F'real they're just better SUVs. I tried googling it, but the internet's very helpful answers were "they're not cool" and "SUVs are more popular." I'm convinced it's manufactured desire. What really happened to the minivan?
Edit: Apparently wagons and minivans still exist, they're just sold as SUVs.
I feel like it has to do with the militarization of cars and car culture (and everything else) since the late 80s.
Station wagons (estates) share a similar fate to the minivan. I guess part of it may have to do with how marketing sells SUVs as a rejection of what your parents drove and for millennials, the 80s and 90s was the heyday for minivans.
Traditional SUVs were and are simpler to manufacture (body on frame as opposed to unibody), cheap gas still abounds and tax incentives even allowed deductions on Hummers in the early 00s. So they’re profitable for manufacturers and their demand is incentivized.
EcoGecko has a video on this subject although to me it leaves a few things unexplored