Cost of gas, Soccer-mom image doom minivans

Automobiles are merely an extension of fashion. Odds are the same woman who will spend $800 on a pair of shoes won't be caught dead in a minivan. Same goes for her BF. It has always been thus. Anybody who bought a Studebaker was pretty much considered a loser, which is one of the main reasons Studebaker went under: they could not shake their stodgy image. Chrysler would have gone the way of the dodo, too, if not for the '55 Chrysler 300 and the revolutionary '57 finned chariots.