New Book Names Chrysler Minivan One Of 15 Most-Influential Cars Of All-Time

The sedans of the 1970s were boring. The vans of the same decade were behemoths. The station wagons were, stylistically speaking, dated in the 1970s. At the dawn of a new decade, Chrysler converged all three into a vehicle that revolutionized the auto industry.

When the company introduced the minivan at the end of 1983, it had an instant success on its hands, one that helped rescue it from the brink of bankruptcy.

In his new book, “Engines of Change,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Ingrassia calls the Chrysler minivan one of the 15 most influential vehicles in automotive history. That influence, though, wasn’t exclusive to Chrysler’s recovery, or the auto industry in general, for that matter.



The minivan both shaped and reflected changes in American culture.

The minivan “would help define the lifestyle of a generation, or at least the lifestyles of baby boomers who were into painting the nursery instead of painting the town,” Ingrassia writes.

“All this would signal a shift in America’s love affair with the automobile from sleek cars to tall and burly trucks, a change that would resonate with America’s restless national psyche in the last two decades of the twentieth century.”

By the end of their first full year in production, Chrysler sold 210,000 minivans. Over the course of nearly three decades, the company alone has sold more than 12 million.

Three decades later, Chrysler still leads the industry in minivan sales. But it has competitors that have copied it and even bested it in some cases. Here is our take on Chrysler's competition.

by Pete Bigelow | AOL Autos




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