10-16-06: How do you recast the minivan into something cool? How do you sell people what they need under the guise that it is what they want? You restyle it and call is something different than “minivan”.
The minivan was once the coolest thing on the planet back when Chrysler started the segment in the mid 1980‘s. Everyone wanted one. Within a couple years every automaker rushed to the scene with their own version of Lee Iacocca’s invention. Fast forward to the mid 1990’s and minivans had started to loose their luster. They became the social icon for giving up your lust for life and becoming a slave to your maternal instincts. Luckily, the full sized SUV craze was next on the docket to offer coolness to those not wanting to take the mark of the minivan beast.
Today, the minivan market has all but dried up for many manufacturers including Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Nobody wants a mommymobile. On the other side of the lot, SUV's are yesterday's bread. High gas prices, over saturation of the segment and the consumer realization that they drive like trucks has left the majority of large SUV owners looking for something different.
Not to fear! The next generation of people movers are being designed right now and will be taking on the form of the “crossover”, a term that is already being defined by many different derivatives of SUV like styling with a car based chassis.
In the case of Ford, the Freestar minivans are fading fast and the Freestyle crossover that is virtually identical in size, shape and utility is not performing on the showrooms. Enter the Ford Fairlane Concept. While the vehicle retains many of the same dimensions, capacities, and overall format as a minivan, its styling is much more akin to a Range Rover. This theme along with the fact that it wont be called a minivan is likely going to mean night and day response from consumers. It is all in the marketing and packaging.
The Fairlane Concept represents to Ford the next big move in their product innovation based recovery plan. This vehicle will be loosely based on the same platform that carries the Ford Freestyle and Five Hundred sedans, a chassis which offers both FWD and AWD. Gleaned from Volvo’s full size vehicles it has been uniformly praised by the automotive press for good handling and road manners.
Ford says that the new people mover will not be called Fairlane, but have another name when it comes to showrooms in late 2008, likely as a 2009 model.
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