The MV-1 Is Back In Business

by Jack Baruth

Published: March 13th, 2014

It’s not the flashiest or most handsome vehicle out there. In fact, it’s probably the only car on the market that makes the old Honda Element look good. But for the disabled, the VPG MV-1 is very attractive indeed, because it, alone in the industry, allows a wheelchair user to ride in the “front seat” next to the driver.

The MV-1’s designer and, Vehicle Production Group (VPG), ceased production a year ago and transferred the rights to AM General, which was building the vans for them under contract in Mishiwaka, IN. AM General has now officially restarted production and plans to make as many as 5,600 MV-1s this year.

As more municipalities consider following New York’s lead and mandating handicap accessibility in a certain percentage of taxi fleets, AM General is poised to take pretty much all of that market. And at between fifty and sixty thousand dollars for a vehicle with relatively prosaic specifications, it should be profitable; it just hasn’t been so far.

The MV-1 has been a dream come true for some buyers. One buyer, a man who has had cerebral palsy since birth, was a guest at the official restart of production. He talked about how the MV-1 has changed his life by letting him sit next to his wife for the first time. No, it’s not a Aventador, but the MV-1 is clearly a dream car.

Jack Baruth

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8 of 43 comments

Dal20402 on Mar 13, 2014

The basic shape is needed for the function of the vehicle, but couldn't the maker have designed in some details that don't look totally cheap? Body color trim and mirrors, lights (all around) that don't look like Pep Boys parts, a nicer grille, and decent wheels and tires would all help.

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- Rudiger on Mar 13, 2014
  
  Exactly. Just getting rid of those ancient, sixties' era, round, sealed-beam headlights, alone, would have improved the appearance exponentially. I mean, c'mon, how much more expensive and/or difficult would it have been to use modern composite headlights (particularly since that front end looks like it came from the Element parts bin)? Geez, it's as if they went out of their way to make it look as goofy as possible. OTOH, maybe those round headlights have something to do with it being the cheapest way to make them auto-leveling, which is probably a concern with having a heavy, powered wheelchair in the front passenger area.
  
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- Madanthony on Mar 13, 2014
  
  Why bother? It would just add to the cost and complexity for a vehicle that's going to be purchased almost entirely by fleets, or by individuals who don't have an alternative. Besides, they probably used as many existing off-the-shelf parts as they could.
  
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- Giltibo on Mar 13, 2014
  
  @madanthony ...and off-the-shelf means "easy to find" and "cheap to replace".
  
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- Brian P on Mar 13, 2014
  
  Almost all low-production-volume vehicles re-use many mass-production parts from other high-production vehicles. It`s too expensive to design all-new parts plus design all the tooling for it, compared to designing in existing production parts and just buying them. I`ll just about guarantee that most, if not all, of the following are re-used mass-production parts from some other vehicle: Taillamps, instruments, HVAC (both the controls and the hidden bits that make it work), radio, switchgear, steering wheel, airbags, pedals, brake master cylinder and calipers and disks and the suspension and steering parts, door locks and latches, windscreen wipers and motor and linkage (perhaps even the windscreen itself), window winders, front seats, wheels, rear axle, and we know already about the engine and transmission.
  
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Madanthony on Mar 13, 2014

I see a ton of these in Baltimore - the Maryland MVA has a bunch for their "Mobility" program, and some taxi drivers and private handicapped transport places have them. The first time I saw one, I had no idea what it was - it looked like the offspring of a Scion xB and a london cab.

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Steve65 on Mar 13, 2014

Jack, are you running surveillance on me? Not having ever heard of or seen one of these before, literally yesterday I saw one on the far side of a divided road and wondered "wtf is THAT" out loud. And I log in today and lo, here is my answer...

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WolfgangGullich on Mar 13, 2014

I'm all for the MV-1 and was kind of sad when production stopped last year. I actually saw one near my parent's house in rural Alabama. These were actually made available to handicapped people to drive as well and have performance that doesn't completely suck as their previous options had...that being Toyota Siennas and Dodge Caravans which both have chassis-compromising cuts in order to fit the ramp.

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