When my parents got our first minivan (a Dodge Caravan), I always imagined it was a shuttle from Star Trek, too. 🤣
People bought vans in the 70s just for fucking. Good times.
And doing drugs in
Lots of murder too :(
Years back, I got my parents’ old '88 Voyager. I took the middle row bench seat out, turning it into a nice sleeper for camping with a ton of storage. They were indeed good times!
I thought Voyager came out in 1995…
Trading giant vans for SUVs was such a dumb idea…
Like, it feels like we’ve basically just ended up with a worse version of 70s/80s vans at this point.
You don’t remember how bad those vans were.
And they were safety nightmares. That’s really what moved people from those vans to much safer SUVs.
Roll over any SUV today and the rear passengers stay in the seats, with airbags on the sides. In an old van those passengers got tossed about like rag dolls.
Even worse in a semi-frontal collision - those rear passengers f got tossed forward. Belts in those things could only handle so much lateral motion. Or they had bench seats and no one used the lap belts. Or captains chairs, and if you did use your belt, we’ll, the chair could come loose.
Those vans were bad from a safety perspective.
Look, it was the parent’s duty to reach out their arm and hold the kids against the seat, if there was a sudden stop or imminent collision.
The kids weren’t sitting in the back unless there were other adults in the car. Otherwise who would light the cigarettes?
Yeah, but there’s no reason any of those issues wouldn’t be solved with modern seat belts, chair attachments and air bags. Mini vans are safe AF. And less likely to roll over.
Vans for making babies; and then SUVs for carting them to soccer practice. Circle of life, I guess.
Mini-van, am I a joke to you?
Now THATS a spicy meatball!
