Aren't you a big ol dose of sunshine... No use beating a dead horse, I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree...
International Harvester also sold the Travelall. If only they could have held on until that market segment became popular. All those profits from all those popular Chrysler minivans sure did them a world of good. Their current situation makes their first bailout look like boom times. I am reminded of a saying from Physics class: "Asses come in masses."
Some say Chevrolet "invented" the mini-van first with the Corvair Greenbrier Van in 61. Pictured is my 63 9 passenger Corvair Van. Ford also had one called the Econoline, and Chrysler had the A-100. They were very utilitarian, as opposed to the newer Chrysler version.
Fascinating. Do you still own that vehicle? Is a tow bracket mounted below the front bumper? Can you tow that vehicle without elevating the rear wheels? Without getting into the discussion about who invented the minivan, I bought a 1989 Dodge Caravan SE 4 cyl. turbo before my daughter was about to be born, and that was a very useful and practical family vehicle. The only problem with it that I recall was that the aluminum & plastic radiator became leaky while we were on an extended road trip in the Pacific Northwest. I bought a copper replacement from a radiator shop (in Oregon I think) and carried it along with us; fortunately the leak was not bad enough for me to have to install the replacement while we were on the road.
I'm not saying Chrysler invented the VAN. The Econoline is a fullsize van, Chrysler had a fullsize fan too at the time actually that was almost 50% of the market share. Those vans are on a truck frame and RWD and much larger than a Chrysler style minivan and never were marketed towards families as a stationwagon replacement. Ford came out with the Aerostar and Chevy came out with the Astro a few years later to compete with the Chrysler vans but couldn't since the buyer wasn't as attracted toward their RWD truck framed layout. Both Chevy and Ford obviously eventually cancelled the Aerostar and the Astro for Chrysler style FWD car based minivans in the Windstar and Venture. That Corvair van is very cool! Quite a peice of Americana you must be very proud of that! I'd say however thats more similar to the VW style microbus/microvan than it is a Chrysler style FWD minivan. The VW bus was out before the Corvair too...
It's really too bad the Corvair didn't succeed. Although a blatant copy of the VW designs, it was nonetheless a bold stroke to try, especially for a conservative corporation like GM. Like the VW, it suffered from both valid and invalid criticism by Nader and others. The late models handled very well, and might have succeeded if given a chance after the oil price shocks of the '70s. But by then they had the Vega, which did not help GM's reputation,and air cooled cars would never meet smog regs being pushed at that time. Today they are nice cars that showed what GM engineering could do if they let loose of the old farts in marketing.
