Like a lot of people, we like to get out away from the city. I’ll drive five hours to eastern Washington to get away. I prefer to drive at night, but as I get older I tend to wind down in four hours. So, I stop at a rest area for a nap. I have a 93 Nissan Pathfinder and decided to see if I could make it into a camper. I put in a few small cabinets and created a way to sleep lying down. I had all my stuff organized in the cabinets instead of digging through a bag, but there was no room to move around. Making the bed – if you call it that – was a bit of a chore and not a lot of fun putting it all back when I woke up. I started to think about the van I had back in the ’70s and thought “that’s what I need.”
I looked online at old vans and found pages of them. They look great and it really is awesome to see those old vans fixed up and running. But would I want to fix up an old van and turn it into my idea of a camper? That would mean double the work and at my age, I want less work. So I decided to check out what’s new with vans in the modern age.
I found the the Sprinter (also sold under other brands) and the Ford Transit to be the most popular. It seems like every other person must own one. In fact, I found new or used, there weren’t many available. Most of the used vans had been used for commercial purposes such as shipping and construction. They would already have quite a few miles on them, even though they were maybe only a couple of years old or so. I found a used Ford Transit I brought home to test. I parked it next to my Pathfinder and realized just how big these vans are; at least twice the size. My wife was wondering if we were even allowed to park them in the driveway. As I was taking it back to the dealer, another white van was coming up the street to make a delivery. White or gray is the most popular van color. Well not so sure it’s “popular”, just the colors they are usually produced in are white or gray, and most are delivery vans. Kinda felt like that’s what I was driving… a delivery van.
I finally saw that Mercedes of Lynnwood had a new Sprinter that had everything I wanted: four wheel drive, rack on top, all the options and it was red. It was evening on a Friday so I told Lance Frigard, the commercial vans manager, I’d be up Saturday morning when they opened. They sold it that Friday night. So I walked around the lot of vans which were mostly white, with a couple of gray vans as well. Not many had options, just simple Sprinter cargo vans. But, on the other side of the lot I saw this smaller red van which turned out to be a Metris cargo van. They also had a blue Metris but it was the passenger model.
The passenger Metris is all windows. The cargo Metris only has a windshield and two front door windows. I only wanted a couple of windows in the back on the sides of the van. The interior of the passenger model is finished with trim and fabric and three rows of seats. The cargo van is empty, and in this case, red bare metal walls with all different shapes of metal exposed. At least the floor was covered with a gray material like MDF or something painted gray. It actually looks ok.
I knew I was going to need at least one bench seat to hold a couple of child car seats for our grandkids. I suppose there could be times I could use all of the seats that the Metris passenger van provided, but I didn’t want all of those windows. The problem with the cargo van is the seat hardware is not installed on the floor like the passenger van. But, I figured it would be easier to install something for the seats and cut two holes for windows than try to fill in some of the windows on the passenger van. So I took the cargo van for test ride.
It drives and rides like a car, not like a truck. Yet you still feel like you are sitting up high, higher than a car at least. It has really sharp steering. You can make a u-turn in a two-lane road. This was the 135-inch wheelbase so you do have watch the curb making right turns (I still occasionally nick one). The engine doesn’t sit back between the seats like my ’70s Ford van, but the hood is still pretty short. I also found on windy days I don’t notice any more sway than our SUVs. It has a seven-speed transmission which gives it great acceleration to get on the freeway. And, it’s short enough to get into parking garages and a standard garage door. Of course it was noisy inside being an empty metal shell but we solved that later. Not only was it on sale, but they had a zero-interest loan, so I could keep my money in the bank. I couldn’t pass it up. I bought it.
