I had two minivans for many years.The sliding doors were a real advantage as of course I had three kids to tot hither and yon. The first was a Dodge Caravan with a 4 cylinder engine and 5 speed transmission. I had to plan ahead, as they say, when merging. I recall driving across South Dakota with the kids one day at 82 mph, at 83 the engine seemed unhappy. I put 155,000 miles on it, donated it to a food pantry outfit, who later told me they traded it to some church for a bus. It had over 180K on it by then. At least I could do maintenance on it, and changed the oil, and used synthetic.
I had put a 'car payment' into a mutual fund, $100 a month, to help paying for a new car some day. It was a tech mutual fund and did well in the 90s so I had enough to buy a new minivan and got an Oldsmobile Silhouette with that 3800 V6 in it, man was it FAST!!!!
