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WHY MINIVANS ARE COUNTER CULTURAL
[Full disclosure: Your editor has driven two minivans for the past 23
years without a single regret]
CHRIS HAFNER, CAR LUST BLOG - The minivan gets a bad rap in this
country--it is almost universally reviled as a symbol of dweebish
parenthood and mindless suburbia, a scarlet letter attached to soccer
moms' chests. Of course, soccer moms now have embraced large SUVs, which
are similar to minivans yet inferior in every way that is relevant to
family transport. . .
What are the minivan's crimes? The only crime I can see is that it's too
good at its job. The minivan's job is to haul people and cargo in as
comfortable and efficient a manner as possible, and it fulfills that
mission admirably. Forget about three-row SUVs. Minivans can carry more
people more comfortably than even large SUVs; and with the extraordinary
flexibility of seat placement/folding/removal, minivans are unparalleled
at virtually everything you'd need it to do.
Need to carry a bunch of kids and their stuff on a road trip? There's no
better vehicle than a minivan. Want to haul as bulky a load of cargo as
you could in a pickup, but you'd prefer to keep it dry, clean, and
secure? Fold down or remove the seats, and the minivan becomes a cargo
hauler par excellence. Want to take your buddies on a week-long
backpacking trip? You can fit everybody, their backpacks, the food, AND
a few cases of beer.
As a group, SUVs' sole advantages over minivans are style and sheer
off-road capability. . .
The other day, I posed a question to a few of my co-workers--if you
needed the people- and cargo-carrying capacity of a large vehicle, would
you really penalize yourself by selecting something less useful than a
minivan just to save your ego? . . . A surprising number said they would
never drive a minivan, no matter what.
Popular culture is so anti-minivan today that driving one is so
counter-culture, so in the face of popular biases, so keeping-it-real,
that it's almost punk rock. In a utilitarian way, anyway.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/01/car-lust-honda.html
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WHY MINIVANS ARE COUNTER CULTURAL
[Full disclosure: Your editor has driven two minivans for the past 23
years without a single regret]
CHRIS HAFNER, CAR LUST BLOG - The minivan gets a bad rap in this
country--it is almost universally reviled as a symbol of dweebish
parenthood and mindless suburbia, a scarlet letter attached to soccer
moms' chests. Of course, soccer moms now have embraced large SUVs, which
are similar to minivans yet inferior in every way that is relevant to
family transport. . .
What are the minivan's crimes? The only crime I can see is that it's too
good at its job. The minivan's job is to haul people and cargo in as
comfortable and efficient a manner as possible, and it fulfills that
mission admirably. Forget about three-row SUVs. Minivans can carry more
people more comfortably than even large SUVs; and with the extraordinary
flexibility of seat placement/folding/removal, minivans are unparalleled
at virtually everything you'd need it to do.
Need to carry a bunch of kids and their stuff on a road trip? There's no
better vehicle than a minivan. Want to haul as bulky a load of cargo as
you could in a pickup, but you'd prefer to keep it dry, clean, and
secure? Fold down or remove the seats, and the minivan becomes a cargo
hauler par excellence. Want to take your buddies on a week-long
backpacking trip? You can fit everybody, their backpacks, the food, AND
a few cases of beer.
As a group, SUVs' sole advantages over minivans are style and sheer
off-road capability. . .
The other day, I posed a question to a few of my co-workers--if you
needed the people- and cargo-carrying capacity of a large vehicle, would
you really penalize yourself by selecting something less useful than a
minivan just to save your ego? . . . A surprising number said they would
never drive a minivan, no matter what.
Popular culture is so anti-minivan today that driving one is so
counter-culture, so in the face of popular biases, so keeping-it-real,
that it's almost punk rock. In a utilitarian way, anyway.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/01/car-lust-honda.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHY MINIVANS ARE COUNTER CULTURAL
[Full disclosure: Your editor has driven two minivans for the past 23
years without a single regret]
CHRIS HAFNER, CAR LUST BLOG - The minivan gets a bad rap in this
country--it is almost universally reviled as a symbol of dweebish
parenthood and mindless suburbia, a scarlet letter attached to soccer
moms' chests. Of course, soccer moms now have embraced large SUVs, which
are similar to minivans yet inferior in every way that is relevant to
family transport. . .
What are the minivan's crimes? The only crime I can see is that it's too
good at its job. The minivan's job is to haul people and cargo in as
comfortable and efficient a manner as possible, and it fulfills that
mission admirably. Forget about three-row SUVs. Minivans can carry more
people more comfortably than even large SUVs; and with the extraordinary
flexibility of seat placement/folding/removal, minivans are unparalleled
at virtually everything you'd need it to do.
Need to carry a bunch of kids and their stuff on a road trip? There's no
better vehicle than a minivan. Want to haul as bulky a load of cargo as
you could in a pickup, but you'd prefer to keep it dry, clean, and
secure? Fold down or remove the seats, and the minivan becomes a cargo
hauler par excellence. Want to take your buddies on a week-long
backpacking trip? You can fit everybody, their backpacks, the food, AND
a few cases of beer.
As a group, SUVs' sole advantages over minivans are style and sheer
off-road capability. . .
The other day, I posed a question to a few of my co-workers--if you
needed the people- and cargo-carrying capacity of a large vehicle, would
you really penalize yourself by selecting something less useful than a
minivan just to save your ego? . . . A surprising number said they would
never drive a minivan, no matter what.
Popular culture is so anti-minivan today that driving one is so
counter-culture, so in the face of popular biases, so keeping-it-real,
that it's almost punk rock. In a utilitarian way, anyway.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/01/car-lust-honda.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||AMERICAN NOTES
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHY MINIVANS ARE COUNTER CULTURAL
[Full disclosure: Your editor has driven two minivans for the past 23
years without a single regret]
CHRIS HAFNER, CAR LUST BLOG - The minivan gets a bad rap in this
country--it is almost universally reviled as a symbol of dweebish
parenthood and mindless suburbia, a scarlet letter attached to soccer
moms' chests. Of course, soccer moms now have embraced large SUVs, which
are similar to minivans yet inferior in every way that is relevant to
family transport. . .
What are the minivan's crimes? The only crime I can see is that it's too
good at its job. The minivan's job is to haul people and cargo in as
comfortable and efficient a manner as possible, and it fulfills that
mission admirably. Forget about three-row SUVs. Minivans can carry more
people more comfortably than even large SUVs; and with the extraordinary
flexibility of seat placement/folding/removal, minivans are unparalleled
at virtually everything you'd need it to do.
Need to carry a bunch of kids and their stuff on a road trip? There's no
better vehicle than a minivan. Want to haul as bulky a load of cargo as
you could in a pickup, but you'd prefer to keep it dry, clean, and
secure? Fold down or remove the seats, and the minivan becomes a cargo
hauler par excellence. Want to take your buddies on a week-long
backpacking trip? You can fit everybody, their backpacks, the food, AND
a few cases of beer.
As a group, SUVs' sole advantages over minivans are style and sheer
off-road capability. . .
The other day, I posed a question to a few of my co-workers--if you
needed the people- and cargo-carrying capacity of a large vehicle, would
you really penalize yourself by selecting something less useful than a
minivan just to save your ego? . . . A surprising number said they would
never drive a minivan, no matter what.
Popular culture is so anti-minivan today that driving one is so
counter-culture, so in the face of popular biases, so keeping-it-real,
that it's almost punk rock. In a utilitarian way, anyway.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/01/car-lust-honda.html
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