’ kids will be the ones dinging my doors on the way out.
Luxobarge:
This reminds me of the old saying in IT: “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
Is it the best built? Maybe not. Is it the cheapest? Probably not. But it’s the standard, and therefore it’s the safe choice.
Likewise, Toyota might not build the best or cheapest car in a segment, but it’s hard to fault someone for just giving up and choosing the Toyota, because Toyota.
Griznant:
When people ask me what car I recommend for them, I just point to the respective Toyota product that matches their need. I’m not sticking my neck out and recommending something that will break and then I’m the guy who recommended a “bad” car.
That’s been my MO for 25+ years and I have yet to have someone come back to me all bent out of shape. It’s always the *safe* choice.
Not everyone wants a minivan, and that’s fine! Some folks like having SUV style and a little extra ground clearance. That’s the great thing about having lots of choice in the market. Minivan loyalists can get their fix, and so can crossover lovers.
Jason wrote about a bizarre water leak in his Citroën 2CV, and readers and one legendary contributor gave him awesome advice. Stephen Walter Gossin:
Previous Owner’s Note: The windshield has a crack and the wiper cowl has some rust. These two combined, makes me believe there may be either rust on the windshield frame (under the seal) or just a bad seal. Now that the top has been replaced and taken out of consideration as the cause, I’d next investigate that water ingress on the LF foot well potentially being from the windshield seal.
Hit it with a garden hose and the source should become clearer, my friend!
P.S. That car really is charming. Not many that I’ve sold I’ve staying in my heart afterwards. The sight of it on today’s Cold Start brought a huge smile to this guys’ face.
Parts Note: Flat glass for the cheap replacement win!
Weston made me laugh:
This car is designed to leak from the windshield, the door windows, the rear window, the roof, the doors, the floor, the tail lights, the headlights, the ignition key, the speedometer and the dashboard. If it leaks from anywhere else you have a very serious problem.
Jason also complained about why there are a ridiculous number of wiper blade fittings. As it happens, many situations in life have a relevant comic. Rad Barchetta:
Relevant. (Click Here)
Have a great day, everyone!
“Not everyone wants a minivan, and that’s fine! Some folks like having SUV style and a little extra ground clearance. That’s the great thing about having lots of choice in the market. Minivan loyalists can get their fix, and so can crossover lovers.”
The problem with large SUVs is a lack of visibility and a tall front end so the kid in front of you that you can’t see is worse off because of the tall flat front end. So maybe it’s not a great thing that people are opting for these vehicles in the age of distracted driving when a minivan is the better choice for this use case AND is safer for people outside of the vehicle.
Thank you. We’ve become too comfortable with sweeping the societal impact of most new vehicles sold being trucks or SUVs under the rug.
If vehicle purchases were a strictly logical thing, then I’m sure we’d see lots of minivans.
But vehicle purchases aren’t. I grew up riding in the back of a 2 door vehicle. Both my parents and I survived without four doors and a massive open cargo area.
I’m 6’4 and my kids are 6’0 and 5’11, we fit fine in my 2017 GTI and it does what basically every car driving downtown does without being a behemoth. Plus it was at least half the price of a nicer large SUV.
In an alternate universe Toyota still builds the Previa. I’ll take the sky blue one with 2 sunroofs AWD and the SC 4. I’m too old to give a fuck about someone thinking I’m a soccer mom or dad. I want useful space for people snd stuff. I’m pretty sure it could tow a 250 pound trailer (Sylvan Sport crass advertising inclusion) with the 80 pound expedition tent.
how do I get to the alternate universe where we can have a mid-engined AWD egg from Toyota and 2025 dustbuster vans from GM
Nah, too mainstream. Give me the Hiace!
Time to confess. Y’all are driving jacked up station wagons. A lot of them not AWD. Love pulling up behind a cheap CRV and there’s a hole you can see thru where the rear diff should go!!! But the more mature individual likes them cause open door, park butt. Easy in and out…meanwhile I’m down here in my coupe’ Can you throw me a rope and I’ll pull myself out.
Look, I’m pretty fanatical about the minivan being perfect for those with 2-4 kids (does anyone have more than 4 anymore?) and others to schlep around. I think 3-row SUVs are pretty dumb, but I don’t have an issue with them existing.
I do get disappointed that the minivan isn’t so popular that I can’t get more interesting options though. For instance, I badly wish Subaru went van instead of with the Ascent. There’s no VW van (don’t tell me otherwise). No Mazda van, no Ferd van, no GM van? I just wish I had other options. Instead you’re stuck fighting for an available Carnival, the mythological beast that is the Sienna, a seasonal depression gray Odyssey or a “are we sure they’re going to be around in 3 years” Chrysler.
Two more choices in this sector and I’d be a lot less bitter about the proliferation of the 3-row SUV. Granted this is how I feel about crossovers and the death of basically all segments that aren’t crossovers and pickups.
I have a coworker with two small kids and I think they are trying for #3. They had a pair of Rav4s until this weekend.
They went shopping for a 3 row SUV. They had their eldest (Kindergartener) clamber into Highlanders, Grand Highlanders and some non-Toyota products. Between not being able to control the door opening and the high step up height for a little girl, none of the 3 row SUVs were optimal.
Then they climbed into a Sienna. It had 15k miles and was a Platinum edition with every possible bell and whistle. Nicer inside, the girl can open and close the door herself without destroying cars next to it and the lower step in height allowed her to get in and out easier. Oh, and it gets dramatically better gas mileage and both of them like the way it drives better than the 3 row SUVs they drove.
Minivans are STILL the king of kid hauling and the only way you can have issues with them is if you are having litters instead of children (like my wife’s aunt who had 14 kids). Then the logical vehicle is a full sized passenger van (aka Church Van).
My kids are 7 and 4. Both can get in and out of the van on their own, and buckle themselves in without assistance. They typically sit in the 2nd row, but on occasion my 7 year old takes her booster into the 3rd row and easily sets herself up (again on her own) back there. Everything about having the van with them makes life so, so much easier. They’ve done zero damage to other’s cars in parking lots too.
The big 3 row SUVs remind me a bit of the giant coupes I grew up in.
When I was a kid, every family had a coupe instead of a sedan. Giant Monte Carlos, Coupe DeVilles, Torinos, etc.
There was plenty of room in the back seat for 3 adults on these things, but getting past the seat belts and flip down seats made the backseat more of a thing for the kids. The giant 500 lb doors were hard to get started and would only stop swinging when they caved in the door on the car next to you. Everyone and his uncle had these gross looking thick rubber Pep Boys stick on things to protect the sides of your car.
When my parents got a sedan instead of a coupe, it was a revelation. Sure, it wasn’t nearly as cool, but it was so much more practical. But family sized coupes sold well throughout the 70s and didn’t really die until sometime in the 90s. I have to admit that they looked a lot better and seemed a lot more sporter than the frumpy sedans.
Just like a SUV is a lot tougher and cooler looking than a Minivan.
Now that the Sienna is Hybrid only can’t keep em on the lot. Less than a 30 day supply. Of course if you want a Dodge Hornet….lol 250 day supply.
I live in the South. There’s a term here that applies.
“They sure are proud of them”.
My kids are now in their early 20s but we had a 2006 Odyssey and it was an amazing car for a family of four who did a lot of trips with the grandparents along for the ride.
Walking up to your car with your arms loaded and two kids in tow with the ability to just open the sliding doors with your fob and have the kids get into their seats while you put the stuff in the back is a killer feature that these SUVs can’t match.
We tried the 3-row crossover route with a 2019 Toyota Highlander, but it made too many compromises for its price. The third row was tiny and almost unusable to anyone but small kids, and there was zero luggage space behind it when we did try to use the seat(s).
Presumably, the “Grand” Highlander fixes those issues.
The sliding doors and deep cargo floor of our current parent-car, a 2018 Kia Sedona, are immensely more practical for hauling our two kids, my wife’s teenage sister, and the kids’ occasional friend or two (or my wife’s grandma who lives close by). But, the Sedona looks dowdier than the Highlander and it does lack the perceived usefulness of AWD or ground clearance. Like you said, it’s a give and take.
Ofc, I actually have no leg to stand on here… The last “we have use for a big car with AWD” before the kids left was… A non-grand Highlander. It’s… Just a really nice car for this transition time (trips to university with stuff, bunches of people, etc). Is it as space-efficient as the Odyssey we had for ~17yrs? No. But in all honesty, we had to agree with the reader who posted about minivan sizes. We thought the 2005 Oddy was huge, but like me, the 2025 Oddy is even bigger than the 2005 version. And our kids were now old enough to know (and had been taught) how to open doors without dinging someone.
So, I guess that’s my Lutheran confession for the day, Matt.