FUTURE PROOF
The MPV is now the preferred choice of travel for the wealthy, which has got Paul thinking
Good grief For a minute there they had me I thought the MPV was back I mean look at the new one box silhouettes The Lexus LM is here the Volvo EM90 is out in China and so is the closely related Zeekr 009. The LEVC taxi people will have one soon But the resurrected one box isn’t a puke stained family wagon It’s luxury transport for the chauffeured A market that’s been prised wide open by fleets of black painted tint windowed polished alloyed Mercedes Benz V Classes
It’s now possible to spend £200,000 on a froufrou’d up Merc van by Brabus Clive Sutton or Senzati These have long since jettisoned the definition of ‘people carriers’ not least because step one in their fitouts is to evict the minibus seats In their place go fewer bigger recliners a fridge and glassware supersized telly mega sound system and more High end ambience is vouchsafed by retrimming the lot in quilted leather polished wood and carpets as deep and soft as snow
Now the end result might not ride as well as an S Class but it’ll certainly have every last one of an S Class’s passenger amenities Don’t worry about driving dynamics because the one paying the ride is never the one at the wheel Hence the privacy partition between the posh quarters and the hired hand driving
This glossy one box is vastly more spacious than a car and space is the great underestimated luxury Many of these vehicles serve red carpet duty and the fact they’re high off the road and have big powered doors means more dignified entry and exit And then once you’re in and rolling it just looks like a normal minibus Discretion assured
Bit weird isn’t it? Today’s celebs want to travel incognito in a vehicle that looks like a van yet MPVs died out when families shunned them because they looked like a van That’s why I figured the arrival of the Lexus LM and success of these V Classes might signal that the MPV will soon be on trend again The MPV was always a guilty pleasure for me as they were so beguilingly roomy and versatile hence the name multi purpose vehicle
But truth is expensive cars and a Lexus LM or one of these fancy V Classes is pretty darned expensive have no need to be multi purpose The requirement to be versatile goes in inverse proportion to price If you’re buying a supermini you probably need to commute carry your mates at weekends do the odd motorway trek and once in a while fold the seat for hunter gathering some bulky piece of furniture or other Rich people on the other hand own a different car for each of those duties Well except carting furniture because these are not the sort of people to be found in the interminable checkout queue at Ikea
In short the rise in posh vans absolutely doesn’t mean there’s hope for the revival of diverting oddities like the Ford S Max with the five cylinder turbo engine or Lancia Phedra V or VW Sharan VR I’m prepared to accept I’m the only one who cares
“THE REQUIREMENT TO BE VERSATILE GOES IN INVERSE PROPORTION TO PRICE”
TG’s megabrain Paul is one of the world’s most experienced car journalists. He single-handedly caused the microchip crisis after eating several thousand in a bid to boost his processing power