July 6, 2022 • 34 mins
Envisioned as the antidote to the dowdy station wagon, the minivan became more stigmatized still, as it gave power and locomotion to a new entity: the helicopter parent. In a two-part series, Eddie examines the evolution of the family hauler, and asks the question: How did we go from kids unbelted in the rear-facing seat of a station wagon to strapped in and facing forward in a minivan, all within the scope of a few years?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. It's the fall of nineteen eighty three in suburban Detroit.
I'm eleven years old, and I'm on the school bus.
We're wending through neighborhoods of mid century ranches and tri levels,
(00:35):
the very sort of handsome middle class homes that car
industry prosperity has made possible in this town. The bus
is heading to my friend Josh's house. Josh's dad works
at Chrysler. Lots of my friend's dads work at the
big three car companies, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. And
(00:57):
even if they don't work for them, they still kind
of do. In Detroit, it doesn't matter if you're a
barber or a surgeon. You still serve the people of
the Big three. It's a company town. The bus hisses
to a stop as Josh makes his way up the
(01:17):
steps and down the rubberized aisle. I see that his
mighty mack jacket has a white pin on it. It
says magic wagon, Magic wagon. What is that about? I ask?
Josh tells me it's like a van. Well, that sounds incredible.
The van is already the coolest vehicle there is. I mean,
(01:41):
mister T drives one on the A team, Good afternoon.
Are you crazy? Who might drive my van? But me
get out of you? The Magic Wagon must be even
cooler than that. It has magic right in the name.
It probably has huge stripes down the front and wizards
(02:02):
on the side and flames shooting out the back. And
then a few days later I see the ad for
it on TV introducing Plymouth Voyager. You've got some tragi. Hi,
I'm Doug Henny. You know, as your family grows bigger
(02:23):
and bigger, cars have been getting smaller and smaller. So
what you need is a magic wagon? Who boy? It
was clear that the magic Wagon was not a van.
Far from it. It was a minivan, emphasis on mini,
like a miniature Schnauzer or a kiddie pool. It was
(02:44):
not some slammed hot rod van with the flames and
the wizards and the stripes on the outside. There was
no shag carpeting inside, and mister T would definitely pity
the fool who drove one. It was an automotive bowl
cut a wood paneled wedgie. It was even lamer than
my parents Oldsmobile custom Cruiser station wagon. It just seems
(03:07):
sad and boringing of drudgery and adulthood. I hated it,
but hey, I was eleven. I had no idea what
I was talking about. I'm Eddie Alterman, and this is
Car Show. This week we begin a two part exploration
of the minivan's quiet genius. The minivan has been beligned
(03:31):
more than anything this side of a Ford Pinto. It's
the butt of nearly every car joke, a sort of
shorthand for automotive anemia, the thing you drive when you've
given up. But show me another vehicle that was so
right for its audience, so perfectly usable, and so utterly
devastating to its competition as the humble minivan. Consider this
(03:55):
with one basic vehicle, the Chrysler Corporation set fire to
an entire category of cars. The nineteen eighty four Chrysler minivans,
the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan laid waste to the
family we car of the era. The station Wagon just
made it look ridiculous. The minivan was and still is
(04:16):
the best way to move people and their stuff. In
this episode, we will learn about how we went almost
overnight from kids roaming around unbelted in the third row
of the station Wagon, took bolt upright and strapped into
the minivan. In the minivan, and from here on out,
kids would be tamped down, headsetted, and accounted for. This
(04:39):
wasn't just a product shift, it was a cultural shift.
Though there were small vans before it. Modern minivan history
(05:01):
began in earnest when the great Italian designer Georgetto Jujaro
revealed a new kind of people mover at the nineteen
seventy eight Turin Auto Show. We met Jujaro back in
the VWGTI episode. First he designs the ultimate German family car,
the VW Golf, and then he creates the inspiration for
(05:23):
the ultimate American one. I must say this people mover
fixation doesn't exactly square with his personal style. Jujarro is
a man of extreme elegance, a perfectly quaffed head of
hair and beautifully tailored sport coats. The guy is right
out of a Rosalini film. But he is also a pragmatist,
(05:48):
and what he did for American families was eminently pragmatic.
He did more than just redesign the traditional wagon. He
rethought the whole thing from the inside out. He sort
of fused that VW Golf he designed with a box
because what's more space efficient than a box It had
(06:08):
a high seating position and a cavernous interior. It was
way cooler than a station wagon. This concept car, the
turin show the Lancha Megagamma, is considered the rootstock of
the minivan crop. Lancha had never produced the Megagamma, but
the show car caught the attention of lots of designers
and engineers. For a time, it was the biggest idea
(06:31):
in the car business. Over at Ford, they had been
cooking up their own small, boxy four passenger front wheel
dry van around the same time. It was called the
Minimax and it was the brainchild of Ford product guru
Hell Spurlick. Even though Ford's then president Lee Iacocca championed it,
(06:53):
it didn't go anywhere, but when Iacocca and Spurlick left
Ford for Chrysler, they took the idea with them. Those
two ultimately made the magic Wagon of reality. Iacocca and
Spurlick were pretty unstoppable as a team. They also created
the original Mustang during their time at Ford. Sperlick, the
(07:15):
Michigan engineering grad, and Ia Coca, the son of Italian
immigrants from Allentown, Pennsylvania. As different as they were, both
made a habit of getting fired for speaking their minds
in conservative Detroit boardrooms. Iacocca and Sperlick, through many iterations,
made the minivan the three row mainstream people mover. It
(07:35):
became they wanted a front wheel drive van that could
fit in a garage and had a huge interior. Sperlick
was responsible for pulling the vehicle together and ia Coca
took it to market. He could sell a ketchup popsicle
to a debutante in white gloves. A lot of people
think America can't cut the mustard anymore. That quality counts
(07:57):
for nothing, and hard work for even less, and commitment
that went out with a hula hoope. Well, when you've
been kicked in the head like we have, you'll learn
pretty quick to put first things first, and in the car,
product comes first, and product is what brought us back
to prosperity. Ayacca was undoubtedly a great pitchman, but it
(08:20):
was the physical layout of the minivan that had people
trading in their wagons. For voyagers, the station wagon was
the de facto family cruiser, only because it had an
extra row of seats in the back. A seat where
kids face rearward in the most precarious position in the car.
Though the station wagon may have slept millions of kids around,
(08:42):
it was not originally designed for them. As the name implies.
It was meant to take people in their stuff to
and from the train station. The station wagon was a
luggage car. Only later did it evolve into the family holler.
We remember so fondly from National Lampoon's vacation. Now. I
(09:02):
went to myself to tell you, mister Griswold, but if
you're thinking to take in the tribe fresh country, this
is the automobile should be using. The wagon point family truster.
You think you hated now, but where are you driving?
A few years after the minivan came out, no one
would want a station wagon. But to really understand how
the Chrysler Magic Wagon killed that whole category of cars,
(09:26):
we need to go inside the two and compare. Imagine
we are back in nineteen eighty three at the wheel
of my parents Oldsmobile wagon. You sit low in it
on a vast expanse of the lure. Before you is
a thin rimmed steering wheel with spokes placed lazily at
(09:47):
the four and eight o'clock positions, as if you'd never
need more than a pinky to steer. The thing behind
the wheel is a broad and deep wood grain dash,
and beyond that is a long rectangular hood that reaches
clear to the horizon. In its engine bay rests a
wheezy five liter V eight, making a pathetic hundred and
(10:10):
forty horsepower. It couldn't pulled guano out of a goose.
Climb into the second row and you'll see a hump
in the floor. This bulge runs lengthwise down the center
of the car and houses the drive shaft. To sit
in the middle with legs splayed on either side of
the hump is to sit in humiliation the so called
(10:32):
bitch seat. Go around to the back of the wagon,
Swing out the heavy, creaky tailgate, and there is the
rear facing bench, swimming in a sea of light blue carpet.
It's tiny, with two seat belts, and it's hemmed in
by the high floor in some plastic cabinetry meant to
carry stuff like jumper cables, road flares, and twelve packs
(10:56):
of past The entire orientation of the olds is horizontal.
It's long, low, and wide. Very detroit postwar. Know you
get in this nineteen eighty four Magic Wagon and it's
a big step up. Literally, you sit up high in
these captain's chairs. There's room, you know, It's like the
(11:20):
hip point is really high. The door still feels kind
of low. Everything feels really airy, super easy to see
out of. If there were kids in the back, you
could see their faces. It's wild. And look at this
awesome Valeur interior. That's me and my editor Jenquia geeking
out because we are face to face with an original
(11:42):
nineteen eighty four Magic Wagon. But not just any Magic wagon.
This is number one. This is the first ever Magic Wagon,
the first one to roll off the line, the one
that Leaia Coca drove. Your smile is just so vague
right now. I've never been this excited about a minivan
of my life. I'm feeling a little bit like Leaya Coca,
(12:05):
like I should wear like a double windsor tie and
a brown It's so open, so like in the olds,
you're sitting super low. This one, you're you feel way higher.
You're sitting like a good foot higher, and yet the
floor seems lower. You know, everything is opened up. There's
no center consoles, just as big pass through you can
(12:26):
like reach back and whack the kids. It's great. Whereas
my parents oldsmobile had a wide bench seat up front,
the Magic Wagon has captain's chairs with armrests. These high chairs,
they really help you see out of the thing. The
hood is really short and it sort of falls away
(12:46):
from you. You have a great view of the road.
It's just open an area and the visibility is fantastic. Okay,
you go around to the side of the vehicle and
you've got a sliding door like a big boy van.
The access to the second and third rows is so easy.
You can just walk right in, like if you're a kid,
(13:08):
you could just step under that little ledge there and
see yourself to the back seat where you'd sit in
strapped in, you know, upright, not crawling around on the
back like an animal and so and facing forward and
facing forward. Okay, this is really important. That's right. It's
a front facing third row. This is key. In the
(13:33):
station wagon, kids sit facing backward inhaling exhaust fumes through
the rear window. What child hating monster thought the rear
facing third row was a good idea? It seems crazy now,
after all we know about crash safety to put the
smallest kids in the most vulnerable position in the car,
right in the rear crumple zone, with their feet inches
(13:56):
from the bumper. I'm going to try to shrink myself down,
but it's pretty easy to get back in here. You know.
Here in the minivan, they sit in the back row,
high off the floor, facing forward, almost like real human beings.
In the minivan. The kid is king. Yeah. So when
(14:17):
you say kid is king, what do you mean by that?
So the kid is in like the kind of command
position in the vehicle. He can see out, he can
see everything. He's sort of driving the bus. He's you know,
he's sitting in the back of the chariot and whipping
the horse in the driver's seat. Yeah. I mean, you
are pretty high up here in the back right, there's
(14:38):
like this perched element. You can see everything. You know,
You're you're sitting so much higher in the third row
than you would be in the second row. You're really
the king of the castle. King in the castle. King
in the castle. Have a chair. I have a chair.
Oh go do this, King in the castle. The real
key innovation is not just the third row. It's the
(15:02):
height of the third row. And kids can see out.
You know, they can see what's happening. They have a
sense of control roll too, and they're also part of
the conversation now where if they were facing backwards, they're
totally separate. Yeah, they're not sequestered and cordoned off in
the back part of the car. They are part of
the family. Now. I hadn't thought about that until I
(15:24):
sat in the back here, and now you're with mom
and dad, and your sisters are your brothers, and everybody
is one family unit, as opposed to having the kids
being kind of, you know, not seen and not heard
from here, kids like have a voice. You're part of
the family, You're part of the team. This is why
(15:45):
Jujaro and Spurlick and Ia Coca wanted that front wheel
drive layout, with the entire powertrain up front between the wheels.
There is no drive shaft running the length of the vehicle,
no transmission tunnel taking up room upfront. Everything is pushed down.
That's how you get a big airy box on wheels.
(16:06):
It's practically a mobile living room. The station wagon was horizontal,
whereas the orientation of a minivan is vertical. It is
short and upright. It's easy to wheel around you can
see your kids, you can see the road. By some
(16:27):
miracle of corporate negligence, Jen and I are given the
rare opportunity to take Magic Wagon number one for a spin. Okay,
now we're rolling. Oh she feels showroom new. This is awesome,
really driving a piece of history. Rides great, it's easy
(16:50):
to drive. You feel like you could get in and
drive it across the country now still thirty eight years later.
It's relaxing, it's terrific, and not about the engine. It's
about the interior. It's not about handling. It's about family
cargo space. Not cargo space, but just living room, the
(17:13):
most precious cargo, the most precious cargo of the family.
Exactly as different as the minivan and the station wagon were,
though both were products of Detroit's so called Malaise era,
so they do have some things in common. Both were
screwed together with utter apathy, both shook and rattled, and
(17:38):
both were comically underpowered. Your only minivan engine choices were
the piece of shit Corporate for cylinder or the slightly
less dreadful Mitsubishi for a cylinder. Each pumped out about
one hundred glue factory certified horsepower. The minivan and the
wagon were similar, and that the engines almost didn't matter,
(17:59):
but the differences were stark and could be traced back
to this. The station wagon is essentially a sedan with
its roof extended over where the trunk would be. It's
an adaptation of another form, but the minivan was something
entirely new, designed and engineered with a modern family in mind,
conceived from the inside out. In nineteen eighty four, the
(18:25):
first year of the Chrysler Vans osmobile, sold about thirty
four thousand custom Cruiser wagons. By nineteen ninety it sold
fewer than four thousand. Video killed the Radio Star, but
this didn't happen solely because the minivan had a sliding
door and tons of space. The search continues for Little
(18:45):
Debbie Vincent, missing since yesterday morning. So far, there are
no clues to her disappearance. The lease speculate that she
loved to have forgotten. We'll look at some of the
other deeper seated reasons why the minivan canceled the station wagon,
and a lot of it had to do with that
third row of seats. I'm Eddie Alterman, and this is
(19:06):
car Show. Will be right back The Magic Wagon was
as much born out of the world as into it.
It came at a time when somewhat unthinkably, America started
(19:29):
screwing up Detroit as a monia statistical leader and robbery
assault and rate them back from As kids in the
late seventies, we were trained to spot kidnappers and were
well versed in stranger danger. I remember seeing the wanted
poster in my local post office for the Oakland County
(19:51):
child killer. The wanted poster said he drove a Gremlin.
I could hardly imagine anything scarier. Oh, except this. The
Soviets not only continue to build up their offense if
nuclear forces at an unprecedented rate, they're also spending almost
as much on strategu defense. Our country seemed incapable of
(20:12):
addressing not only the real issues, but also the symbolic ones.
The Space Shuttle Challenger in nineteen eighty six revealed to
every classroom in America that our institutions were far more
fragile than we ever imagined. Already more than four miles down,
whims were throttling up three hundred and four percent of
(20:32):
Challenger go and throttle up the Shuttle mission will launch.
My God, fifty is going to explode one twenty nine
percent altitude nine nauticle miles down range. When people saw
the curtain whisked back on all of America's frailties, the
response was to hunker down, especially parents of small children.
(20:55):
This was a time of real paranoia, a downsizing of
our ambitions, and it seemed into everything. Not only were
cars getting smaller as a consequence of the fuel crisis
of the early seventies, the psychological space in which they
operated was too. In their engineering, cars were turning from
(21:16):
wild stallions to petting zoo ponies. The car's social function
was changing as well, from entertainment, freedom and expression to
personal and family protection. Car seats, seat belts, and airbags
were becoming more commonplace. It all reflected the wider shift
in parenting itself. I think the minivan in some ways
(21:39):
also projected that you know, I am committed. You know
I'm a committed parent. That's Miriam Errand. She's the former
editor in chief of Child Magazine and the former director
of the Good Housekeeping Institute. Even into the seventies, parenting
was something you achieved in between bowling frames and cigarette breaks.
(22:01):
But Miriam says by the eighties, kids were becoming the
focus and when by people was got into parenting just
like they've done every phase of their life, they got
into it with this amazing gusto. So they were all
in the rise of the working mom gave rise to
meticulously organized suburban carpool systems, So suddenly, you know, you
(22:22):
had to you had to get on board with the
other people, other parents in the neighborhood to total a
lot of kids. And also team sports became a very
big thing for kids at younger ages, so you've got,
you know, the soccer mom toting the soccer team and
all the gear. I think that in some ways, the minivan,
(22:43):
you know, bigger, better, you know, it's a real statement.
I think reflects almost the image that many parents were
trying to project that this was life became very child centered.
The minivan was parentings suit of armor, and it only
got thicker from there. The key ideas were the addition
(23:05):
of a second sliding door, the rollout seats, cup holders,
juice cup holders, integrated safety chail seats, grocery bag holders,
and the seatbacks. This is well traveled car executive Chris Theodore.
He worked on the first minivan and led the second
generation's development. I wanted to understand the thinking behind the
(23:28):
second generation of a minivan. One invention I wanted to
do I never got into production, but somebody finally did
was a little video cam that would be up in
the mirror so I could watch what the kids were doing,
but would flop over to a backup camera. And so
we were working in all all kinds of stuff like that.
(23:51):
Chris was on the right track. As we'll see in
part two of our Family Car series, minivans have become
mobile surveillance states. But just as important as keeping an
eye on the kids is making sure they stay optimally hydrated.
Were these the first cup holders or they were not
the first cup holders? They were the first in the
(24:14):
front where the first variable cup holders. It was like
a claw and whatever size cup you could put in
you could ratchet down so it would rip the cup.
And the first juice box holder, it was the first
juice box holders. So we had I can't remember the numbers,
like thirteen or something like that cup holders throughout the vehicle.
That means that in the high occupancy seven passenger version
(24:37):
with a full complement of five kids in the back,
each one could double fist their juice boxes. No wonder
parents love them. They weren't just cars, they were child
pacifying anxiety alleviation devices. But parents love them for another reason,
and it's a foundational truth of the car business. No
(24:58):
one wants to drive the same car their parents did.
And here's where the cycle repeats itself. No matter how
great the minivan was for baby boomers, Jenac, there's like
me and my wife wanted something new. We found it
in the suv or sport utility vehicle. I asked my
wife Carrie about it so care. When the kids were
(25:20):
a little we had wagons and three row SUVs, not minivans,
when a minivan would have been much more practical. Why
didn't you want a minivan? While I loved the idea
of driving the living room, I also felt like it
put the entire identity of parenthood before the identity of self.
(25:43):
And as somebody who worked, I felt like when I'd
pick people up from the airport or drive them to
different events when they'd come into town, I often felt
like I'd much rather have a professional looking car than
a mom car. When SUV started infiltrating the car market
back in the nineties. It wasn't because they were carefully
(26:03):
planned and packaged people movers. It was because they said
something powerful about their drive. That these rugged frontiers people
were ready at a moment's notice to drop all their
workaday responsibilities, strap a sea kayak to the roof, and
set out for Cape Horn. These folk may have warned
khakis by day, but underneath all that synthetic fleece lurked
(26:27):
the soul of an adventurer. The vehicles even had names
like that Pathfinder, Trailblazer, Explorer. These were the anti minivans,
macho road crushers with big wheels, knobby tires and pedestrian
clavering brush bars. And then what do you know, Slowly
(26:51):
but surely, as the suv expanded in popularity, style, and size,
it began to morph into a minivan replacement. Three rows
of seats, tons of entertainment options inside, cupholders galore, but
no sliding door stigma. The suv grew up, and in
(27:11):
doing so, became a minivan in disguise. I guess every
generation needs their own king of the carpool lane. If
you think about it, we always say that there's nothing
better at moving people and stuff. Than a minivan. That's
Dodge CEO Tim Coniscus. He used to be the head
of passenger cars for Chrysler's parent company, Stilantis. Tim is
(27:35):
one of the hardest hardcore car enthusiasts in the business
and one of the people who gave the world the
original seven hundred and seven horsepower Dodge Hellcat. None of
this diminishes his love for the minivan. The three row suv,
Tim says, is basically a people mover on stilts, which
means that deep down, minivans are still what people want,
(27:57):
even if they don't realize it. So do you think
that this is where minivans are going? Do you think
that they are going to be sort of Norm Coore
style statements in a way? Well, I think about when
are we going to get to autonomy? I don't know.
I mean, I don't have a crystal ball, but I
mean look at some of the vehicles that we're shown
(28:17):
at cs CES is the annual Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas where a lot of new concept cars are shown.
You know, these are not metivans. These are quote autonomous
pods or whatever. What did they have? They had sliding doors,
they had power to sliding doors, because how else are
you going to do a door in an autonomous vehicle? Right? Yeah,
who's going to open it? Wait a sec? Are we
(28:41):
witnessing a new dawn of the minivan? Will the sliding
door long the velpro shoe of automotive attributes become a
real and defining asset. Will autonomous family pods of the future,
provided they ever get here, look more like minivans and
less like three row SUVs. For an answer, look no
(29:02):
further than the autonomous vehicles that weymo Google self driving
sibling is testing. Because they're computer driven, these cars need
to reassure people that they're safe because they are shared
much like an uber, they need to accommodate everyone. What
kind of vehicle fits the bill? Those white waymou vans
(29:23):
with all the sensors and cameras on them are of
course Chrysler Pacificas the future of the people mover is
still the minivan. All of this technology exists out there
for all this high tech safety, and we said, you know,
if there's ever going to be a vehicle or we
should make all that standard, it should be the steak
(29:43):
in the ground should be the minivan. I think it
does send a message to people, Oh, Miniman, safe vehicle. Okay,
so I'm driving the Pacifica. Now you can hear how
quiet it is inside. All that talk about autonomous pods
is largely conceptual. I wanted to drive a new minivan
to see how far the species had evolved. Now this
(30:04):
is the twenty twenty one Chrysler Pacifica. Pinnacle costs around
fifty four thousand dollars, and it's got everything on it.
It's got a Swede headliner. When Chrysler's Magic Wagon was new,
it costs, when we adjust for inflation, around twenty five
thousand dollars. This new version is more than twice as much.
(30:26):
But that original minivan didn't have any of this, bifunction
led projector headlamps and led tail lamps. It's got a
hands free power whiftgate, hands free sliding doors, platinum chrome's
stone place roof rack, platinum chrome will grills around irony alert.
The new Pacifica is safer than minivans have ever been.
(30:49):
It's more luxurious than they've ever been. It's more professional.
Comparing the driving experience of this new one to that
of the old one is like comparing a Bentley mossan
to a rickety old shopping cart. Even the sound of
the Doris says luxury. And yet due to the rise
(31:12):
of the three row suv, their numbers have shrunk dramatically.
Carmakers sell only about three hundred thousand minivans a year,
which is bug kiss when you compare it with the
number of three row SUVs they sell. But like the
Tarte grade, that near microscopic, eight legged creature that can
(31:33):
withstand radiation, boiling liquids, and the vacuum of space, the
minivan survives in even the most hostile environments. It keeps evolving,
getting safer and more comfortable. It deserves a measure of admiration.
It's so uncool that it's actually low key dad cool.
(31:54):
As I sat staring out of my window at the
velvet red pearl coat Pacifica parked in my driveway, my
eye was lingering on the long spear of chrome down
the van side. I was admiring the way the rear
roof pillar jetted backward aggressively like a hockey stick. I
was digging the twenty inch five spoke wheels and the
blacked out windows. I looked down and thought, who could
(32:19):
hate on that the minivan may be cooler now than
at any time in its history, but that competition from
the suv segment is indeed formidable. Next week, we're going
to see how it stacks up, and we're going to
have a little help from a new dad who's in
(32:40):
the market for a family mover. Just imagine, Eddie didn't
if you were you are my partner, and Jacob and
debacc is my daughter. I can't. No one's gonna let
me drive like this. People will be squealing with like
horror and outrage. Car Show is written and hosted by
(33:04):
me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Sam Dingman, Jacob Smith,
and Amy Gaines. Our editor is Jan Guera. Original music
and mastering by Ben Tolliday. Our executive producer is Mia Lobell.
Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed
by Greg Lafever. Our patron saints are Lee, Tom Mallad
(33:27):
and Justine Lang. Special thanks to Emily Rostek and to
David Elshoff, Darren Jacobs and Rick deno Astatlantis for showing
us around the er Minivan. Karshow is a production of
Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from
Pushkin industries consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is
(33:49):
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for just four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin
Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions to find more Pushkin podcasts.
Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to podcasts.
Pushkin. It's the fall of nineteen eighty three in suburban Detroit.
I'm eleven years old, and I'm on the school bus.
We're wending through neighborhoods of mid century ranches and tri levels,
(00:35):
the very sort of handsome middle class homes that car
industry prosperity has made possible in this town. The bus
is heading to my friend Josh's house. Josh's dad works
at Chrysler. Lots of my friend's dads work at the
big three car companies, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. And
(00:57):
even if they don't work for them, they still kind
of do. In Detroit, it doesn't matter if you're a
barber or a surgeon. You still serve the people of
the Big three. It's a company town. The bus hisses
to a stop as Josh makes his way up the
(01:17):
steps and down the rubberized aisle. I see that his
mighty mack jacket has a white pin on it. It
says magic wagon, Magic wagon. What is that about? I ask?
Josh tells me it's like a van. Well, that sounds incredible.
The van is already the coolest vehicle there is. I mean,
(01:41):
mister T drives one on the A team, Good afternoon.
Are you crazy? Who might drive my van? But me
get out of you? The Magic Wagon must be even
cooler than that. It has magic right in the name.
It probably has huge stripes down the front and wizards
(02:02):
on the side and flames shooting out the back. And
then a few days later I see the ad for
it on TV introducing Plymouth Voyager. You've got some tragi. Hi,
I'm Doug Henny. You know, as your family grows bigger
(02:23):
and bigger, cars have been getting smaller and smaller. So
what you need is a magic wagon? Who boy? It
was clear that the magic Wagon was not a van.
Far from it. It was a minivan, emphasis on mini,
like a miniature Schnauzer or a kiddie pool. It was
(02:44):
not some slammed hot rod van with the flames and
the wizards and the stripes on the outside. There was
no shag carpeting inside, and mister T would definitely pity
the fool who drove one. It was an automotive bowl
cut a wood paneled wedgie. It was even lamer than
my parents Oldsmobile custom Cruiser station wagon. It just seems
(03:07):
sad and boringing of drudgery and adulthood. I hated it,
but hey, I was eleven. I had no idea what
I was talking about. I'm Eddie Alterman, and this is
Car Show. This week we begin a two part exploration
of the minivan's quiet genius. The minivan has been beligned
(03:31):
more than anything this side of a Ford Pinto. It's
the butt of nearly every car joke, a sort of
shorthand for automotive anemia, the thing you drive when you've
given up. But show me another vehicle that was so
right for its audience, so perfectly usable, and so utterly
devastating to its competition as the humble minivan. Consider this
(03:55):
with one basic vehicle, the Chrysler Corporation set fire to
an entire category of cars. The nineteen eighty four Chrysler minivans,
the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan laid waste to the
family we car of the era. The station Wagon just
made it look ridiculous. The minivan was and still is
(04:16):
the best way to move people and their stuff. In
this episode, we will learn about how we went almost
overnight from kids roaming around unbelted in the third row
of the station Wagon, took bolt upright and strapped into
the minivan. In the minivan, and from here on out,
kids would be tamped down, headsetted, and accounted for. This
(04:39):
wasn't just a product shift, it was a cultural shift.
Though there were small vans before it. Modern minivan history
(05:01):
began in earnest when the great Italian designer Georgetto Jujaro
revealed a new kind of people mover at the nineteen
seventy eight Turin Auto Show. We met Jujaro back in
the VWGTI episode. First he designs the ultimate German family car,
the VW Golf, and then he creates the inspiration for
(05:23):
the ultimate American one. I must say this people mover
fixation doesn't exactly square with his personal style. Jujarro is
a man of extreme elegance, a perfectly quaffed head of
hair and beautifully tailored sport coats. The guy is right
out of a Rosalini film. But he is also a pragmatist,
(05:48):
and what he did for American families was eminently pragmatic.
He did more than just redesign the traditional wagon. He
rethought the whole thing from the inside out. He sort
of fused that VW Golf he designed with a box
because what's more space efficient than a box It had
(06:08):
a high seating position and a cavernous interior. It was
way cooler than a station wagon. This concept car, the
turin show the Lancha Megagamma, is considered the rootstock of
the minivan crop. Lancha had never produced the Megagamma, but
the show car caught the attention of lots of designers
and engineers. For a time, it was the biggest idea
(06:31):
in the car business. Over at Ford, they had been
cooking up their own small, boxy four passenger front wheel
dry van around the same time. It was called the
Minimax and it was the brainchild of Ford product guru
Hell Spurlick. Even though Ford's then president Lee Iacocca championed it,
(06:53):
it didn't go anywhere, but when Iacocca and Spurlick left
Ford for Chrysler, they took the idea with them. Those
two ultimately made the magic Wagon of reality. Iacocca and
Spurlick were pretty unstoppable as a team. They also created
the original Mustang during their time at Ford. Sperlick, the
(07:15):
Michigan engineering grad, and Ia Coca, the son of Italian
immigrants from Allentown, Pennsylvania. As different as they were, both
made a habit of getting fired for speaking their minds
in conservative Detroit boardrooms. Iacocca and Sperlick, through many iterations,
made the minivan the three row mainstream people mover. It
(07:35):
became they wanted a front wheel drive van that could
fit in a garage and had a huge interior. Sperlick
was responsible for pulling the vehicle together and ia Coca
took it to market. He could sell a ketchup popsicle
to a debutante in white gloves. A lot of people
think America can't cut the mustard anymore. That quality counts
(07:57):
for nothing, and hard work for even less, and commitment
that went out with a hula hoope. Well, when you've
been kicked in the head like we have, you'll learn
pretty quick to put first things first, and in the car,
product comes first, and product is what brought us back
to prosperity. Ayacca was undoubtedly a great pitchman, but it
(08:20):
was the physical layout of the minivan that had people
trading in their wagons. For voyagers, the station wagon was
the de facto family cruiser, only because it had an
extra row of seats in the back. A seat where
kids face rearward in the most precarious position in the car.
Though the station wagon may have slept millions of kids around,
(08:42):
it was not originally designed for them. As the name implies.
It was meant to take people in their stuff to
and from the train station. The station wagon was a
luggage car. Only later did it evolve into the family holler.
We remember so fondly from National Lampoon's vacation. Now. I
(09:02):
went to myself to tell you, mister Griswold, but if
you're thinking to take in the tribe fresh country, this
is the automobile should be using. The wagon point family truster.
You think you hated now, but where are you driving?
A few years after the minivan came out, no one
would want a station wagon. But to really understand how
the Chrysler Magic Wagon killed that whole category of cars,
(09:26):
we need to go inside the two and compare. Imagine
we are back in nineteen eighty three at the wheel
of my parents Oldsmobile wagon. You sit low in it
on a vast expanse of the lure. Before you is
a thin rimmed steering wheel with spokes placed lazily at
(09:47):
the four and eight o'clock positions, as if you'd never
need more than a pinky to steer. The thing behind
the wheel is a broad and deep wood grain dash,
and beyond that is a long rectangular hood that reaches
clear to the horizon. In its engine bay rests a
wheezy five liter V eight, making a pathetic hundred and
(10:10):
forty horsepower. It couldn't pulled guano out of a goose.
Climb into the second row and you'll see a hump
in the floor. This bulge runs lengthwise down the center
of the car and houses the drive shaft. To sit
in the middle with legs splayed on either side of
the hump is to sit in humiliation the so called
(10:32):
bitch seat. Go around to the back of the wagon,
Swing out the heavy, creaky tailgate, and there is the
rear facing bench, swimming in a sea of light blue carpet.
It's tiny, with two seat belts, and it's hemmed in
by the high floor in some plastic cabinetry meant to
carry stuff like jumper cables, road flares, and twelve packs
(10:56):
of past The entire orientation of the olds is horizontal.
It's long, low, and wide. Very detroit postwar. Know you
get in this nineteen eighty four Magic Wagon and it's
a big step up. Literally, you sit up high in
these captain's chairs. There's room, you know, It's like the
(11:20):
hip point is really high. The door still feels kind
of low. Everything feels really airy, super easy to see
out of. If there were kids in the back, you
could see their faces. It's wild. And look at this
awesome Valeur interior. That's me and my editor Jenquia geeking
out because we are face to face with an original
(11:42):
nineteen eighty four Magic Wagon. But not just any Magic wagon.
This is number one. This is the first ever Magic Wagon,
the first one to roll off the line, the one
that Leaia Coca drove. Your smile is just so vague
right now. I've never been this excited about a minivan
of my life. I'm feeling a little bit like Leaya Coca,
(12:05):
like I should wear like a double windsor tie and
a brown It's so open, so like in the olds,
you're sitting super low. This one, you're you feel way higher.
You're sitting like a good foot higher, and yet the
floor seems lower. You know, everything is opened up. There's
no center consoles, just as big pass through you can
(12:26):
like reach back and whack the kids. It's great. Whereas
my parents oldsmobile had a wide bench seat up front,
the Magic Wagon has captain's chairs with armrests. These high chairs,
they really help you see out of the thing. The
hood is really short and it sort of falls away
(12:46):
from you. You have a great view of the road.
It's just open an area and the visibility is fantastic. Okay,
you go around to the side of the vehicle and
you've got a sliding door like a big boy van.
The access to the second and third rows is so easy.
You can just walk right in, like if you're a kid,
(13:08):
you could just step under that little ledge there and
see yourself to the back seat where you'd sit in
strapped in, you know, upright, not crawling around on the
back like an animal and so and facing forward and
facing forward. Okay, this is really important. That's right. It's
a front facing third row. This is key. In the
(13:33):
station wagon, kids sit facing backward inhaling exhaust fumes through
the rear window. What child hating monster thought the rear
facing third row was a good idea? It seems crazy now,
after all we know about crash safety to put the
smallest kids in the most vulnerable position in the car,
right in the rear crumple zone, with their feet inches
(13:56):
from the bumper. I'm going to try to shrink myself down,
but it's pretty easy to get back in here. You know.
Here in the minivan, they sit in the back row,
high off the floor, facing forward, almost like real human beings.
In the minivan. The kid is king. Yeah. So when
(14:17):
you say kid is king, what do you mean by that?
So the kid is in like the kind of command
position in the vehicle. He can see out, he can
see everything. He's sort of driving the bus. He's you know,
he's sitting in the back of the chariot and whipping
the horse in the driver's seat. Yeah. I mean, you
are pretty high up here in the back right, there's
(14:38):
like this perched element. You can see everything. You know,
You're you're sitting so much higher in the third row
than you would be in the second row. You're really
the king of the castle. King in the castle. King
in the castle. Have a chair. I have a chair.
Oh go do this, King in the castle. The real
key innovation is not just the third row. It's the
(15:02):
height of the third row. And kids can see out.
You know, they can see what's happening. They have a
sense of control roll too, and they're also part of
the conversation now where if they were facing backwards, they're
totally separate. Yeah, they're not sequestered and cordoned off in
the back part of the car. They are part of
the family. Now. I hadn't thought about that until I
(15:24):
sat in the back here, and now you're with mom
and dad, and your sisters are your brothers, and everybody
is one family unit, as opposed to having the kids
being kind of, you know, not seen and not heard
from here, kids like have a voice. You're part of
the family, You're part of the team. This is why
(15:45):
Jujaro and Spurlick and Ia Coca wanted that front wheel
drive layout, with the entire powertrain up front between the wheels.
There is no drive shaft running the length of the vehicle,
no transmission tunnel taking up room upfront. Everything is pushed down.
That's how you get a big airy box on wheels.
(16:06):
It's practically a mobile living room. The station wagon was horizontal,
whereas the orientation of a minivan is vertical. It is
short and upright. It's easy to wheel around you can
see your kids, you can see the road. By some
(16:27):
miracle of corporate negligence, Jen and I are given the
rare opportunity to take Magic Wagon number one for a spin. Okay,
now we're rolling. Oh she feels showroom new. This is awesome,
really driving a piece of history. Rides great, it's easy
(16:50):
to drive. You feel like you could get in and
drive it across the country now still thirty eight years later.
It's relaxing, it's terrific, and not about the engine. It's
about the interior. It's not about handling. It's about family
cargo space. Not cargo space, but just living room, the
(17:13):
most precious cargo, the most precious cargo of the family.
Exactly as different as the minivan and the station wagon were,
though both were products of Detroit's so called Malaise era,
so they do have some things in common. Both were
screwed together with utter apathy, both shook and rattled, and
(17:38):
both were comically underpowered. Your only minivan engine choices were
the piece of shit Corporate for cylinder or the slightly
less dreadful Mitsubishi for a cylinder. Each pumped out about
one hundred glue factory certified horsepower. The minivan and the
wagon were similar, and that the engines almost didn't matter,
(17:59):
but the differences were stark and could be traced back
to this. The station wagon is essentially a sedan with
its roof extended over where the trunk would be. It's
an adaptation of another form, but the minivan was something
entirely new, designed and engineered with a modern family in mind,
conceived from the inside out. In nineteen eighty four, the
(18:25):
first year of the Chrysler Vans osmobile, sold about thirty
four thousand custom Cruiser wagons. By nineteen ninety it sold
fewer than four thousand. Video killed the Radio Star, but
this didn't happen solely because the minivan had a sliding
door and tons of space. The search continues for Little
(18:45):
Debbie Vincent, missing since yesterday morning. So far, there are
no clues to her disappearance. The lease speculate that she
loved to have forgotten. We'll look at some of the
other deeper seated reasons why the minivan canceled the station wagon,
and a lot of it had to do with that
third row of seats. I'm Eddie Alterman, and this is
(19:06):
car Show. Will be right back The Magic Wagon was
as much born out of the world as into it.
It came at a time when somewhat unthinkably, America started
(19:29):
screwing up Detroit as a monia statistical leader and robbery
assault and rate them back from As kids in the
late seventies, we were trained to spot kidnappers and were
well versed in stranger danger. I remember seeing the wanted
poster in my local post office for the Oakland County
(19:51):
child killer. The wanted poster said he drove a Gremlin.
I could hardly imagine anything scarier. Oh, except this. The
Soviets not only continue to build up their offense if
nuclear forces at an unprecedented rate, they're also spending almost
as much on strategu defense. Our country seemed incapable of
(20:12):
addressing not only the real issues, but also the symbolic ones.
The Space Shuttle Challenger in nineteen eighty six revealed to
every classroom in America that our institutions were far more
fragile than we ever imagined. Already more than four miles down,
whims were throttling up three hundred and four percent of
(20:32):
Challenger go and throttle up the Shuttle mission will launch.
My God, fifty is going to explode one twenty nine
percent altitude nine nauticle miles down range. When people saw
the curtain whisked back on all of America's frailties, the
response was to hunker down, especially parents of small children.
(20:55):
This was a time of real paranoia, a downsizing of
our ambitions, and it seemed into everything. Not only were
cars getting smaller as a consequence of the fuel crisis
of the early seventies, the psychological space in which they
operated was too. In their engineering, cars were turning from
(21:16):
wild stallions to petting zoo ponies. The car's social function
was changing as well, from entertainment, freedom and expression to
personal and family protection. Car seats, seat belts, and airbags
were becoming more commonplace. It all reflected the wider shift
in parenting itself. I think the minivan in some ways
(21:39):
also projected that you know, I am committed. You know
I'm a committed parent. That's Miriam Errand. She's the former
editor in chief of Child Magazine and the former director
of the Good Housekeeping Institute. Even into the seventies, parenting
was something you achieved in between bowling frames and cigarette breaks.
(22:01):
But Miriam says by the eighties, kids were becoming the
focus and when by people was got into parenting just
like they've done every phase of their life, they got
into it with this amazing gusto. So they were all
in the rise of the working mom gave rise to
meticulously organized suburban carpool systems, So suddenly, you know, you
(22:22):
had to you had to get on board with the
other people, other parents in the neighborhood to total a
lot of kids. And also team sports became a very
big thing for kids at younger ages, so you've got,
you know, the soccer mom toting the soccer team and
all the gear. I think that in some ways, the minivan,
(22:43):
you know, bigger, better, you know, it's a real statement.
I think reflects almost the image that many parents were
trying to project that this was life became very child centered.
The minivan was parentings suit of armor, and it only
got thicker from there. The key ideas were the addition
(23:05):
of a second sliding door, the rollout seats, cup holders,
juice cup holders, integrated safety chail seats, grocery bag holders,
and the seatbacks. This is well traveled car executive Chris Theodore.
He worked on the first minivan and led the second
generation's development. I wanted to understand the thinking behind the
(23:28):
second generation of a minivan. One invention I wanted to
do I never got into production, but somebody finally did
was a little video cam that would be up in
the mirror so I could watch what the kids were doing,
but would flop over to a backup camera. And so
we were working in all all kinds of stuff like that.
(23:51):
Chris was on the right track. As we'll see in
part two of our Family Car series, minivans have become
mobile surveillance states. But just as important as keeping an
eye on the kids is making sure they stay optimally hydrated.
Were these the first cup holders or they were not
the first cup holders? They were the first in the
(24:14):
front where the first variable cup holders. It was like
a claw and whatever size cup you could put in
you could ratchet down so it would rip the cup.
And the first juice box holder, it was the first
juice box holders. So we had I can't remember the numbers,
like thirteen or something like that cup holders throughout the vehicle.
That means that in the high occupancy seven passenger version
(24:37):
with a full complement of five kids in the back,
each one could double fist their juice boxes. No wonder
parents love them. They weren't just cars, they were child
pacifying anxiety alleviation devices. But parents love them for another reason,
and it's a foundational truth of the car business. No
(24:58):
one wants to drive the same car their parents did.
And here's where the cycle repeats itself. No matter how
great the minivan was for baby boomers, Jenac, there's like
me and my wife wanted something new. We found it
in the suv or sport utility vehicle. I asked my
wife Carrie about it so care. When the kids were
(25:20):
a little we had wagons and three row SUVs, not minivans,
when a minivan would have been much more practical. Why
didn't you want a minivan? While I loved the idea
of driving the living room, I also felt like it
put the entire identity of parenthood before the identity of self.
(25:43):
And as somebody who worked, I felt like when I'd
pick people up from the airport or drive them to
different events when they'd come into town, I often felt
like I'd much rather have a professional looking car than
a mom car. When SUV started infiltrating the car market
back in the nineties. It wasn't because they were carefully
(26:03):
planned and packaged people movers. It was because they said
something powerful about their drive. That these rugged frontiers people
were ready at a moment's notice to drop all their
workaday responsibilities, strap a sea kayak to the roof, and
set out for Cape Horn. These folk may have warned
khakis by day, but underneath all that synthetic fleece lurked
(26:27):
the soul of an adventurer. The vehicles even had names
like that Pathfinder, Trailblazer, Explorer. These were the anti minivans,
macho road crushers with big wheels, knobby tires and pedestrian
clavering brush bars. And then what do you know, Slowly
(26:51):
but surely, as the suv expanded in popularity, style, and size,
it began to morph into a minivan replacement. Three rows
of seats, tons of entertainment options inside, cupholders galore, but
no sliding door stigma. The suv grew up, and in
(27:11):
doing so, became a minivan in disguise. I guess every
generation needs their own king of the carpool lane. If
you think about it, we always say that there's nothing
better at moving people and stuff. Than a minivan. That's
Dodge CEO Tim Coniscus. He used to be the head
of passenger cars for Chrysler's parent company, Stilantis. Tim is
(27:35):
one of the hardest hardcore car enthusiasts in the business
and one of the people who gave the world the
original seven hundred and seven horsepower Dodge Hellcat. None of
this diminishes his love for the minivan. The three row suv,
Tim says, is basically a people mover on stilts, which
means that deep down, minivans are still what people want,
(27:57):
even if they don't realize it. So do you think
that this is where minivans are going? Do you think
that they are going to be sort of Norm Coore
style statements in a way? Well, I think about when
are we going to get to autonomy? I don't know.
I mean, I don't have a crystal ball, but I
mean look at some of the vehicles that we're shown
(28:17):
at cs CES is the annual Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas where a lot of new concept cars are shown.
You know, these are not metivans. These are quote autonomous
pods or whatever. What did they have? They had sliding doors,
they had power to sliding doors, because how else are
you going to do a door in an autonomous vehicle? Right? Yeah,
who's going to open it? Wait a sec? Are we
(28:41):
witnessing a new dawn of the minivan? Will the sliding
door long the velpro shoe of automotive attributes become a
real and defining asset. Will autonomous family pods of the future,
provided they ever get here, look more like minivans and
less like three row SUVs. For an answer, look no
(29:02):
further than the autonomous vehicles that weymo Google self driving
sibling is testing. Because they're computer driven, these cars need
to reassure people that they're safe because they are shared
much like an uber, they need to accommodate everyone. What
kind of vehicle fits the bill? Those white waymou vans
(29:23):
with all the sensors and cameras on them are of
course Chrysler Pacificas the future of the people mover is
still the minivan. All of this technology exists out there
for all this high tech safety, and we said, you know,
if there's ever going to be a vehicle or we
should make all that standard, it should be the steak
(29:43):
in the ground should be the minivan. I think it
does send a message to people, Oh, Miniman, safe vehicle. Okay,
so I'm driving the Pacifica. Now you can hear how
quiet it is inside. All that talk about autonomous pods
is largely conceptual. I wanted to drive a new minivan
to see how far the species had evolved. Now this
(30:04):
is the twenty twenty one Chrysler Pacifica. Pinnacle costs around
fifty four thousand dollars, and it's got everything on it.
It's got a Swede headliner. When Chrysler's Magic Wagon was new,
it costs, when we adjust for inflation, around twenty five
thousand dollars. This new version is more than twice as much.
(30:26):
But that original minivan didn't have any of this, bifunction
led projector headlamps and led tail lamps. It's got a
hands free power whiftgate, hands free sliding doors, platinum chrome's
stone place roof rack, platinum chrome will grills around irony alert.
The new Pacifica is safer than minivans have ever been.
(30:49):
It's more luxurious than they've ever been. It's more professional.
Comparing the driving experience of this new one to that
of the old one is like comparing a Bentley mossan
to a rickety old shopping cart. Even the sound of
the Doris says luxury. And yet due to the rise
(31:12):
of the three row suv, their numbers have shrunk dramatically.
Carmakers sell only about three hundred thousand minivans a year,
which is bug kiss when you compare it with the
number of three row SUVs they sell. But like the
Tarte grade, that near microscopic, eight legged creature that can
(31:33):
withstand radiation, boiling liquids, and the vacuum of space, the
minivan survives in even the most hostile environments. It keeps evolving,
getting safer and more comfortable. It deserves a measure of admiration.
It's so uncool that it's actually low key dad cool.
(31:54):
As I sat staring out of my window at the
velvet red pearl coat Pacifica parked in my driveway, my
eye was lingering on the long spear of chrome down
the van side. I was admiring the way the rear
roof pillar jetted backward aggressively like a hockey stick. I
was digging the twenty inch five spoke wheels and the
blacked out windows. I looked down and thought, who could
(32:19):
hate on that the minivan may be cooler now than
at any time in its history, but that competition from
the suv segment is indeed formidable. Next week, we're going
to see how it stacks up, and we're going to
have a little help from a new dad who's in
(32:40):
the market for a family mover. Just imagine, Eddie didn't
if you were you are my partner, and Jacob and
debacc is my daughter. I can't. No one's gonna let
me drive like this. People will be squealing with like
horror and outrage. Car Show is written and hosted by
(33:04):
me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Sam Dingman, Jacob Smith,
and Amy Gaines. Our editor is Jan Guera. Original music
and mastering by Ben Tolliday. Our executive producer is Mia Lobell.
Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed
by Greg Lafever. Our patron saints are Lee, Tom Mallad
(33:27):
and Justine Lang. Special thanks to Emily Rostek and to
David Elshoff, Darren Jacobs and Rick deno Astatlantis for showing
us around the er Minivan. Karshow is a production of
Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from
Pushkin industries consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is
(33:49):
a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening
for just four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin
Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions to find more Pushkin podcasts.
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