An SUV in the Van

DESIGN REJECTS: DODGE SPORT-UTILITY VAN

- Brett Berk

In the late 1980s, fresh out of the industrial-design program at Pratt Institute, Michael Santoro took a job at Chrysler. He was one of a cohort of young designers, and since they had access to the corporate fleet, sometimes they'd borrow a car and drive from Detroit to New York City. One weekend, a colleague cadged a Chrysler minivan.

"We all looked at each other like, that's the last car we'd want," Santoro says. But they piled in and headed out. Not only did they arrive in record time, they enjoyed the drive too. "It was super comfortable. You could sleep. You had your own space. It was the coolest thing from a packaging standpoint, from a livability standpoint, from a functionality standpoint," Santoro says. It just lacked a compelling design.