SUV’s and Minivans

I was looking at the plethora of minivans and SUV’s on the road as of late and it got me thinking about how the came into being.

First came the minivan.  This came about because people needed cheap cars that could carry more than 4 people (2 adults and 2 mini-me’s) and they would not, could not, see themselves in a (shudder) station wagon.  Hence the minivan.  A cheapo moving van with seats.  It had the advantages of not being a station wagon, hauled a lot of people, and was cheap (at the time) because it did not have to meet a lot of the automobile safety build standards.

Then came the SUV.  In reality it was a car built on a truck platform, usually with 4-wheel drive.  But it wasn’t a minivan, so a dude (or dudette) could drive it an not be a nerd or woosy.  And who knows, you might run into a mountain on the way to work down the freeway.

But at the end of the day – they are just fancy station wagons.  Sorry to burst your bubble but that is the facts.

Oh, and another thing.  If you have a pickup nowadays, try to haul a sheet of plywood in the bed of the sucker.  Unless you have a rare one, the bed is too damned short to do it.  Sure you can drop the tailgate and haul away but it is out in the weather.  If you want to protect the sheet, load it in a minivan.