Rise of the stealth MPV: How the unloved ‘boxy’ family car is staging a comeback against SUVs
The uncool but undeniably practical multi-purpose vehicle is making a covert comeback in the form of ‘stealth’ people carriers as car buyers look for alternatives to SUVs with more space to fit big families.
MPVs like the Renault Espace may have carried seven people and even had ‘futuristic cabins’ but that didn’t stop them from being replaced by cooler SUVs over the past decade.
The ubiquitous MPV of the mid-2000s suffered a 98 per cent wipeout by 2025 as the fashionable SUV body style came to dominate the market, analysis of registrations by data technology experts Vehicle Data Global shows.
Now though, This is Money can exclusively reveal that the collapse of the MPV market has led to drivers buying up van-derived vehicles – ‘effectively MPVs without the label’.
In fact, VDG shows that today’s people carriers have risen over a third in popularity in just three years.
According to Ben Hermer, operations director of VDG, ‘we are seeing the effective relaunch of the sector as the stealth MPV’.
This is Money can exclusively reveal that the collapse of the MPV market has led to drivers buying up van-derived people-carriers: popularity for ‘stealth MPVs’ has risen 36% in 3 years
MPVs v SUVs – the battle for price and practicality
If you cast your mind back to the 2000s, the MPVs you would have seen frequently on the roads included the Vauxhall Zafira, Renault Megane Scenic, Ford Galaxy and Citroen Xsara Picasso.
The Ford Galaxy – part of a joint venture between Volkswagen and Ford – consistently held its place as the top-selling MPV in Britain through the 2000s.
And so popular were some of these models that they transcended just the MPV category in terms of sales success: the Xsara Picasso was among Citroen’s best-selling cars in the early 2000s.
However, as we approached the 2020s, the popularity of MPVs dwindled until manufacturers pulled the plug on their once-loved people carriers.
The Volkswagen Sharan and Citroen Grand C4 Picasso were ditched in 2022, while the Ford Galaxy and S-Max and Volkswagen Touran followed to the automotive graveyard a year later.
As VDG data finds, the number of buyers switching away from the unglamorous MPVs to the sexier SUV body style resulted in MPVs bottoming out in 2022.
Registrations of true MPVs – not vehicles that are technically tagged as people carriers but are marketed and sold as SUVs, including Tesla’s Model Y, BYD’s Seal U and Sealion ranges and the Citroen C3 Aircross – hit a low of 41,610 in 2022.
At the same time SUV sales were thriving: 2024 saw SUVs account for 33 per cent of all registrations in Britain, up from just 12 per cent a decade earlier, the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders shows.
The Citroen Xsara Picasso was among the brand’s best-selling cars in the early 2000s
Ben explains that the label-based decline of the original MPV was made explicit when Renault’s design director, Gilles Vidal, told Auto Express magazine in 2024 that what the French call the ‘monobox’ MPV design was ‘out of fashion’.
But now people carriers are enticing buyers back thanks to drivers prioritising practical utility for cheaper prices than SUVs offer.
Since 2022, MPV registrations grew for three consecutive years to reach 56,717 by 2025 – a resurgence of 36 per cent.
Hermer says: ‘In many cases manufacturers abandoned the boxy body to create sleeker vehicles that they could label differently, such as ‘crossover’, but the emergence of unapologetically boxy looking MPVs again, such as the Dacia Jogger, shows that there’s a hard core of drivers who still favour practicality over image’.
Which people carriers are leading the fight back against the SUV?
Ford’s van-derived Tourneo reached 7,574 registrations in 2025, up from just 336 a decade earlier.
The Custom variant (£60,493) of the Tourneo makes up 65 per cent of the registrations (4,893 units), further VDG analysis shows, while the Connect variant (from £35,280 for the PHEV) is the second most popular at 2,466 units.
Peugeot’s Rifter and Vauxhall’s Combo Life – both built on commercial van platforms – each surpassed 2,000 sales a year. VDG says that such vehicles – the Rifter and the Combo Life are effectively MPVs without the official label.
The Dacia Jogger – a seven-seater which starts from £18,995 – is a newer arrival leading the people carrier resurgence.
In just two years it hit 10,224 registrations by 2024 – outselling all of the remaining MPV names combined.
Those four models outsold the previous household names in 2025 by more than nine to one, despite their similarity in image and character.
The Ford Galaxy – part of a joint venture between Volkswagen and Ford – consistently held its place as the top-selling MPV in Britain through the 2000s but was discontinued in 2023
But, VDG also emphasises that MPV ‘recovery’ is not limited to a couple of standout models positively skewing the data.
The number of individual people-carrier brands registering 200 or more units a year fell to a low of 43 in 2022, then climbed back to 70 by 2025.
It means that manufacturers are investing more heavily in the segment again because consumers still demand the practicality they sought when the Renault Espace, Ford Galaxy and Seat Alhambra ruled the school run.
Ben adds: ‘What we are seeing today is the adoption of ultra-practical van-derived vehicles which make a virtue of their boxy design and the appetite for them is revealed by the success of models like the Peugeot Rifter, Vauxhall Combo Life, Volkswagen Caddy Life, Ford Tourneo Custom along with head-turners like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz.
‘So, while many MPVs were transformed into more adventurous looking SUV body styles, the segment is having a new lease of life as the stealth MPV – even if it no longer carries that label.’
