Good morning! Today we’re getting ready to hit the open road in a pair of old vans. Not a pair of old Vans, mind you, though those are probably just about as comfortable and smell about the same. No, these vans you can sleep in, even if you can’t get too far off the beaten path – they’re both 2WD.
Yesterday we looked at a couple of coupes with stripes added. Many of you were happy to see a first-generation Honda Accord in such nice shape, but its potential carburetor trouble and archaic automatic transmission were too much. The fun-to-drive Mazda MX-6 absolutely wiped the floor with it.
I’m with you. The Honda’s carburetor woes could probably be solved with a Weber DGV, but then you still have that ridiculous Hondamatic (only just barely) propelling it. If it had a five-speed manual, it might be worth the effort, but having to change carbs and swap transmissions is too much. Besides, I had such a good ownership experience with a Ford Probe that I’d happily give that MX-6 a home.
Inspiration for my car choices can come from a lot of places. Sometimes I go looking for a car that was featured in another post on the site, or something we were talking about in Slack or in a thread on Opposite Lock. Sometimes it’s a car I spotted on the road. But today, my inspiration comes from my own hobby workbench. I’m currently building an RC model of a Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon van. I like the Japanese cab-over vans, and the idea of using one as a road trip machine has its appeal. But I can’t afford the prices most importers charge for a good Delica, so in true shitbox spirit, I went looking for cheaper alternatives. Here’s what I found.
1987 Toyota Van – $5,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter OHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Everett, WA
Odometer reading: 194,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Toyota was the first Japanese company to bring over its cab-over van, though the style had been popular in Japan for years. In Japan, this van was called the Town Ace, but to go along with its generically-named “Pickup,” Toyota simply called it the “Van” in the US. It had another nickname when I worked at a service station in the ’90s: we called it the “Toaster.” These vans were sort of cult classics back then, with a few fiercely loyal owners, but they’re having a bit of a renaissance with the whole van-life thing. This van started out as a cargo model, but it has been converted to a camper van.
Just in case you’ve ever wondered how you “pop the hood” on one of these vans, here’s a good photo. The engine is in a hump between the seats, and an access cover under the driver’s seat gets you to the most common service items. For more major work, you get to it from underneath. The engine is a 2.2-liter four, driving the rear axle through a four-speed automatic. The seller says the engine has been overhauled, and it runs great. It also has new brakes, tires, and exhaust, so it should be ready to hit the road.
There’s a lot of custom work inside; if it started out as a cargo van, there wouldn’t have been much of anything behind the front seats originally. Now it has a wooden bed platform with pull-out drawers that contain a camp stove and a sink. It’s a pretty nice homemade conversion, actually. It’s nothing fancy, but it works.
This van was originally white, but now it wears what I’m guessing is green and black bedliner. The tree outlines are a nice touch. It has a canopy on the roof for some shade at the campground, and an auxiliary light bar across the front to find your way down dark country roads.
1993 Volkswagen EuroVan MV – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter OHC inline 5, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Salkum, WA
Odometer reading: 188,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives, but needs a jump start
Long before the Japanese vans, before the Chrysler minivans, even before the “Scooby-Doo” vans from the Big Three, there was the VW Transporter. Volkswagen started the whole van-life thing, really. For forty years, all the way through the Vanagon era, VW vans had the engine way in the back and the driver’s controls way in the front, leaving a big open area in the middle for a bed and camping stuff. But in 1992, Volkswagen came out with a whole new kind of Transporter, with its engine in the front like everyone else’s vans, called the EuroVan. The camper tradition continued: this EuroVan MV model features a rear bench that converts into a bed, and a folding table. You can’t live in it, but you can probably take it to a KOA or something.
Unlike the four-cylinder boxer engine in the Transporter and Vanagon, the EuroVan’s engine is an inline five, mounted transversely in the front and driving the front wheels. Like the Transporter and Vanagon, though, it’s just barely enough power. You won’t win any drag races in any Volkswagen van. The transmission is a four-speed automatic, which probably doesn’t help. From the sounds of it, this van hasn’t been driven much recently. The seller says they drove it last week, but it needed a jump start. There’s a good chance it needs a new battery.
The seller says the interior has been professionally cleaned and detailed, which I assume accounts for the paper floor mats. It does look nice. It’s in good condition from what I can see, but I can’t tell you what’s under the front seat covers. The rear seats, carpets, and curtains (yes, it has curtains) all look nice. Oh, and the seller says the air conditioning works fine.
The paint is dull and faded, as if it has been parked outside its whole life, but I don’t see any rust or damage. Then again, it occurs to me that there are no photos of the passenger’s side. The aftermarket roof racks and basket are included, and could come in handy if you do take it camping.
You could drive either one of these as your primary, or even only, car, but it’s more likely you’d want one for weekend trips. Either one of these could do the trick, and at this age, reliability is probably a wash. So I guess it comes down to personal preference: do you prefer the homebuilt Toyota, or the factory weekender Volkswagen?
In around ’99 I was in Germany for work and we had a contracted taxi service for the company. The owners, a husband and wife, were well known for being excellent drivers and on this occasion, the wife picked four of us up in a VW T4 van with the five-cylinder and a stick. So, on the hour drive out of Stuttgart, she was just WHIPPING that thing through the various towns and back roads to our destination. It was truly amazing, and showed how a good driver can get the most out of a modest power train, even in a van.
I know this one is an automatic, but I still remember that ride, and for that, the Eurovan gets my vote.
Toyota today. Love the trees and the fun paint job. It looks like the seller did a nice job with the camping mods, even if I’d probably just as well use a tent.
Never thought I’d vote VW over Toyota, but if they indeed used bedliner on that thing it’s gonna add a few extra hundred pounds to it. Plus I have no desire to sleep in a van, ever.
And looking at the photos again, that Toyota is definitely riding low in the water. From a practical perspective, I don’t like the idea of my legs being the crumple zone, I am surprisingly attached to them as my main means of locomotion.
We had a conversion van toaster when I was in high school with a 5 speed manual. Was surprisingly fun, if very tilty, to hoon around. It even had a heated driver’s seat especially at highway speeds. Might not be a problem with the auto as the manual barely made it to 70. Anyway, nostalgic np for the toaster as the vw is just meh to me.
The VW is way to boring to me the Toyota is so much cooler looking (even with the current goofy paint job).
The Toyota looks like fun. Maybe at $4k though.
I’d like the Toyota, but as it’s already been customized to someone else’s tastes, I’ll go with the VW. Someone else’s customizations are really just someone else’s project, and you shouldn’t buy those.
Toyota Van for sure. And this isn’t just me being massively biased as the original family owner of a 1984 Van LE [parents bought new when I was a kid; but it’s been mine since high school].
Also, just a note on the naming….this particular model was often also “Master Ace” in Japan. I’ve never quite figured it out, but it seems like Town Ace and Master Ace were used in the same years (maybe a trim level difference). Throw in Hiace and LiteAce and there was a lot of naming overlap for various vans. Personally I think they should have brought it over as “Space Cruiser” like they used in the UK.
Second also, the story I always heard growing up was Toyota intended to use “Van Wagon” as the name, but VW rightfully pushed back that it sounded too much like “Vanagon”. Various “official” documents like title, insurance docs, and even the window sticker still label it as “Van Wagon”, so it kind of stuck around.
2500$ is the right price for that Eurovan. The 2.5L is about as good as it gets for a VW engine, and shouldn’t be impossible to keep alive. It’s also possible to hustle this thing around as an occasional daily, I prefer the idea of a van that can do all things versus being situated for camper-only duty.
The Toyota is cool, but at 5k I’d rather go with the VW.
Yota > VW.
I prefer the idea of the Eurovan to the ‘Yotavan, even if I don’t know if it’s actually better or not. At least it should scoot better and drive better. Dunno if I want to camp in it, but sure could move people and stuff around.