Our first;
I went from an SUV to our first van when the 92 Cherokee we had was acting up.
I think we (I) jumped the gun looking at vans unsure if the Jeep issue was going to be expensive or haunt us with further troubles.
We picked up a 93 Dustbuster or what GM called the Chevy version a Lumina. Was the mini-vacuum shape or the giant dash board that had it's own zip code part of it's charm ? Probably not.
At the time of purchase, it might have had 35,000 miles on it and I think we found evidence of it as a company car for a Tupperware rep. Many of the features were hardly used. The passenger door opened stiff as if it had only been used few times and there was no signs of typical family use or kids drama you might expect with a van. It was pristine.
Handy seat configurations, all buckets and comfy plus handy room for hauling options or even my office-on-wheels as it turned out to be were benefits just this side of joyful. Something that big and long offered a pleasant ride we were not use to either.
It's demise was grill versus driver door - A high velocity reddish or orange-colored blur (Camaro?) piloted by an influenced driver on a Sunday afternoon. Through it's productive time, I kept my printer and laptop at the ready and conducted a week's worth of my job from that wheeled shuttle, loaded and hauled products to customers and cleaned out those few things to convert it to family and weekend use for our adventures. Our two boys were 7 and 9 at the time.
VAN #2
Years later, we met some friends by accident at a car dealer event and I think we were pursuing interest in pre-owned Honda Odyssey inventory. We struck up conversation and they were looking at a new Honda car, ready to get rid of a Caravan. I guess the price was right and we went for the older, still good looking van - probably a 92. There was nothing offensive about it but I did employ a friend who was a mechanical genius and cheap labor for his efforts and talent on a head gasket job, maybe a trans rebuild too ...? One day shortly after I washed, waxed and even put some red pin stripe on that white shoebox, it was taken. Probably some mal adjusted teen who craved Brady Bunch life and wanted a joyride to the nearest mall - where we picked it up at a few days later.
That was it for vans in our experience.
I can understand how a van becomes part of the family. It's a far different thing than the svelte, lightweight, high power sports car people crave but memories, adventures and expeditions, helping someone move or dropping off the kid to college and their first dorm ... these experiences live on in different ways.
Other vehicles are meant to entertain.
