I have friends (not soccer moms) who often transport a lot of people for activities (like shuttles for whitewater paddling). A number of them use minivans and don't like how the options have decreased relative to 3-row SUVs which they think are relatively less practical cars for their purposes. (And I tend to agree.)

The market optimizes for what people will buy, not what they like. If people begrudgingly buy 3 row SUVs instead of minivans, the bean counters count that as a win.

There are still 4 minivans on the US market, and really I don’t think there’s space for any others to sell successfully. The ones that exist are damn competitive for what they are, and they still don’t sell well.

>There are still 4 minivans on the US market, and really I don’t think there’s space for any others to sell successfully. The ones that exist are damn competitive for what they are, and they still don’t sell well.

Oh I don't really disagree. The Sienna and Odyssey seem like good vehicles. I'm less familiar with the remaining American(?) models.

I also don't know enough to meaningfully speculate why 3-row SUVs took over from minivans for fairly similar use cases even though they seem less effective in a lot of circumstances. Part of it is probably image--especially for some male drivers--but I lack the data to have a strong opinion.

Most of the “SUVs” in the US market are really just minivans disguised to look masculine. It took a few decades for manufacturers to realize that this is what people wanted- the rugged looks of a 4x4 with the people transporting ability of a minivan, and no wasted expense or weight on offroad ability. The VW Atlas for example is made specifically for the US market, a 3 row front wheel drive minivan that looks SUV like.

It was pretty funny 20 years ago before this was realized- big SUVs had low range transfer cases, skid plates, lockers, air suspension, and tons of other expensive and complicated offroad hardware. The people buying and driving these had no idea what those parts were for, and only found out they had them when they would accidentally activate them on pavement and get an expensive repair bill.

RAV4 and HR-V came out in 1990s, somehow I doubt doubt they had any off-road equipment installed in the base even of the 4WD trims. Very few people looked for off-road capabilities indeed, this is why the unibody "crossovers" exploded in the 90s as they are more practical than station wagons (which almost disappeared since then) and minivans in many cases.

The first generation RAV4 has a center diff lock, and a good amount of ground clearance, but the vehicles I was talking about are mostly full sized premium SUVs loaded with expensive gadgets like the Lexus LX, VW Touareg, Porsche Cayenne, Jeep Grand Cherokee, etc. Now all of those companies make similar sized vehicles with less offroad equipment.

And the offroad equipment is still as optional now as it used to be.

I don't get why anybody that has operated a sliding door would choose a 3row SUV. It's just so practical and you don't have to worry about the kiddos door dinging anyone.

Just one more thing to break. I’ll take a standard manual door any day.

For CAFE purposes SUVs and minivans are both considered “light trucks.”

Most mid sized SUV (the most popular ones) are minivans dressed up as SUVs.

Unless you're looking at an expedition or the like, they're all unibody, front wheel drive, and turbo charged inline fours. Just like a minivan.

The SUVs of old had a truck chassis, a large V6 or V8, rear wheel drive.