Those of you who lived through the first Malaise Era of the 1970s are old will remember the design tricks the domestic automakers used to try and spark some interest in their lackluster and uninspiring offerings. Tricks like, say, the infamous “Landau roof”.

So what was the Landau roof, pray? Simply put, the regular old metal roof was wrapped in vinyl and chrome trim, to make it look like your two-door coupe was actually a convertible. Why on earth would anyone want a vehicle that gets all the awkward lines and unfinished curves of a convertible without the benefits of an actual lowering roof? Well, we imagine for the same reasons people buy a simulated sunroof: people are idiots.
Well, if you thought the Landau roof trend was horrible, just pray this doesn’t catch on. I’m referring to this as a Landau minivan. Our good friend Jim Brennan (aka UDMan) over at CarDomain was kind enough to share some of his photos from his recent adventures at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Most of his photos were quite beautiful, and I’ll be sharing those later. This project, however, was not so beautiful. Yes, it is a minivan entirely wrapped in vinyl. I gotta admit, I’m stumped. If the vinyl-wrapped roof was meant to look like a convertible, what is a vinyl-wrapped minivan supposed to look like? A tent?
I have nothing further to add to this, except that when I think of all the things in Las Vegas that I would appreciate seeing wrapped in extremely tight form-fitting vinyl, a minivan is not even on the list.