Minivan - History

History

Antecedents to the contemporary minivan include the Stout Scarab, which in 1936 featured a removable table and second row seats that turn 180 degrees to face the rear – a feature that Chrysler marketed as Swivel 'n Go. The Stout Scarab has been mentioned as possibly being the world's first minivan. An even older car that could be considered the world's first minivan is the A.L.F.A 40/60 HP Aerodinamica, a one-off car with a custom aerodynamic body similar to an airship, commissioned by the milanese count Marco Ricotti to Carrozzeria Castagna in 1914.

The DKW Schnellaster, manufactured from 1949 to 1962 was a small monospace (or one-box) design featuring its front wheels set forward of the passenger cabin, a short, sloping aerodynamic hood, front-wheel drive, transverse engine, flat load floor throughout with flexible seating and cargo accommodations – the key design ingredients that describe the modern minivan configuration popularized in such notable examples as the Renault Espace and Chrysler Voyager/Caravan minivans. This approach was also used, albeit on a much smaller implementation, as the Honda Life StepVan in 1974.

Other predecessors of minivans were compact vans. In 1950, the Volkswagen Type 2 adapted a bus-shaped body to the compact Volkswagen Beetle. It placed the driver above the front wheels, sitting behind a flat nose, with the engine mounted at the rear. This approach to the driver being placed on top of the front axle is known as a "cab over". The two hinged side doors were opposite to the driver's side, with optional doors on the driver's side, Fiat built a similar vehicle, Multipla based on the Fiat 600 with the same "cab over" engine and door layout. Japanese and American manufacturers responded with compact vans since the 1960s. Usually based on front-engined compact cars with a FMR layout, the engine was mounted behind or under the front seat with a flat, vertical nose. Examples include the Ford Econoline, Chevrolet Van, Suzuki Carry, Toyota Hiace, and Subaru Sambar. When Volkswagen introduced a sliding side door on their van in 1968, it then had all the features that would later come to define a minivan: compact length, three rows of forward-facing seats, station wagon-style top-hinged tailgate/liftgate, sliding side door, passenger car base.

As the U.S. vehicles such as the Econoline evolved into larger full-sized vans, the term minivan came to use in North America, when Toyota and Chrysler launched their respective smaller minivan products for the 1984 model year. The Toyota Van and Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager featured very different structural designs: the Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager had a FF layout and unibody construction, while the Toyota Van Wagon featured a FMR layout and was built on a body-on-frame chassis. The Chevrolet Astro / GMC Safari and Ford Aerostar were introduced for the 1985 model year with FR layout.

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). The Matra design was originally intended to be sold as a Talbot and be a replacement for the Talbot-Matra Rancho. Early prototypes were designed to use Simca parts and a grille like the Simca 1307. Matra took their idea to Peugeot who thought it too expensive and risky so the project was then presented to Renault, becoming the Renault Espace introduced in 1984. The Renault had traditional hinged car doors on both sides. Chrysler had also been developing a minivan based on the Chrysler K platform, releasing the boxy Dodge Caravan / Plymouth Voyager earlier than the Espace, in 1983.