The Chrysler 700 concept hints at a radically different approach from the company that invented the modern people-mover.
They’re the vehicles Americans love to hate. Few automotive products do their job more efficiently than the minivan. Yet they’re much maligned and have become something that even the most dedicated soccer mom is likely to trade in as soon as the kids are old enough. So, the once huge minivan market segment has shrunk to near-irrelevance.
Is it ultimately doomed to disappear? Unlike, industry analysts suggest, though few expects sales to recover significantly – at least not without the sort of breakthrough that helped launch the original minivan boom when Chrysler rolled out its first offerings in the mid-1980s.
The maker, which has suffered an especially sharp decline in recent years, is hoping to find a way to recover its past glory and rolled out an extreme design, dubbed the Chrysler 700, that could point the way to a very different look for the future.
Chrysler's 700 concept is testing ways to revitalize the once-huge minivan market.
With its long nose, and leaf-shaped windows, the Chrysler 700 clearly doesn’t look like anything now on the road. It has a bit of crossover-utility vehicle to it, but the shape is not something you’ll see anywhere else on the floor of the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.
What matters, of course, is functionality, something that Chrysler continues to hold over from current models like the Town & Country. There are countless cupholders, of course, comfy, overstuffed seats and a fancy entertainment system to keep passengers – whether Cub Scouts or empty-nesters – happy on a long trip.
In a roundtable discussion following the roll-out of the 700 Concept, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said, “I don’t like the smell of the (minivan) market today,” and will kill off at least one existing model if he can’t find a way to differentiate the versions offered by the Chrysler and Dodge brands.
“We need to redesign the minivan,” and do it fast, he said, adding, “We need to peel away the skin of the onion” to find what would really revitalize the segment without scaring off traditional buyers.
Indeed, work apparently progressed so quickly on the showcar he didn’t even learn its name until he showed up to prepare for the Chrysler news conference on Monday.
The Chrysler 700 won’t be the only option to consider, he cautioned, noting there will be several prototype designs “we can take to (consumer) clinics by the end of this year,” and, depending on the response, development work on a production model could begin in late 2012.
Chrysler isn’t the only maker trying to peel back the onion to find something sweeter for consumers. Both of the maker’s U.S. rivals have walked away from the minivan segment entirely. Ford, however, has come back with the big Flex, an alternative take that lands somewhere between minivan and oversized station wagon. A smaller “people mover,” the Ford C-Max, is based on a European design and delivers surprising interior space inside a compact exterior footprint. It will be offered with either a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain when sales launch later this year.