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Images of a Magic Hat Brewery bottle cap with the slogan "Condoms prevent minivans" have been floating around the Internet for a while so I decided to track down the story behind this insightful slogan. It turns out a mom came up with it! More »
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The wheels on the bus go round and round — until they're stopped by police in China, who discover the driver is hauling 64 children in a minivan built for eight. This is not what anyone means by the term "bench seats." More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5841781&view=rss&microfeed=true Ford, to compete with hybrid and electric vehicles produced by Toyota, GM, and Nissan, said today its C-Max compact minivan will be a dedicated hybrid when U.S. sales begin next year. So Ford's bringing minivans back, and they're hybrids. More »
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Kia's U.S. designers say in place of just another minivan concept, they decided to "embrace the box." The result is the KV7, featuring a gullwing passenger door and wagon-like lines. Don't squeeze that box too firmly. More »
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Soccer moms, both hot and not, gave up the minivan for SUVs about a decade ago. Despite that, you might still consider today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Previa a MILF- a Minivan I'd Like To Find. More »
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Ford says it's offering a U.S. version of the Transit Connect with the rear windows still intact, creating a five-seat commercial minivan. Somewhere in Brooklyn, a lead singer for an indie band just decided to tap his trust fund. [Ford] More »
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The debate on distracted driving hasn't reached this aspiring shredder practicing his craft in a minivan on Interstate 5 in California. Bet he plays like he drives: fretless. [L.A. Can't Drive] More »
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I've always been a bit puzzled by the utter loathing so many car freaks harbor for the very idea of the minivan. Sure, they lack even a vestige of cool (unless they run 12s), but they do their job well. More »
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Honda executives actually said "the 2011 Odyssey will have more swagger than the new [Toyota] Sienna." With a crooked beltline and pretty much identical specs (aside from no all-wheel-drive option), the swagger must lie somewhere under the surface. More »
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A 455-hp V-12 from the Countach Quattrovalvole? A pair of gullwing doors? Minivans may be more boring than watching paint dry, but every rule has an exception. This is it. More »
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Introducing the all-new Chrysler Town & Torpedo — for those times when packing up for a soccer game feels like an invasion. (Hat tip to Elliot!) More »
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You never know what you'll find when you wander the Island That Rust Forgot! More »
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A 62-year-old man died when his Toyota Sienna smashed through a barrier and landed wheels up on the ground below a Houston, Texas parking garage this morning. No word yet on whether unintended acceleration or being old is to blame. More »
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You read that right: A central Georgia couple bought a minivan, couldn't make the payments, and kept the car by making their daughter perform sex acts on the dealer. The worst part? The girl was only 14. More »
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It's not often an automaker has the opportunity to create an entirely new segment. Chrysler did it 25 years ago when they launched the Dodge Caravan. The engineers at Chrysler created a FWD-platformed vehicle offering wagon-like space, van-like utility and car-like fuel economy in a package fitting in the standard garage. Though the original designs go back as far as the 1970s, the leadership of design chief Hal Sperlich and the courage of CEO Lee Iacocca provided the energy to bring the final product to market. Though there are earlier models with similar characteristics, the minivan is, like Jazz, a uniquely American creation eventually co-opted by Europeans (and the Japanese, but our analogy fails us here). In order to celebrate 25th anniversary of the minivan, today shall be known as Maximum Minivan Day. Sound the alarm, take the kids out of school and hold on to your swiveling captain's chairs! Let the maximuming begin... [For more history of the minivan check out the Allpar history] More »
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Twenty years after the South Carolinian monster known as Lizard Man was last heard of, he has returned, but this time to feast on the front end of a very delicious Dodge Mini-Van. In the silence of the night, Lizard Man managed to chew the hell out of the hood, grill and wheel wells. In addition to the poor van (I wonder if the insurance covers monster attacks?) the Lizard Man also attacked a box where some of the owner's 20 cats slept and now the cats are missing. Lizard Man is a reported seven-foot tall beast with green skin and three claws. The mini-van owner, Mr. Rawson, is prepared for the next time Lizard Man attempts to eat his van, and it is with a glock. Hey, an old man fighting a car- and cat-eating human-esque lizard with a glock is normal for the South, right? [WIS10 via BoingBoing] More »
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It's a match made somewhere on the Hamburg circuit, circa 1963. The Who's beak-schnozed, windmilling wonder Pete Townsend and Volkswagen, says the UK's AutoExpress, will team up on marketing V-dub's new bus, the long-awaited production successor to the 2001 Microbus concept. Expect to be regaled with The Who's "Magic Bus" as VW launches a media blitz for the new minivan, due in 2008, reportedly co-developed with Chrysler. But don't expect it to mimic the concept; word is the new bus has been reconsidered, though still decidedly retro looking. Insert hash-smogging, Portland-area hippie joke here. [AutoExpress via German Car Blog] More »
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Spotlighting Honda's slightly freshened minivan is the gearhead-media equivalent to examining Mitt Romney's penchant for royal-blue ties. But lest we forget, the Odyssey is the van that gave Chrysler marketers a half-decade of sleepless nights. And that's not all. Ask anyone who's ever dropped the hammer on an Odyssey EX or LX — sans family cargo, naturally. They'll recount a VTEC surge that's the nearest a young dad with a mortgage can get to an adrenalin dump without dialing that flirtatious cashier from the dry-cleaners'. More »
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Pulling off four-wheel drifts in any front driver takes more than just a dexterous a-pedal foot. It also takes more yanks on the e-brake than a kid riding a Big Wheel. Google Video coughs up a clip that shows the results of those skills, made even harder by the book-like aerodynamic profile of a pair of minivans. Now we're wondering if the rear wheels are made of hard plastic. [Update: Reader Zac keeps us honest — the vehicles in the video are not actually minivans, they're Japanese high-roof keicars, meaning they're about half the size of a standard-issue minivan, though with the same hideous aerodynamics.] More »
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If you're going through a divorce, why not pick up an faux-wood-paneled 1980s Dodge Caravan and tune the snot out of its four-cylinder mill instead of drinking yourself into a sobbing stupor every night? That's exactly what Paul Smith did, resulting in red-faced ponycar drivers and 12.65-second timeslips. And how might one turn a Mopar minivan into a fire-breathing strip warrior? Turbocharging and intercooling, friends. Those Chrysler fours responded legendarily well to forced induction; so much so that once upon a time that Warren Mosler used 'em in his stupid-fast Consuliers. Just the thing for putting a hex on the 5.0 crew, no? More »
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