A recent press release from Volkswagen touted its latest vehicle. And while the Routan is certainly one of the nicest vans Chrysler has ever produced, it’s not a Volkswagen.
History of the minivan in America
It is generally accepted, with good reason, that Chrysler created the modern minivan segment back in 1983 with the introduction of the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager. Based on an extended Chrysler K platform, each featured front wheel drive, a sliding passenger door on the passenger side and enough room to hold mom, dad, 2.3 kids and all the accompanying paraphernalia. The vehicles were an instant success and nearly 12 million have been sold in the intervening years.
1984 Plymouth Voyager
The VW Bus
But German manufacturer Volkswagen could legitimately claim a portion of that prize, at least here in the United States, based on the 1950 VW Type 2, commonly known as the Microbus – a vehicle that beat Lee Iacocca and The New Chrysler to the punch by a good 33 years.
1955 VW Microbus
Based on an extended Type 1 (Beetle) platform, Volkswagen went on to sell three generations of this rear-engined, rear-drive van from 1950 until 1990. Its replacement, the almost-as-boxy Eurovan, was both front-engined and front-wheel-drive. It was also not nearly as popular with the VW faithful and was sold in the U.S. from 1990 until VW stopped importing them in 2003.
In Europe, Volkswagen continues to market not just one, but a full line of vans that include the Caddy Life, the Touran, the Sharan and the Multivan (the latest version of the Eurovan). Here in the United States, unless VW changes its current marketing plans, we’ll never see any of these models.
The Routan
Instead, in what certainly has to be called an ironic twist of fate, the newest VW - the Routan – is actually a Chrysler Town and Country minivan. And although the Routan has its own interior and unique Volkswagen-designed front and rear sheetmetal as well as suspension tuning, the rest is all Chrysler – including the assembly plant where it’s built in Windsor, Canada.
2009 VW Routan
If only, if only
And while a few dyed-in-the-wool Volkswagen customers will certainly end up purchasing a Routan, many more will look at it, shake their heads and wonder what might have been; recalling, instead, the stunning Microbus Concept introduced at the 2001 North American International Auto Show. Originally scheduled to go into production, plans for the New Microbus were scrapped in 2005 as Volkswagen concentrated its resources on marketing the Phaeton, a vehicle that suffered such dismal sales that it was only imported into the U.S. for 3 years.
Microbus Concept
