Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993                   TAG: 9312090036
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAMES A. FUSSELL THE KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN ONLY 10 YEARS, MINIVANS HAVE TAKEN SUBURBIA BY STORM

It was big enough to carry a family of seven and small enough to fit in your garage. It worked like a truck but drove like a car. And as much as it held, it didn't eat you alive at the gas pump.

In no time, it became a ubiquitous icon that swept through suburbia like a wave of chickenpox. Today, after millions of sales, it has all but driven the full-size station wagon into the history books.

It's the minivan, and although it seems as if it's been around forever, there wasn't a single one a decade ago.

Chrysler Corp. originated the species 10 years ago, for the 1984 model year. Four million sales later, a half-dozen or more other companies have entered the fray with their own minivans. Despite the competition, industry experts say, Chrysler still makes almost half the minivans sold.

Robert A. Lutz, president and chief operating officer of Chrysler, spoke recently about minivans at a plant in suburban St. Louis. Of all the vehicles in the company's 70-year history, he said, "if you had to choose just one that really set the automotive industry on its ear, this is it: the minivan."

Joseph Bohn, truck and recreational vehicle editor at Automotive News magazine, said the minivan did more than that.

"It saved Chrysler," he said. "There was a time in the '80s when Chrysler was out there alone in the desert with its K-car and not much else, and, well, let's just say it wasn't very profitable. This is the one clear success it had."

Big yet small, plush yet economical, responsible yet fun. The van was tailor-made for energy-conscious suburbanites concerned about how to tote their families and a growing array of possessions without turning into their parents.

Not surprisingly, the minivan took off. Eight thousand sales the first year; 169,000 the next. Today, industry experts say, sales of Chrysler's minivan twins - Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager - top 600,000 a year, making them, in combination, the most popular car line in the country. Total minivan sales from all companies are expected to be 1.3 million this year.

Even if you didn't know the numbers, your eyes would tell you that minivans are everywhere: on the road, at soccer games, at school functions and movie theaters. And then there's the minivan Mecca, suburban shopping malls, where a veritable sea of minivans clogs the concrete as far as the eye can see.

The question is why? What is it about minivans that makes them so popular?

Jodi Armstrong, a Chrysler spokeswoman in Detroit, said the vans created their own niche.

"They were everything a family needed as far as comfort and cargo capacity, but not so huge and clunky like old station wagons," she said. "The thing that set them apart was that they handled like a car, whereas, in the past, vans didn't; and station wagons weren't vans."

Blake Roberson, an insurance agent from Independence, Mo., who has three children, said he liked his Plymouth Grand Voyager for many reasons: It drives like a car, has great visibility and allows him to remove the seats if he needs to "chicken out" and sleep in it during rainy Boy Scout jamborees.

But the main reason he likes it is that it makes his life easier, especially when hauling his three children to soccer or music practice.

"We can load down like the Beverly Hillbillies and still get to where we need to go with all our gear and equipment," he said.

As many families grow, so does their appreciation for the utility of minivans.

"Through the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Americans bought station wagons because they were versatile and they had [room for] kids and you could put buggies in the back of them and haul a lot of stuff," said Bohn, the automotive editor. "These things are just the '90s version of the station wagon. The heart of their market is suburban families and housewives."

Not everyone is sold on minivans. In fact, Charles Bryant of Shawnee, Kan., has a "genuine dislike" for them. He's got the only station wagon on his block.

"Everybody else has a minivan," he said with a resigned sigh. "It's like one of those zombie movies where everyone else has turned, you know, and I'm the only regular one left. It's like: `Jump on the bandwagon, Chuck! Join us, Chuck.' Well, thanks, but no thanks."