Chrysler Group is celebrating its claimed ‘invention’ of the “magic wagon”, or minivan, 20years and 10 million sales ago, though Renault might argue its Espace was the first.
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Whatever the outcome of that debate, it’s unarguable that the Chrysler minivan would, in the United States, replace the station wagon, revolutionise the cup holder industry and put the country’s family rooms on wheels.
“The 20th anniversary of the minivan is a significant milestone for our company and our employees. We take great pride in our minivans and the fact that we’ve sold more than 10 million in more than 70 countries over the past two decades,” said Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche.
Chrysler says time and time again, speculation has surfaced that minivans, as a vehicle segment, would drive off into the sunset. However, industry-wide minivan sales in the US are vibrant, averaging 1.2 million annual sales for the past 10 years, and just about every rival maker – especially the Japanese firms with US plants – has piled into a market Chrysler once ‘owned’.
Currently, according to Chrysler figures, industry-wide minivan sales account for approximately 7%, or approximately one out of every 15 new vehicles sold in the United States and Chrysler claims, without providing figures, that it continues to dominate the minivan market segment with the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan and Dodge Grand Caravan models built in St. Louis, Missouri; Windsor, Ontario, Canada; and Graz, Austria.
