Ford Carousel

The Ford Carousel, also spelled Carrousel, was a prototype vehicle that Ford developed in 1973, a derivative of the third-generation Ford Econoline and Club Wagon that explored many concepts later put into production by 1980s American minivans, as an alternative to both full-size station wagons and passenger vans. Called a garageable family van, it had a two-box design rather than the one-box layout of the Volkswagen Microbus and three rows of forward-facing seats. It was styled by Dick Nesbitt, who also designed the Mustang II, and built for Ford by Carron and Company of Inkster, Michigan. In 1972 Lee Iacocca directed the light truck design studio to create it from the Nantucket programme for the 1975 Econoline, lowering the roof of the Club Wagon by about a foot to six feet so that it fitted a garage. By 1973 it was a running prototype ready for production approval for a 1975 or 1976 launch and had the support of Henry Ford II, but opposition from executives who feared for sales of the Country Squire and Colony Park and the energy crisis led Henry Ford II to end the programme in 1974. Ford revisited the idea with the Aerostar, shown in 1984.