Which City Is the Minivan Capital of the U.S.?

CARS.COM — Summer is over, which means two things: It’s time to put away the white pants and school is back in session. In honor of the return of young people to the classroom (and the return of quiet mornings and afternoons for their parents), we set out to determine which city is the minivan capital of the U.S.

Related: 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Review

We examined U.S. markets (a city and its suburbs) with more than 500,000 residents and we took a look at how much their users looked at minivans on Cars.com. First, we found the national average of searches, and then we checked to see which cities way over-indexed for minivans (feel the love!) and which ones showed no interest in minivans, where they way under-indexed (feel the hate!). Here’s what we found:

The Midwest is king when it comes to minivan interest. The 20 cities where minivans are most popular are:

1. Chicago

2. Milwaukee

3. Cincinnati

4. Fort Wayne, Ind.

5. Roanoke, Va.

6. Washington, D.C.

7. Indianapolis

8. Cedar Rapids, Iowa

9. Des Moines, Iowa

10. Green Bay, Wis.

11. Minneapolis

12. Peoria, Ill.

13. Harrisburg, Pa.

14. New York

15. Baltimore

16. Cleveland

17. South Bend, Ind.

18. Kansas City, Mo.

19. Dayton, Ohio

20. Grand Rapids, Mich.

On the flip side, Texas may love it some pickup truck, but it hates it some minivan. Eight of the top 20 cities with low minivan popularity are in the Lone Star State:

1. Harlingen, Texas

2. Corpus Christi, Texas

3. Albuquerque, N.M.

4. Bakersfield, Calif.

5. Amarillo, Texas

6. Tyler, Texas

7. Chico, Calif.

8. Lafayette, La.

9. Santa Barbara, Calif.

10. Shreveport, La.

11. San Antonio

12. El Paso, Texas

13. Little Rock, Ark.

14. Savannah, Ga.

15. Waco, Texas

16. Reno, Nev.

17. Baton Rouge, La.

18. Austin, Texas

19. Eugene, Ore.

20. Montgomery, Ala.

It appears people in these warmer-climate cities don’t share the same affinity for the minivan as their harsher-climate brethren, though their love for convertibles puts them on a different map.

So, congratulations Chicago, minivan capital of the U.S. Even if the Cubs don’t bring the World Series home this year, nobody can take this away from you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see a man about a goat.