I believe Ford does produce a totally electric powered transit connect somewhere,anyway the smaller vans are starting to become very interesting again,I never did understand why someone would buy a new pickup and stick a topper on it,The Old chevy astro van,seemed to be a decent vehicle,now I dont understand these 60K 4WD PICKUPS WITH WITH 4 DRS and tiny bed that is never used(I do like where the mpgs are headed on a lot of vehicles.
As for those crewcabs with ultrashort beds
The buyers of such vehicles probably use the vehicle as their daily driver. They probably never throw a washer, dryer, etc. in the bed, anyways
Probably, they use the vehicle to head to work, the grocery store, church, etc. I’ve seen people at the grocery store. 99% of the time, they put the groceries on the back seat, NOT in the bed
Here’s another unkind thought . . . perhaps those same buyers would feel uncomfortable driving a crewcab with a regular length bed
The old Astro van . . .
It had decent torque, and apparently was better for towing, versus the FWD Japanese vans that were available at the time.
I feel the later versions, with 6-bolt rims and rear disc brakes, actually weren’t half bad
But they . . . and the Aerostar . . . were very trucklike, compared to the Caravan, Sienna, Odyssey, etc. I remember CR and other magazines would tend to fault them for that.
Another problem, for some, anyways . . . the basic design hadn’t changed in ages. The van was built for about 20 years. The looks got refreshed, the 2.8 got replaced with the 4.3, etc. But those were only updates, whereas some of the other guys introduced all new vans every so often.
Our resident rich truck guy drives a Cadillac Escalade EXT. Before that, he drove an F150 Harley Davidson model. I think he had an Avalanche before that. He could use it for work, but he owns an electrical contracting company and has work vehicles to carry work equipment and supplies. Nice guy and a real nice family. He has the money and he can drive anything he wants. He earned it.
My neighbor has a topper on his. He takes a weekly trip to the cabin and wants the dogs in back and not in the cabin. He doesn’t necessarily need the bed for hauling large items and would use the trailer for that. Dogs and stuff don’t blow around on the road, plus you don’t end up with a bed full of snow in the winter.
I had an old Ford Econoline van way back in the '70s. Six cylinder, three on the tree, mid engine. A very useful vehicle but also one of the blindest vehicles I ever drove. Changing lanes on the freeway was nerve wracking, if I had a passenger, I often asked them if the right lane was clear.
I got rid of it pretty fast.
@db4690 I agree with your assessment of the Astro and Aerostar. Of the four monivans, I have owned Ford Aerostar, Ford Windstar, Chevrolet Uplander and Toyota Sienna, I prefered the Aerostar over the others. I share your thoughts, about Consumer Reports. I didn’t buy a minivan to use as a car. I use the minivan more as a truck or bus. I license them as a truck with truck plates. Consumer Reports used to test pickup trucks with a load but CR no longer doesthat but just states the manufacturer’s maximum load weight. I subscribe to Consumer Reports, but I find that CR must be catering to a younger consumer. I had a house built in 1989 and still have the dishwasher and range that were installed when the house was built. The refrigerator was purchased in 1995. When I read a recent article in Consumer Reports, I find my kitchen is terribly out of date. I wouldn’t buy a pickup to run to the grocery–I would buy it for a specific need. I guess I am not a good Consumer. I am always embarrassed on trash pickup day when our neighbors roll out two overloaded garbage totes and I roll out only one that is barely half full.
Have you ever watched the CR videos, when the guys are actually talking about products . . . ?
I have, and it’s pretty clear you are correct. The video reviews seem to be aimed at younger audiences. Younger than me, anyways
No wonder I cancelled. The only ones older than me are usually dead.
Ford had a lot of head problems on their Vans(everyone of them parked in the weeds around here(a good many) had identical engine trouble)Ford should have had to eat the repair cost.{that is on the minivans,I dont know if any of the v6 s were better then a particular model or not,the 3.0s seemed to be reliable}
Minivans are licensed as trucks to avoid the gas guzzler tax.
Yeah, a million dollars isn’t what it used to be. You couldn’t quit working if you had a million dollars, unless you also had pension income / medicare to go with it. Like, if you’re too young to collect pension/SS/medicare, you couldn’t safely invest 1 million dollars to generate enough income to support yourself and buy health insurance. . . but I digress.
I work with people who drive vehicles that cost close to twice their annual income. As in, they make $35 - $40k and drive $70 - $80k vehicles, usually Escalades, Navigators, and various Mercedes & BMW’s. And the first thing they do with them is buy really big rims and install $5,000 worth of stereo equipment. And factor in that most of the people who do this have bad credit and lots of speeding tickets too, their monthly car & insurance payment is hundreds of dollars more than their rent. Talk about misplaced priorities. And then one day they turn 40 (or 50) and wonder why they don’t have two nickels to rub together.
I notice the “small” pickup trucks get bigger and bigger. I think of a small pickup truck as the classic Ford Ranger or the Chevy S-10. I see older Toyota Tacomas on the road and they are about that size. I went to the auto show when it came to town earlier this year and the main difference I could tell between the Tacoma and the Tundra was they were painted different colors. If the Tacoma is supposed to be a smaller truck than the Tundra, I’d have to measure them to be sure, it wasn’t obvious to me looking at them together.
jtsanders Minivans are licensed as trucks to avoid the gas guzzler tax.
Before the gas guzzler tax, there was no such thing as a “sport utility vehicle”. It’s the poster child for good intentions with unintended consequences.
The maximum social security benefit is about $40,000 per year. A good rule of thumb is at 4% return on investment, that $40,000 is equivalent to $1,000,000 in capital. In that light, you can imagine that there are a lot of millionaires in the US.
Well a million invested in a decent well rounded mutual fund generates on average a 7.5% annual return. That’s 75K a year without going into the principal. Sure some years are minus 10 and some years are plus 30 but the average is still around 7-15% over the long haul. Put everything in money market or bank CDs and its 1/2%. So as the saying goes, you pays your money and you takes your chance. We’re talking investments in good business though like 3M and P&G, not day trading. That’s not investing but similar to slot machines (which sometimes are more fun and not too bad).
Yeah I have pension too but the pension relies on well rounded stock investments and thats about what they return over the long haul through thick and thin. Investment returns are the main way that they can continue with the pension payments. They have a simple formula for success that has worked well. When times are bad they buy more and when times are good they buy less. Due to stupidity 15 years ago or so, we’re still trying to limit pensions to build the fund to 100%. Pensions that are not properly funded are a sham and the sooner its recognized, the better.
I was only pointing out that there are a whole lot of millionaires, not discussing investments.
Well a million invested in a decent well rounded mutual fund generates on average a 7.5% annual return.You're forgetting the 3% or so lost to inflation. You're at roughly 4% "real" accumulation of wealth.
I’m not forgetting anything. The $1,000,000 isn’t real. It’s an equivalent amount if your social security were to earn 4%. That return is often considered to be a reasonable estimate for having almost no capital loss.
^That was for Bing…
Ok, thanks.
Genero,wish I had a little,but unfortunately my area of expertise never paid much in this area(the employers while waxing rich,never saw fit to pay a living wage)all I could afford before marriage was a new four cylinder basic manual pickup.