The minivan’s family tree has many roots, including the Stout Scarab, a poor-selling vehicle introduced in the early 1930s that had many minivan characteristics, and the Ford Econoline cargo van, introduced in 1961. Its most interesting antecedents are two vehicles that embodied the culture wars of the 1960s: the Volkswagen bus embraced by counterculture hippies and station wagons, which represented the conformist “Father Knows Best” mentality of postwar America. In a delicious, we-all-end-up-like-our-parents twist, some of those aging flower children would help feed the minivan boom.

The minivan was born a legend, the vehicle that saved Chrysler and helped make its chief executive at the time, Lee Iacocca, a star. The carmaker was largely being kept afloat through loan guarantees from the government when Mr. Iacocca took its helm in 1979. In 1983, it introduced the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager. They were instant hits: Chrysler sold 209,895 minivans during the first year, turning around the company’s fortunes. GM introduced its own minivans in 1985 (the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari), and Ford followed in 1986, with the Aerostar.

“The minivan was revolutionary in many ways because it was one of the first vehicles designed from the inside out,” said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision, a San Diego market research firm that does work for the car industry. “It didn’t have much under the hood, and its outward appearance was anything but stylish, but the interior space of the vehicle was designed to provide space and comfort that the main family vehicle at the time, the station wagon, didn’t.”

Instead of forcing the smallest children to pile into cargo space without safety restraints, the minivan provided a third row of seats. It was low to the ground and provided a sliding door so children could get in and out of it easily, even in tight parking spaces. Through the years, minivans evolved to provide ever more home-style comfort, essentially becoming living rooms on wheels. Cup holders, juice box holders, dual zone temperature controls, wireless headphones, DVD players, televisions, iPod controls, heated steering wheels, umbrella holders and vacuums were just some of the accessories added.

Mr. Edwards said the minivan’s focus on the interior reflected a change in car culture. “Car buyers in the 1960s and ’70s knew a lot more about cars, their inner workings, than people in the late 1980s and 1990s, so it was natural for consumers to focus more on what they knew.”