Sales in the Minivan segment grew by 8.1 percent in the 2016, making it the only mainstream segment to gain sales in 2016. With total sales of 553,913 the segment is now within 30,000 units of the quickly-shrinking Subcompact segment, which is quite the comeback for the once-favorite family mover that has suffered greatly in recent years as consumers switch over to crossovers and SUVs. 2017 may be better still as the new Chrysler Pacifica comes into its own and the new Honda Odyssey goes on sale, though it could be that sales of the aging Dodge Grand Caravan start sliding considerably, as that could drag the whole segment down.
Highlights for 2016:
Chrysler Pacifica- Despite establishing an early lead in the first half of the year and a 29 percent growth in sales compared to 2015, Dodge Grand Caravan was not able to wrestle the segment crown from Toyota Sienna, despite the Japanese model’s 7 percent in loss in sales
- One car that did lose to the Grand Caravan was the Honda Odyssey, with sales down 5 percent in 2016 – it now will be interesting whether the recently-presented new model will be able to reclaim the second spot in the segment
- Chrysler Pacifica was only able to eek out fifth place in 2016, but that is misleading as the model only went on sale in Q2; more indicative of its potential is the fact that with sales of 26,794 it came to within 2,000 units of outselling the segment-leading Siena in Q4, so it seems to have what it takes to take the segment crown in 2016, especially as its predecessor, Town & Country, has now been pretty much phased out
- Kia Sedona continued doing OK business in sixth, as its sales were up by 20 percent, though its total of almost 45,000 units is still some way off its 2006 sales total of 57,000 units
- Still, at least the Sedona is bringing in enough sales to justify its existence in the carmakers line-up – the same can’t be said of the Nissan Quest, which with a grand total of 11,115 only sold a fourth of what the model did in the last 1990s and early 2000s, and may be discontinued by the Japanese carmaker before long
Note: clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off