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Perhaps because of these associations, minivans are often seen as dowdy or
boring — an ironic repetition of the stigma against station wagons that originally drove the popularity of minivans among
Americans.
Minivans are taller than a sedan ,
hatchback or a station wagon , and are designed for
maximum interior room.
Segments
Minivans can be roughly classified in three or four segments: large, compact, mini and sometimes micro.
The
Odyssey was based on the Honda Accord giving the van
more car-like handling than the Chrysler minivans triplet.
Some minivans were notorious
for having problems with their transaxles , as they are substantially heavier than the sedans
their powertrains were originally designed for.
The
Volkswagen Type 2 , the second automobile in Volkswagen 's range, was released in 1950 and had some features that would be
found later in minivans.
The noun minivan has one meaning:
Meaning #1 : a small box-shaped passenger van; usually has removable seats; used as a family car.
Minivans have a reputation for poor maneuverability and performance in comparison with other types of vehicles.
A minivan, multi-purpose vehicle, people-carrier, people-mover or multi-utility vehicle is
a type of automobile similar in shape to a van that is designed
for personal use and has between four and nine seats.
The first use of the term minivan was in North America , when Toyota and Chrysler launched their respective minivan products in late
1983 for the 1984 model year.
There are some
exceptions, like the Honda FR-V , Fiat Multipla and
Mercedes-Benz R-Class which are six seaters (3-3 in the first two cases and 2-2-2
in the latter).
Before the development of 150 hp+ four-cylinder engines, such vehicles could also have poor performance, as manual
transmissions were rare in minivans.
Early minivans models may be smaller than modern models, but still fit into the child subsegment; the first generation
Renault Espace introduced in 1985 would be classified
nowadays as a compact MPV, but later generations grew in size and the Espace is now considered a large MPV.
Ford and Nissan's attempt at dethroning the
three Chrysler minivans came in 1993 with the front wheel drive Nissan Quest and Mercury Villager.
Modern minivans also feature unibody architecture, which offers superior crashworthiness
and a more comfortable ride, and is typically lighter than a body-on-frame chassis.
It was unique as it a
had swing-out door with rolldown windows and was the first Japanese minivan with a front-engine.
Chassis and drivetrain
In contrast to sport utility vehicles and many crossover SUVs , most current minivans are front-wheel drive.
The Pontiac Aztek and Buick Rendezvous sport utility vehicles even shared the same platform as GMs front-wheel drive minivans.
With the shift towards heavier long-wheelbase models and light towing, V6 engines have
become more common; some automakers dropped their four-cylinder engines from their minivan lineup.
A European minivan design was conceived in the late 1970s by the Rootes Group in partnership
with the French automaker Matra (which was also affiliated with Simca , the former French
subsidiary of the Chrysler Corporation, sold in 1977 to the PSA Group ).
Powers most reliable minivan and the first minivan reaching automobile safety
standards, the Toyota Previa did not sell as well as the three Chrysler minivans.
Large MPVs / minivans
Chevrolet Lumina APV / Pontiac Trans
Sport / Oldsmobile Silhouette.
The
Chevrolet Astro / GMC Safari was the last body-on-frame rear-wheel drive minivan but is
now discontinued.
Characteristics Seats
Larger minivans usually feature three seat rows, with two or three seats each: 2-3-2 or 2-3-3 (front to rear) are the most
common seating configurations.
These minivans were
competitive with car-based chassis' and six-cylinder engines, good handling and attractive
styling.
Whilst some MUVs might be replicas of European MPVs (such
as the European Ford Fusion ) or American-style minivans (like the Toyota Innova ), in some cases MUVs are similar to minibuses (such as the Chevrolet Tavera ).
It had outward opening doors
with rolldown middle windows and the first minivan to have a rear seat fold into the floor.
(The latter configuration is the norm for European and Japanese minivans, while most American models retain the sliding doors.
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Dictionary definition of minivanThe American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
After
2006 , the only compact minivans available in the United
States are the Mazda5 and Kia Rondo.
Since no one disputes that the Renault Espace is a minivan, despite its door configuration, this raises the question
of whether the 1956 Fiat 600 Multipla (seven years before Volkswagen introduced the sliding
rear door that would come to define minivans for many motorists) was actually the first minivan.
The Chrysler Pacifica and Chevrolet Equinox can be described as
sporty-looking four-wheel drive minivans or as un-offroader-ish crossover SUVs; the
Mercedes-Benz R-Class has a mininvan shape with rounder edges, and features
four-wheel drive.
Early minivans featured
one rear side sliding door on the passenger's side, differentiating them from earlier cargo vans which typically had a pair of
outward-opening double doors behind the front passenger door.
According to Autodata in 2006 , Chrysler , Honda and Toyota together own 72% of the United States minivan market.
To this day, the Chrysler Town Country and Dodge Caravan continue to be the best selling minivans in North
America.
Minivans by market North America
General Motors originally countered the Dodge
Caravan with their truck-based front-engine, rear drive Chevrolet Astro and
GMC Safari.
The term
The term "minivan" was coined in North America and the term is derived from the fact
that these vehicles were considerably smaller and more streamlined than traditional North
American passenger vans, such as the Ford E-Series.
minivan: Definition and Much More from Answers.com
While almost every current minivan features rear doors on both
sides, some have sliding doors and others have normal car doors, blurring the line between minivans and station wagons somewhat.
Minivans are popular as rolling advertisements, as seen in this image, of a Ford Freestar advertising Jack Links Beef jerky.
With rear seats removed, the cargo area in large minivans can hold a 4x8 ft sheet of drywall or plywood flat.
Four-wheel
drive was also introduced to minivans in North America with the Toyota Van Wagon
4WD and the Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro.
When Volkswagen introduced a sliding rear door on their van in 1963, it at that point had
all the features that would later come to define a minivan (three rows of forward-facing seats, station wagon-style top-hinged
tailgate/liftgate, sliding rear door, passenger car underpinnings).
Minivan examples
See also: List of recent
automobile models by type#Multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) / minivans / people-carriers Mini MPVs
Fiat Idea.
Nearly every minivan sold in the United States belongs to this segment, so they are simply called minivans there.
min·i·van ( ) n. A small passenger van having a boxlike shape, side and rear windows, and typically removable rear seats for cargo
Definition, reference, minivan
However, Chrysler, under whom Matra had originally conceived the Espace, had also been developing the minivan concept
themselves based on the Chrysler K platform.
Engines
During the 1980s, North American minivans were slow and underpowered when compared with
sport utility vehicles, but had more fuel-efficient four-cylinder engines.
Many minivans have so-called seating "flexibility", which means that seat benches or individual seats can be relocated, folded
and/or removed.
These models had difficulty competing for sales with the Chrysler minivans because of their poor traction, size and less comfortable driving characteristics.
Nissan and Mitsubishi also introduced minivans to
North America but like the Toyota Van Wagon , they had
poor rear wheel drive traction, a bouncy ride (due to the short wheelbase ) and one couldn't
walk from the front seats to the back without getting out of the vehicle.
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)
In the United States , in order to circumvent emissions and safety regulations, minivans are often classified as light trucks.
Asia
In the ASEAN nations, China and India , multi-utility vehicles tend to be smaller than North American minivans and European MPVs.
Wikipedia information about minivanThis article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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