Almost every maker has at least one of these in its line-up and some of them offer plenty of style to back up their versatility. The latest Honda Odyssey, launched in 2004, was even promoted as sexy. BUT SEXY HAS NOT USUALLY BEEN A WORD THAT COMES IN THE SAME SENTENCE AS MPV. We’ve come a long way since some wag dubbed the Mitsubishi Nimbus the Numbus, although MPVs are sometimes still called the Mumbus.
The acronym SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) still seems to have more appeal to buyers than MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) but the latter category has lots going for it – more than ever, despite a shrinking share of the total market. Another slightly less irritating term is Crossover Vehicle which sums up the trend. We want more versatility in our cars. Diesel engines. All-wheel drive. Seating that offers as many positions as Houdini at a dinner party.
Back in the 1980s the Mitsubishi L300 van probably marked the start of a big trend towards MPVs in Australia. Basically, manufacturers took their commercial vans and bolted in passenger seats. The downside was that most of these were, well, like vans to drive. They also didn’t have to pass the same increasingly stringent crash tests applied to passenger sedans/wagons or sedan-based utes such as the Holden WB and Ford Falcon.
The next big step came in 1990 when Toyota developed a new generation Tarago. Its predecessor had been a tizzed up, multi-seater commercial van that took the HiAce as its starting point. But this much curvier and radical design was dedicated to the task of moving a small crowd in maximum comfort and safety, with high levels of overall refinement. Plus the Tarago had a generous dose of style.
You only have to think about that 1990 Tarago to understand much about today’s MPV market.
Nowdays the choice is much wider. What has happened is that vans and dedicated MPVs have begun to morph into each other. Almost any twenty-first century van is carlike in driving dynamics, unlike those of the 1980s. So some makers are back in the business of converting their commercial vehicles into MPVs and they are much better than the HiAce-based Tarago of the mid-1980s and the L300 Express. Mercedes-Benz offers MPV versions of its brilliant Vito, including the luxurious Viano, while Volkswagen has the Caravelle. Several popular models such as the Honda Odyssey, Kia Carnival and Mitsubishi Grandis have no close van relations while others such as the Citro?n C4 Picasso have passenger sedan underpinnings.
And, as if to prove that real status can be attached to an MPV, consider the luxurious and elegant Mercedes-Benz R-Class, priced from $79,100.
Chrysler claims to have invented the multi-purpose vehicle with its original Voyager, although Renault might suggest its Espace was first. The latest 2008 Grand Voyager is a truly plush vehicle with virtually every luxury feature you can think of plus the choice between petrol and diesel engines, running through a six-speed automatic transmission.
There is a chance that if you shop around you may still be able to get hold of a 2007 Grand Voyager and with the new one readily available, it should be easy to negotiate an outstanding end of financial year bargain price on the superseded model. It is also possible that a few 2007 model Vitos are still in dealerships. In this case the changes are less comprehensive because the current model is the same shape but you will still drive home with lots of seating positions for your money.
