Newer small cars and MPVs, like the Suzuki MR Wagon, the Fiat Multipla, the Toyota Matrix, the Pontiac Vibe, the Chrysler RT platform cars and the Honda Civic Si EP3 may feature a manual or automatic transmission gear shifter located on the vehicle's instrument panel, similar to the mid-1950s Chryslers.

Compact MPVs have a length of between.

Tall city cars and kei cars like the Hyundai Atos, Daewoo Matiz, Chery QQ and Suzuki Wagon R have also been called mini MPVs or " microvans " because of their increased height over traditional hatchbacks.

European Minivans ( MPVs ) are generally powered by four-cylinder engines, originally a mix of petrol and diesel units, but with petrol engines becoming increasingly rare as diesels have improved.

In Europe, Australia and New Zealand, these vehicles remain popular and in volume production, although minivans ( known in Europe as MPVs — multi-purpose vehicles ) and the like have had some impact.

Multi-purpose vehicles and sport utility vehicles based on small family cars ( often called compact MPVs and compact SUVs ) have similar sizes, ranging from to in the U. S., and from to in international-based models.

Some current compact SUVs have some features which resemble compact MPVs and regular hatchbacks, but still offer many of the perks of standard SUVs, like increased towing capacity and ample cargo space ; examples of this are the Honda CR-V, SEAT Altea, Nissan X-Trail, and Hyundai Tucson.

Larger MPVs usually feature three rows of seats, with two or three seats each: 2-3-2, 2-2-3 or 2-3-3 ( front to rear ) are the most common seating configurations.

Rivalling the seating in modern MPVs, such as the Chrysler Voyager or Renault Espace, there was even a small card table which could be fitted anywhere among the passenger seats if so required.

Worldwide, minivans are also marketed as multi-purpose vehicles ( MPVs ), multi-utility vehicles ( MUVs ), people-carriers or people-movers.

MPVs are usually between tall, which is around taller than a sedan, hatchback, or a station wagon.

In contrast to vans, sport utility vehicles ( SUV ), and many crossover SUVs, most current MPVs are front-wheel drive.

Door configuration for MPVs are highly variable.

Large MPVs are those above 4600 mm ( 180 in ) long.

The first European MPV also belonged to this segment, and later similar models were named likewise until smaller models appeared ; now these models are called " large MPVs ".

Mini MPVs are under 4100 mm ( 160 in ) long, and were introduced in the early first decade of the 21st century.

Examples of mini MPVs are the Citroën C3 Picasso, Fiat Idea, Ford B-Max, Toyota bB and Nissan Cube.

Examples of mini MPVs them are the Citroën C3 Picasso, derived from the C3, and the Fiat Idea, derived from the Punto platform.

Whilst some MUVs might be replicas of European MPVs ( such as the European Ford Fusion ) or American-style minivans ( like the Toyota Innova ), in some cases MUVs are similar to SUVs ( such as the Chevrolet Tavera ).

These are typically estate cars, MPVs or 4x4s, are liveried with high-visibility ambulance markings, and fitted with blue flashing lights and sirens.

Temporary multiple unit control cables were run along the wagons in order to connect the two MPVs, which are acting as locomotives working as a push-pull train.

They are also purpose-designed to be utilitarian base model MPVs / people carriers, for a range of such vehicles.

The Dodge / Plymouth Colt / Eagle Summit wagons replaced them, but they are compact MPVs similar to the Nissan Stanza wagon / Multi / Axxess.

MPVs can be roughly classified in three or four segments: large, compact, mini, and micro.

While the VW / SEAT / Ford model had alength of, the Espace and the eurovan were around shorter and would be considered today as compact MPVs.

These models would be later called " large MPVs ".

In the ASEAN nations, China and India, multi-utility vehicles tend to be smaller than North American minivans and European MPVs.

The Sintra had an important influence on U-body development – because GM wanted to keep it similar in dimensions to European large MPVs ( such as the Volkswagen Sharan / Ford Galaxy / SEAT Alhambra or the Eurovans ), the platform was made quite narrow, which in turn made the GMX110s narrower than the previous " dustbuster " minivans, and more importantly than most American competitors.

However, the seating is arranged in the 2-2-3 ( front to rear ) layout common in North America, rather than the 2-3-2 layout often seen in SUVs and MPVs in Europe.

This market has thrived ever since, with the cars increasing in size and engine capacity, including sports cars such as the Honda Beat and Suzuki Cappuccino, and even miniaturised MPVs.

" People-carrier " and " people mover " describe both large MPVs and minibuses, but not smaller models.

Most modern MPVs feature unibody architecture, which offers superior crashworthiness and a more comfortable ride than a body-on-frame chassis, and is typically lighter.

The trend towards compact MPVs began in 1996 with the launch of the Renault Scénic and Opel Zafira.

French breaks from Peugeot and Citroën in particular were available in seven-or eight-seater " family " versions long before MPVs became known in Europe.

The timing was not ideal though, as four-wheel drive had already become synonymous with large MPVs such as the Land Rover Discovery, and the bottom dropped out of the four-wheel drive saloon market, with the notable exception of Subaru.

People who would tolerate the knock on performance and economy, preferred to graduate to a full-blown MPV, rather than a saloon with good all-round traction, especially since MPVs had become fashionable at the time.

When Volkswagen and Ford lost market share to other manufacture's MPVs, including the Toyota Previa and Mitsubishi Space Wagon, they changed the design of their versions.

`` You may have seen me on TV '', she said.

The body may have been two or three weeks' dead.

Something was beginning to stir and come alive in her, too ( it may have been there for a good while, since she was twenty now ; ;

-- liberal considers that the need for a national economy with controls that will assure his conception of social justice is so great that individual and local liberties as well as democratic processes may have to yield before it.

The American liberal may, in the world of to-day, have a strong case ; ;

Accounts have been published of Northern liberals in the South up against segregationist prejudice, especially in state-supported universities where pressure may be strong to uphold the majority view.

Among Bourbons the racial issue may have less to do with their remaining unreconstructed than other factors.

Thus, to cite but one example, the Pax Britannica of the nineteenth century, whether with the British navy ruling the seas or with the City of London ruling world finance, was strictly national in motivation, however much other nations ( e.g., the United States ) may have incidentally benefited.

Jean Bodin, writing in the sixteenth century, may have been the seminal thinker, but it was the vastly influential John Austin who set out the main lines of the concept as now understood.

An example of the changes which have crept over the Southern region may be seen in the Southern Negro's quest for a position in the white-dominated society, a problem that has been reflected in regional fiction especially since 1865.

Looking back, Miss Marsicano feels that her ideas may have been influenced by those of Jackson Pollock.

The conversation that ensued may have been engrossing but it could hardly be called world-shattering.

The consciousness it mirrors may have come earlier to Europe than to America, but it is the consciousness that most `` mature '' societies arrive at when their successes in technological and economic systematization propel them into a time of examining the not-strictly-practical ends of culture.

The part of the mind that preserves dates and events may remonstrate, `` It could have been like that for only a little while '' ; ;

It may, however, be noted that his gift for color and imagery must have been greatly stimulated by his stay in Paris.

Does our society have a runaway, uncontrollable growth of technology which may end our civilization, or a normal, healthy growth??

In any event, whether society may have cancer, or merely a virus infection, the `` disease '', we shall find, is political, economical, social, and even medical.

Any abilities I may have were achieved in their present shape from experience in sharing in the growth and control of my business, coupled with raising my family.

The best gifts of the novelist will be wasted on the reader who is insulated against any surprises the novelist may have in store for him.

He and also Mr. Cowley and Mr. Warren have fallen to the temptation which besets many of us to read into our authors -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example, and Herman Melville -- protests against modernism, material progress, and science which are genuine protests of our own but may not have been theirs.

Such activity may or may not have irritated the Kremlin, but it has frequently condemned America to an unnatural defensiveness that has undermined our effort to give leadership to the free world.

I fled, however, not from what might have been the natural fear of being unable to disguise from you that the things about my bridegroom -- in the sense you meant the word `` things '' -- which you had been galvanizing yourself to tell me as a painful part of your maternal duty were things which I had already insisted upon finding out for myself ( despite, I may now say, the unspeakable awkwardness of making the discovery on principle, yes, on principle, and in cold blood ) because I was resolved, as a modern woman, not to be a mollycoddle waiting for Life but to seize Life by the throat.

Moreover, because of the particular blot on your family escutcheon through what may only have been one unbridled moment on your grandmother's part, and because you had the lean-to kitchen and trundle bed of your childhood to outgrow, what you obviously most desired with both your conscious and unconscious person, what you bent your whole will, sensibility, and intelligence upon, was to be a lady.