I'm a guy who likes mini-vans.

Not many of you younger people know, but the mini-van is what saved the mighty Chrysler Corporation from going belly-up a few decades ago. Chrysler's leader, Lee Iacocca, had the vision (along with his engineers) to re-imagine the American car as something roomier and taller than a station wagon but with the same wheelspan, meaning as easy to park.

He (they) guessed right.

The mini-van was an immediate success. It quickly became the choice for anyone who needed to transport more than a few people but who didn't want to buy the traditional van, a clumsy and bulky vehicle that was hard to park and didn't get good gas mileage.

But the mini-van soon became anathema (look it up) for the same women who loved it but who didn't want to be called "soccer moms" -- those stay-at-home wives who were responsible for hauling their kids to and from sports practices and who needed extra space, etc.

Fast-forward to now. Mini-vans are still the most practical American vehicle to have been invented in the past half-century. The driver sits up high, with a clear view, and up to seven other people can be sitting in the seats beside or behind him/her, all with windows to look out.
And it still fits into most parking spaces.

What's not to like?

My understanding is that when it comes to making cars, there are two platforms -- the undergirding, the chassis -- for any vehicle sold to the public. The first is the car chassis, the second the truck chassis. Either the vehicle you're driving is built like a car, or it's built like a truck. Mini-vans were built to be like cars. SUVs, which came later, were built to be like trucks. From the beginning, you had to decide whether you were a car person or a truck person, or something between.

In my job for many years, I had the opportunity to drive both kinds, the mini-van built on a car chassis and the SUV built on a truck chassis. One was a Dodge Caravan, the other a Ford Explorer.
They both had their advantages, of course. Driving the bigger vehicle makes you feel sort of like king of the road, but it's damnably hard to park -- I bumped a few fenders in parking lots before I realized how big it was -- and uses lots of gas. The mini-van, on the other hand, didn't burn any more gas than a typical sedan, which seats fewer and much lower, limiting your view.

When I had a choice in my company, I always chose the mini-van. And now that I'm retired from that company, I still choose the mini-van.

Think about it: Do you really need a monster car or truck? I mean, you drive around town, maybe up to the mountains once a year, if that. Most of the time, you're traversing city streets and trying to get into parking spaces. How much car do you really need?

On the other hand, do you always want to drive with your rear end a foot from the road? Why not boost yourself up a bit, give yourself a better view? Sometimes I have to drive my wife's car, which is a very nice one, but getting into and out of it requires some dexterity. How could an older or mildly disabled person even manage to get behind the wheel of most cars, much less get out without help?

The mini-van made that possible. Anybody, with a little boost, or a friendly arm, can get into a Dodge Caravan and out again.


A friend once said to me, "But what about your image?" I think he meant that, at my age, I should be roaring around town in a red Corvette. (I can see it, sometimes.) How did I feel driving a "soccer mom" car? "I think that's my image," I told him. "I'm a mini-van guy."

I think that means that I'm practical and not overly interested in cars (except maybe for that Corvette) and think women were right all along. It doesn't matter that many of them have rejected the mini-van for all kinds of good reasons: they were right in the first place.

I'm saving my pennies to buy another one. I understand they're sleeker now, but still have the qualities I appreciated when I saw my first one: the view, the space, the easy of handling. And now a powerful sound system for all those LPs I burned to my MP3 player. (Okay, I didn't.)

All aboard! (Max. 8)