In my minivan era
On the joys of a proper family vehicle.
We bought a minivan several weeks ago to replace our failing family vehicle, which had a bad torque converter and felt like an erratic massage chair at speeds above 60mph.
Many guys feel like driving a minivan is an assault on their masculinity—that it's somehow uncool or unsexy to drive the most purpose-driven and utilitarian family vehicle in existence.
It must be nice to drive your lifted pickup truck to the mall.
Of course, a minivan is not necessarily an object of desire like, say, a Porsche 911 is, but the appeal for a family of five is undeniable, even If the minivan in discussion is a 2007 Toyota Sienna with 211,000 miles and absolutely zero modern conveniences except for an aux jack and independent front and rear air conditioning.
This whip lacks Bluetooth, DVD player, heated seats, automatic doors, etc., but what it does have is space galore. Leg room in the size of Texas plus a cavernous trunk that can haul all the luggage and sundries the kiddos require. I've had the most comfortable road trips—including a 25 hours on the road from Missouri to Louisiana—in this 19 year old vehicle.
I personally have no qualms about driving our minivan. I love having an excuse to tell everyone the story from The Lean Startup about how the product manager for the Toyota Sienna was sent to the US from Japan to drive 53,000 miles all across all 50 states, all 13 Canadian provinces, and 31 Mexican states just to discover what would make a better minivan.
The 2004 Sienna dominated the minvan market with a 60% uptick in sales, and with our '07, I feel like I'm experiencing a pivotal moment of design history from ye olden days when IDEO design and Frog design carried the promise of a better, more beautiful, more human-centric future simply through conducting superb contextual research.
But more importantly, my wife loves this van. My kids love this van.
I'm in my minivan era, and I love it.
