Are Minivans Cool or Uncool – uncool
I don't think I've seen a minivan yet that hasn't got a dent in it. Backing up a tree lined drive way can be quite difficult if you have six or seven screaming tween- agers all with MP3 players corrupting their minds and no one looking out for you.
One day a minivan drove down my street in the heat of summer, stopped at the stop sign and one of it's sliding doors fell off. I guess minivans are cool in a ghetto sort of way but overall, they appear to resemble miniature school buses for the kids that don't like to ride the cheese.
The minivan will inevitably go down in history as an uncool motor vehicle, just like it's predecessor, the station wagon did. Who knows, station wagons, or grocery getters, as they were once nicknamed, may make a come back? I saw an old 1985 LTD station wagon the other day and I thought how much cooler it looked than a minivan.
Minivans might be cool for soccer moms and softball coaches, but speaking from a divorced guy's point of view, something a little more robust and masculine might look better on me. I'm not knocking the people that drive minivans, but I think that the day of the minivan is over in the cool department.
I once owned a Chevrolet Astro Van. I bought it as an alternative to a Plymouth Voyager or a Dodge Caravan, because the Astro looked cooler and it was built better. Sure, I loaded up my kids and their friends and attended soccer games and softball matches, but that was then and this is now!
As my children grew much older, I became the family chauffeur. Uncle Albert sure enjoyed getting taken to the doctor's office in spacious comfort and grandma Nelly loved to load up with her monthly grocery supply. After a time, driving my Astro Van became a royal pain in the neck, as the gas prices rose and more people wanted me to bus them around.
A minivan seems to be a novelty, just like playing a game of twister. You think it's great when you buy it and fantastic when you play it for the first time, and everybody loves it. But when you want to put it away and forget all about it, everyone wants you to pull it out and play with it again.
Nowadays, I feel much better that I am driving something more economical and more of a traditional vehicular appearance. I am also happy that my kids are finding their own ways to the movies. So why are minivans not very cool vehicles? It's because they look awkward and very square, and seem as if they should be pushed and not driven.
It doesn't matter how many running boards and how much privacy glass they put on a minivan, you can't pimp up something that was no good to start with. It's like taking a hot dog stand and trying to turn it into a five star restaurant.
I say it's time to take the minivan and the station wagon and rethink the whole deal. Station wagons became not cool, because they represented stereo typically aging parents driving their belted up kids to the ocean, while dad shouted, "Shut the heck up, sit still and don't move, we'll be getting to the beach in about six hours!"
The minivan was considered cool, because they took the station wagon and jacked it up. Then they gave your kids a whole other dimension of traveling by introducing fold-away tables and DVD screens to watch, plus somewhere to put their Big Gulps. Now, dad can't shout at the kids anymore because they are too engrossed in their entertainment. The manufacturer shut them up for you!
The question should be; Do kids think minivans are cool or uncool?
