For a long time in Nigeria, multipurpose vehicles (MPVs) were seen as exclusive to large families. Soon transport companies adopted them for their services due to their high versatility, speed, comfort and features. One of the earliest model being the Mazda MPV, Toyota Previa, Toyota Picnic, Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Nissan Quest etc. What mostly stands these MPVs aside is that they ride similarly to sedans as many of them started off life with the same foundation or chassis and in many cases, the same engines with their sedan counterparts. Hence they can attain good speeds quickly, maintain higher high speeds in moderate comfort and safety than their bus counterparts.
While the MPVs remained attractive to a different category of people, and in some instances, only serving the rich and high net worth individuals as a workhorse mostly when their families need to transport heavy and large loads. While they prefer to ride in SUVs of different dimensions, brands and models especially when their status needs to be amplified or the excuse of the mostly poor state of Nigerian roads are factored in.
But the dynamics seem to have changed as in very recent years in Nigeria, high profile individuals have now also come to choose and use these vehicles as their primary choice instead of the usual SUVs hitherto that was their toast.
But a caveat, they are not going for the regular MPVs associated with the ‘hoi polloi’, rather they are going for the super luxurious versions of such vehicles.
Last year, culminating with the December celebrations seem to have very well been the period many such people launched their new luxurious rides into the ‘system’ as pictures, videos and personal observations revealed.
For now, the main brands and models that seem to have been the first beneficiaries to the game are the Mercedes Benz V- Class, the
Toyota Granvia, the GAC GN8, and the Hyundai Staria.
These mentioned vehicles can be bought brand new in Nigeria currently but there are many others that can be bought used as they had been a trend in other markets long before now especially from the Asian markets like Japan, Singapore China etc.
For instance, way back in 2008, I recall that the Toyota Alphard, Toyota Vellfire and the Toyota Noah were common in those markets as some of them were introduced since 2001 to those markets. Some grey imports equally made their way to the Nigerian markets and their owners were enjoying their understated luxurious vehicles in peace before the new trend was activated.
It can be said that GAC motors started off this new trend after they gifted a version of their GN8 to the musician Davido as a wedding gift.
These vehicles can be said to be suited for almost all purposes except tackling our bad roads, though they can manage through but not as much as SUVs can, this is expected though as they can’t completely win 100%.
Aside their nice and appealing aesthetics, their icing on the cake has always been the level of features, opulence and luxury inside them even as regular versions and the bar gets raised to the heavens when customization is brought into the mix as many of them regularly get customized or armoured or both to suit the preference and pocket and status of their owners.
And nothing can be said to be boring about these category of vehicles as automakers use them to pack all the space, features and amenities they can’t put in their other models.
They mostly feature comfortable, multi adjustable captain’s seats that mostly have heating, cooling and massage functions all through, large number of charging ports, large number of AC vents, TV, game console compatibilities, privacy windows, window blinds or curtains, plush carpeting, soft and comfortable leather seats, great ambient lighting, fabulous sound systems, numerous vanity mirrors and lights, fridges, starlight roofliners, tables and cupholders, leg ottomans, ability for the seats to recline into beds or adjust into almost every conceivable position the owner or user desires. And what’s more luxurious if the owner can’t be isolated from the driver if he or she so desires so they also mostly have privacy glasses separating the driver from the passenger sections of the car and both sections can communicate by intercom or power adjustable windows.
They are also mostly equipped with strong engines, transmissions and suspensions that deliver great power from low RPMs for stress-free comfortable rides.
Time will tell if they will succeed in displacing SUVs from our VIPs fleets of cars or not.
Photo credits:
Mercedes Benz Nigeria Weststar Associates.
Carwale.
Klassen.
Businessday.
Carsguide.
Jiji.