Millennials are trying to make minivans cool again

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — They see them rolling, but maybe they won’t be hating.

Millennial parents are changing their minds about the minivan. A TikTok video shows off lounge-style chairs with built-in ottomans and 14-inch screens in the back of a Kia Carnival. Another proudly shows off a Toyota Sienna, proclaiming “18 cupholders but y’all still thirsty.” One mom turned her minivans into a mobile living room – but not without throwing out the old stuff with an enthusiastic “YEET!

Minivans, once the de facto soccer-mom vehicle of choice, are making a big comeback. Long considered a dead segment, minivan sales grew 21% in 2025, selling almost 400,000 units, according to Edmunds.

The Toyota Sienna is one of the fastest-selling cars on the market right now, Matt Smith, head of content at CarGurus, told CNN. Sales increased 35% in 2025, and they stay on dealer lots for only around 18 days.

In May, Chrysler and Dodge CEO Matt McAlear declared that the minivan is “seeing a resurgence.”

Millennials have reached prime parenting age, and they’re not just discovering the wildly practical features inside minivans – like seats that don’t just slide backwards and forward, but side to side – but also learning how to best lug their kids.

Kelsey Spencer, a mom of three girls in Northwest Illinois, thought she’d never be caught dead in a minivan, but now she can’t seem to live without her 2026 Kia Carnival Hybrid.

When she first got a van two years ago, Spencer was afraid she would “pull up, and people are going (say) ‘ugh, a minivan.’” Instead, people ask: “What kind of car is this? It’s really cool .”

Parents told CNN that sliding doors make it easier to shuffle kids around, and the third row fits growing humans well. But it’s also an affordable vehicle compared to the muscular, hulking SUVs that were once family vehicle of choice but are now some of the most expensive autos on the market.

“There’s really no better vehicle for people hauling and cargo capacity, but because they were deemed uncool for so long, sales just completely dropped off,” Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, told CNN. “But in the end of the day, your money is what matters most.”

How the minivan lost its ‘mom car’ throne

Minivans’ space and versatility were pioneering when the car debuted in the 80s. At the time, station wagons were the uncool family lugger, Damon Smith, research editor at cars.com, told CNN.

Overtime, minivans acquired “soccer mom” baggage.

SUVs were simply seen as cooler. Commercials showed off sleek and imposing vehicles with four-wheel drive going off-roading through rugged terrain, adding some aspiration to a Tuesday night baseball practice pick-up .

And car manufacturers knew that customers would buy into that, even though more families were using their cars to go to the grocery store rather than driving through the jungle.

“We are not a smart car-buying population in that regard,” Drury said. “I know plenty of people with families that would have certainly benefited from all that additional cargo space” in a minivan.

Minivans still only represent about 2.4% of the overall car market, compared to 3.2% in 2016. Most people simply don’t need all the space a minivan provides. Suburbia has certainly changed since the era of “Home Alone” and “Cheaper by the Dozen” – American families are now having fewer kids and McMansions are harder to come by.

But perhaps a nostalgia for that life is also leading some families to minivans. As one millennial mom confessed, “I never in a million years thought that would come out of my mouth… I’m starting to really romanticize having a minivan.”

Spencer used to drive a Nissan Pathfinder SUV, telling herself she would never drive a minivan. But things changed when she saw her two five-year-olds were able to push a button and open the minivan door themselves. The fuel savings helped, too.

She said she uses the carpeted area of her minivan to quickly change after swimming in the summer or eat lunch like a picnic when it’s raining outside.

Emma Cedar, a mom with two kids in the New York City suburbs, said that she discovered the glories of the minivan while on a trip to California a few years ago. And even with one kid at the time, “it was so much easier to get him in and out. It just feels more comfortable.”

An affordable alternative

Minivans are about $4,000 cheaper than comparable three-row SUVs, according to cars.com. They’re not just more fuel efficient, with many of them coming standard as a hybrid, they also tend to be more spacious.

SUVs tend to cost more than minivans because they’re built on truck platforms but with an enclosed cabin and extra seating. And customers who put off buying cars for the pandemic years due to inventory shortages at dealerships and inflation came back to sticker shock.

The average transaction price for a minivan in June 2026 was $48,908, less than the industry average for all new cars of $49,758. And that’s significantly less than the average price for a full-size SUV, at almost $80,000, and a tad more affordable than mid-sized SUVs, which cost an average of $49,792.

Cedar, the New York mom of two, is one of those shoppers. She and her husband bought a 2024 Chrysler Pacifica for less than $40,000. She told CNN While she emphasized that she was never a minivan hater but that she was caught off guard by the basic SUV prices when looking for a bigger car.

“I remember when I was younger and BMW came out with a $30,000 car,” she said. “Now, that’s almost the starting point for a lot of cars.”

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