Whether you love them or hate them, the truth is that minivans are a major part of automotive history, particularly Chrysler’s 100 years as a manufacturer. Although they’re not as popular as they used to be in the 1980s and 1990s, they’re still available from five manufacturers in America (if you count the all-electric Volkswagen ID. Buzz). As Brandt Rosenbusch, Manager of Historical Services for Stellantis North America, explains in the video below, Chrysler was the first to offer an upscale minivan.
That doesn’t mean it was the first to market, though. Dodge’s Caravan and Plymouth’s Voyager arrived for the 1984 model year in response to a desire for smaller family transportation that could fit in a regular-sized garage. Chrysler’s Town & Country variant arrived in 1990 with standard leather seating, front and rear air conditioning, and V6 power.
A second-generation model followed shortly afterward.
In 1996, the Town & Country was visually overhauled to match the sleeker, cab forward styling of its sedan counterparts.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Stow N’ Go seating (a product of the fourth-generation Town & Country), which allows the second- and third-row seats to be folded flat into the floor for more cargo space. The subsequent generation was the Town & Country’s last, but not the end of the Chrysler minivan. The Pacifica was introduced as a 2017 model and is still available today as a gas-only model and a plug-in hybrid variant.
I can’t speak for any of you out there, but my perception of the minivan has evolved along with the vehicle itself. When I was little kid, I thought conversion vans were the place to be because they were large and felt special, but that may be because the ones I remember had a TV and VCR in them. I didn’t grow up in a minivan family, so I wasn’t familiar with them.
In my teens and 20s, I thought minivans were lame, boring kid-haulers. That changed in my 30s, when I discovered how convenient, feature-rich, and luxurious models such as the Honda Odyssey Elite and Chrysler Pacifica Pinnacle Hybrid could be. Now a parent myself, I totally get why people buy minivans. I would have no qualms about getting one as my next vehicle, but sorry, Chrysler—I’d go with the Toyota Sienna Platinum.