Chrysler claim to be the world leaders in selling what we now call MPV’s, they also claim to have invented the concept, with the launch of the Chrysler Voyager 25 years ago (we will look at the truth of that later) but since then Chrysler have sold more than 12 million vehicles worldwide.
To commemorate that achievement (their words, not mine), Chrysler have announced a very limited “25th Anniversary” model of the Voyager of which just 100 units will be available in the UK.
Based on the “Touring” model, the Anniversary special gets, Xenon Headlamps, Leather Trimmed Upholstery, Chrome Mesh Grille, LED Daytime Running Lights, Satellite Navigation with Phone Voice Recognition, Dual Screen Rear DVD Entertainment System, a 25th Anniversary Tailgate Badge and finally, and probably, even more exciting, an Engraved Commemorative 25th Anniversary Key Ring. The car will be priced at £32,595 on the road.
We can’t however end this article without looking at Chryslers claim to have invented the MPV. As we all know, in folklore many nations claim the first to have done various things and in this area, the USA has never been slow at coming forward to claim it did it first.
To look at a “biggy”, the USA even claim they invented democracy, although, it existed millennia before and in fact, some might even question if what they have today counts for one! Recently, no one less than President Obama claimed that the US invented the automobile and whilst for sure, Henry Ford popularised it and showed us how to make it more cheaply and quickly, he certainly didn’t invent it, as steam powered cars were around in France from 1769 and German genius, Karl Benz, produced and patented the first proper automobile as we know it today, and it was fitted with a gasoline powered internal combustion engine way back in 1885 and that was pretty much 18 years before Henry even formed the Ford Motor Company.
Silly claims from the USA such as Al Gore claiming to have invented the internet continue to this day, so where does Chryslers claim to have invented the MPV sit?
Well the answer is not too well. Just like Henry, Chrysler popularised the concept of the MPV (or mini-van) in the United States, but in fact, Chrysler only beat the launch of the Renault Espace by a few months (also launched in 1984) but where the Espace holds the high ground as a real MPV, is that it can fairly be credited as the first car to ever have a highly configurable interior, whilst the Voyager of its time was pretty much a posh mini-van. The Espace was also the first car to exhibit the distinct and unique exterior styling (not a modified van) that we all now associate with an MPV.
So already, Chryslers claim to have invented the first MPV is a little rocky, but to whack the final nail into the coffin, we travel back to 1950 Germany and find the true ground breaker, which was the Volkswagen Type 2, also known as the Kombi, which popularised the versatile multi-seater concept over 30 years before either Chrysler or Renault claim they did.
So where does this leave us? Well, the Volkswagen Type 2, was more like the original Chrysler Voyager in as much as it put loads of seats into a small van body, so it share similarities and if the comparison was to stop here, well the Volkswagen wins. The Espace on the other hand (even 25yrs ago) took the concept further, by offering a truly configurable interior, and putting it into a unique body shell which wasn’t a re-vamped van and that’s what today’s MPV is, so to me, the Espace was the first “modern day” MPV.
Now perhaps none of this really matters, and I don’t have any issue with Chrysler celebrating 25 years of its Voyager, but it’s maybe using a touch of artistic licence to claim it was the worlds first.
That said, for me, the specially engraved Key Ring is a nice thing to have, so if you’ve got a spare 32 grand hanging around, and you like to take passengers with you wherever you go or you have a brood of media hungry kids, well why don’t you toddle down to you local Chrysler dealer and get yourself the perfect vehicle and one which is an unquestionably decent bit of kit and that will give you every toy you could pretty much desire in a car and will keep everyone happy, no matter where they sit.
C’mon, if it’s good enough for the contestants in “The Apprentice” well it’s got to be good enough for us mere mortals (but don’t go using your mobile phone in that strange way).
