The Greenbriar was pretty space efficient. With its rear engine, the floor was totally flat and the front seats were right behind the headlights. It was all usable space.
In general today’s “mini” vans are anything but mini. They are bigger than the original vans which were not “full sized” van either. The VW micro bus showed a market and Ford followed with an Econoline, based on either a Falcon or Fairlane chassis. The Falcon is a small car (for the US) and the Firelane was a midsized car at that time. GM brought out a van based of the Corvair. Over time full sized vans were developed on full sized frames, roughly from full sized pick up trucks.
The “mini” van was reborn, although VW always had a van on the market (they were just pretty awful vehicles), when Lee Iococca took a K-car station wagon chassis and put a box on it instead of a traditional wagon. Soon folks wanted more power so the 4 banger standard engine, had a V6 option. Then everyone wanted the V6 and nobody bought the 4 banger anymore and the race to blow up the proportions of the “mini” van was on. Now they are pretty much luxury cruising wagons just with a boxy shape. The current mini vans are about as “bloated” now as the old rear wheel wagons were in the Chevy Chase vacation movies on the trip to Wally World.
@Triedaq, I heard yesterday that GM is thinking about bringing back their small pick-ups to increase fleet mileage.
My original thought is to sign me up. Then I think how stiff, short and narrow they would be to accommodate much weight , recipe for returning to the rollover days. I like the thought but my
Back isn’t ready. Ah… The old Chevy Luv… RIP…
https://www.google.com/search?q=chevy+luv&hl=en&client=safari&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=CtFDUZzsErWk4AO_7ICwBw&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=568&bih=268