Minivans of my Family.

1. When minivans were still the choice vehicle for families. I’ve never known life without a minivan in the family. The minivan is always there. Reliable, tough, roomy, and comfortable (mostly). With normal trips every summer of my childhood to Ohio (from Florida), and years on end of traveling with one of these as the main mean of transportation, you get to know it really well.

The List (of one’s that I can remember well)
-1999 Chrysler Town & Country
-1999 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport
-2006 Chevrolet Uplander LS
-2004 Chrysler Town and Country
-2005 Toyota Sienna

By far the best minivan I ever experienced was the 1999 Town & Country. It was comfortable, smooth, and very, VERY tough. This was my family’s minivan for many years and it was really quite sad to see it go. We left it with almost 250,000 miles on it, waiting to change the oil until we were going on long trips and ignoring various other maintenance. It fought through all the abuse we could throw at it. Eventually the air conditioning went (which is unacceptable in Florida) and we lived without A/C for probably a good two years before the ignition went and we decided to scrap it and get a new van, another Town & Country of course.

“Oh boy! Another T&C! The luxurious! The amazing! The reliability!” Is what you would think our 2004 Town & Country would be like after reading the previous review. Well forget all that, because it was awful. I don’t really know any history about this one’s previous life. But my parents made the mistake of buying it at night, not really getting a good look at it. It is the worst minivan I’ve ever experienced. On the two long trips we took it on, it was twitchy and uncomfortable. I constantly felt in danger on trips and didn’t like travelling in it. But it’s also the first minivan I ever drove, so I can’t completely hate it, right? Wrong. Eventually something major broke and it was basically undrivable. So we traded it in and got the 2005 Toyota Sienna without telling the dealership something was seriously wrong. It was a relief.

Now to the minivans of my Mom’s side of which I only remember two really well. The first being the coolest minivan you can get. The 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport. Yes, that’s right, “Sport”. “Sport” means special alloy wheels, special front bumper, rear roof wing, standard fog lights and a 3 spoke steering wheel. It was awesome. I loved this minivan with it’s silly little “Sport” badges. It was the coolest minivan. It still is the coolest minivan in my opinion. It looked sinister and ready to pounce in it’s dark green paint. I wouldn’t say I was the envy of my school, but I was no doubt cooler than any other family’s vans. I truly miss it, I don’t know why we got rid of it. It was about 10 or 11 years old when we ditched it. But it was in perfectly good shape, absolutely immaculate as far as I remember. But we traded it in and got the minivan below.

We still have this one… unfortunately. It’s not bad actually. Throttle is surprisingly sharp and responsive, and it even handles pretty well without too much body roll. Surprising for a minivan. Odd? Yes, very. Good? No. The ride is choppy and harsh and the throttle is so responsive, it tosses passengers around. The seats, are flat, cloth, and uncomfortable. This minivan is made to be disposable and it’s well past it’s “Best By” date. The interior plastics are hard, flimsy, and noisy. It’s a modern Chevrolet, what do you expect, right? It’s been somewhat reliable though with only the expected problems and maintenance. It’s been surprisingly… acceptable.

So those are the minivans that had an influence on my life. Will today’s popular crossovers and SUVs have the same effect on today’s children? Only time will tell, but I’m not sure they will.