Life without minivans

Never owned a mini-van. I have proposed it to the wife (as they are so practical), but she was like, NO WAY IN HELL.

Okey dokey.

 

what fwd is good for

well,.....this:

 

^^^^^

So....is that the new Pontiac 3000?

 

have to agree with Eagle Freek, handy vehicles, good mileage, Great handling if you bought the handling package (chrysler vehicles).

My family always hated wagons, but i loved them and they all thought i was weird. During the 90's the whole family had minivans, Now mine and my grandmothers are the only ones in the family. Everyone else upgraded to SUV's which arent nearly as useful. They still have to borrow one of our vans to move anything or cart people and luggage to the airport.

I cant understand why it took chrysler almost 20 years to figure out how to make the seats fold down in the vans like they did in the wagons.

So i never had a wagon till i could buy one for myself, and i have 2 now AND the minivan. I have a 96 Chrysler Town and Country with the towing package (same as sport package on the Dodge) and it out handles the rest of my fleet. I love it too.

 

No one ever owned a minivan in my family until my grandpa bought one... (Not the grandpa who bought my wagon new) He was looking for a new car and he and his girlfriend like garage sales and flea markets at the time... Also he likes the room. I have driven it, and personally hate it. It's a 2001 Windstar, and it sucks. Slow, bulky, akward, horrible handling and the list goes on.
Years ago my dad's friend asked my dad why they didn't replace the wagon with a mini van. "Simple, try haulling 7-8000 lbs between car load and trailer with a minivan... After the half shafts launch out of the transmission, then you'll see why we use the wagon."

 

if there never were mini-vans id say amc would still be a division of chrysler...maybe still its own entitiy. i would be driving a "brand new" crown vic wagon.

btw did anyone ever notice that chrysler mini-vans (esp the 80's-90's models) get an odd smell to the interior when they get older?

 

That's from stored-up kid farts and juice-box yick in the cushions!

 

Okay, here goes; flame suit on.
First, Aerostar and Astro are mini-vans. Deny if you like.
Second, I like mini-vans for what they are, or rather what they started out to be. I have no dillusions that they are stylish(See movie "Get Shorty") or good performers. What they are in their basic form is an excellent compromise between a passenger car and a hauler of people and/or cargo in a reasonable size. Once all ginched up as so many are now-a-days into pseudo luxury sedans, or media rooms for your brood of ADD kids they are as wasteful and silly as any outsize SUV.
Recently faced with the choice to eliminate either my Custom Cruiser or 2nd gen. Caravan the Dodge stayed. The Olds rode immeasurably better and had more amenities but couldn't carry as much or load it as easily as the van. It was also an example of GM build quality at it's perigee. The mini-van swallows larger cargo and breaks down way less. Highway mileage for the two was very close but the Olds' wheezer 305 got very thirsty accelerating the mass of the tuna over and over again in city driving.

The new "crossovers" have higher roofs than what we would recognize as a station wagon so perhaps closer to the much maligned mini-van than our beloved long roofs. Both station wagon and mini-van terms have fallen from favor so a new non-descriptive one has been devised in true marketing jibberish fashion.
Having said all this I miss my wagon and will one day own another.

 

Aerostars are FWD. Edit: I stand corrected, the later Windstar is FWD.
The Astro while not as car-like as the others was diminutive in size, hence the term "mini".
What full size van supposedly had a 100" wheelbase? Old Corvettes has a 100" wheelbase.

 

Dissin' the MINI !!!

Couldn't help myself here...
The first mini-van I owned was a Madza AWD... That didn't have the bugs worked out of the AWD part. 2500 miles and the tranny took a dump in Boone, N.C.. Took all of out vacation to get it fixed but they did. It actually was RWD and scooted pretty good. With triplets the minivans just seemed to work and the gas mileage wasn't bad then either!!! Traded that in about 9 mos. later for one without AWD, kept that one for 5years. They were the only things I could easily get into with the bad knees and crutches, plus +++, the triplet stroller would fit in the back without having to totally dismantle it. Just reverse the back seat and fold in the handle. Took about 1 minute, and then me and the little wailers were on the way. Bought Momma a SW2 the next year so we could swap out kids or go in different directions at the same time. That little bugger would scoootttt!!! 5 speed, 4 wheel discs' and a kick butt stereo, Metalic Blue and grey interior. Traded in my beloved Toyota 4 wheel drive SR-5 for the wagon (what a truck). Anyway the Madza would skoot-out pretty well. If you manually went from 1st to 2nd and reapplied the full throtle, she'd bark them tires!!! Went through a couple more and finished off with a Toyota Sienna...GAS HOG!!! Outta them now and into Big Red, a Durango with the HEMI and a thirst for gas like no other...!!! 15 on the road and 14 around town(with Momma driving), I on the other hand get about 13 around town and 16 on the road. I can never resist the HEMI sound and the cold air kit!!!
'Back to Don't dis the Mini'...anyway they were good for the time and relatively cheeper than a car, always got them with leather and they 'cleaned-up' well as they say. But, YES they did have a way of gettin-that-smell in them!!! I think it was the old french fries, stored in the arm rest (for when we might get hungry again) thingy. Funny how they shrink and then get fuzzy and swoll way up, kinda like a catapilar. Oh well...I digress..Moving on to the Malibu...Can't wait!!!
Bruce

 

Look at the specs again, the Astro has a 1 inch longer WB then the full size standard sized Chevy van. Thats 11 inches longer then a Vette and from what the women all say, 11 inches is HUGE.

 

You stabbed your Wagon in the back for a rotten mini van?

Please tell us you did not do that C4C program if you did betray the OCC.

 

That's easy - the Dodge/Fargo A100 van. The 100 supposedly stood for the wheelbase, but the w/b was actually 90 inches - just five inches longer than that of a Metropolitan! The brother A108 van actually has a 108" W/B.