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| Not VIP Enough? Who said Mpv's can't be badass? |
Just a few moments ago I had stumbled upon a video of the current Alphard on youtube which led me to the 2010 Nissan Elgrand. I was pretty impressed as like any other Asian that perceived Mpv's pretty alright. We all know about Estima's, Alphard's, Vellfire's, Elysion's, Elgrand's etc etc.. that basically is the cream of the crop of Asian Mpv's. While the Japanese get the good stuff, most of the time the rest of the other Asean countries either get the crappier stuff or let me rephrase that; lower quality stuff... the other option to obtain the good stuff would be to grey import them. But what i really want to talk about is mindsets regarding Mpv's.
In this age of globalization, most car manufacturers do have a fair share of marketing their products around the world. Though the only problem is when it comes to Mpv's or people mover's, that's where it really gets messed up. While the Europeans claim that they were the first ones to create an MPV, the Americans claim they started it with Minivans. So with all this confusion, there isn't much left for us Asians to talk about. However it seems, we are picking it up pretty well. (especially the Japanese). Years back when the Europeans and Americans got the trend started, the Japanese pretty much failed in that aspect of building a people mover (based on a "Van"). Fast forward today, their actually making better mpv's than the westerner's do.
Why do I say so? What really amazes me, (well to me) is that whole perception of Minivan's in the U.S. (i find it pretty annoying though). While the European's came up with Mpv, the term minivan used just isn't clear enough to differentiate the segments for a vehicle. If you look deeper into it, it's just a combination of "mini"-"van". Which clearly describes it as a van. But the problem is, an Mpv is targeted to a different consumer range and technically different from a utility van. (by today's standards, even though the size and shape may be almost the same). And the whole idea about minivan's are for soccer mom's (just because the majority of people who drive those in the U.S are moms doesn't mean the rest of the world does!), uncool and ugly is just seriously lame. The European's do make pretty good Mpv's, so do the Japanese.
In Asia, the perception is completely different when it comes to Mpv's. There isn't such a thing that just downright labels a vehicle segment as lame. Thanks to the Japanese, the whole set of ideas and thinking is so far different that they've gone ahead in that area. Like why can't Mpv's be considered luxurious? Or even sporty? The culture and ideas pretty much got the rest of Asians infected with it as well. Look at Kei-cars, or the VIP culture? Even Malaysian's do it now.. That whole idea of Minivans is just boxing ones mind up about exploring bigger possibilities in the car culture. No wonder Japan has one of the most diverse sub cultures and the American market only offers rather plain offerings of the minivan segment.
If you get what I mean, Mpv's arent just there to serve it's purpose. It a matter of asking the same question, if you could put a V8 into an ordinary family Sedan, make it sportier, give it a sports badge and call it a sports sedan, what makes it any different to a Mpv and market it as premium? The only matter now is, car manufacturers should stop giving us half-baked ASEAN cars... like the so-called "New" Toyota Innova.
To sum it up, I like what a commenter on youtube said on a video that was about Kei-cars.
This is why I love Japanese tuning philosophy. They don't dismiss a car because of it's letdowns, instead they focus on its strong points and go from there.
Here's the videos of the 2010 Nissan Elgrand I was referring to earlier. The Rider version looks awesome. lol
Now why wouldn't anyone find that luxurious or premium!?
I actually personally like it.. lol!
